Malta this evening achieved one of the best Eurovision Song Contest results in recent years, with Gianluca Bezzina’s Tomorrow finishing eighth.

Denmark won the contest with Emmelie de Forest singing "Only Teardrops".

The Danish entry had been the favourite for days and topped the leader board early in the voting. The country was declared winner with four countries still to declare their vote.

Gianluca performing today.

The ever-smiling Gianluca Bezzina gave another great performance and managed to get the crowd ‘Oh ohing’ and clapping throughout his performance, with many also singing to the lyrics projected behind him.

Restaurants and house parties paused in silence as Gianluca and his band came on stage to sing Tomorrow – the ninth song among 26 finalists. Many burst into applause as he gave his final wave with a ‘Thank You Europe, Grazzi Malta.’

The Rai commentator was full of praise for the ‘simpaticissimo’ Maltese entrant, and also went on to point out that he is an Inter supporter...

The competition was tough and varied but Malta was in fifth place half way through the televoting by the 39 participating nations.

The votes for Malta came as follows - San Marino -10; Netherlands – 8; The United Kingdom – 7; Ukraine – 2; Hungary – 8; Romania – 5; Azerbaijan – 8; Norway – 10; Armenia – 6; Italy – 10; Spain -1; Belarus – 7; Latvia – 5; Estonia – 5; Germany – 5; Iceland – 5; France – 2; Greece – 3; Denmark – 4; Georgia – 3; Macedonia – 3; Cyprus - 3; Lithuania -  

Malta gave eight points to Italy, 10 points to Ukraine and 12 points to Azerbaijan.