Gianluca Bezzina achieved Malta’s best placing in Eurovision since 2005 last night when he finished in eighth place with 120 points.

The winner was the bookmakers’ favourite, Emmelie de Forest from Denmark with her song Only Teardrops, which garnered a whopping 281 points.

Second was Azerbaijan's Farid Mammadov, who was 47 points behind the winner. Ukraine placed third.

Malta ground to a standstill as Gianluca performed in the ninth slot out of 26 finalists in the glitzy ceremony at the Malmo Arena in Sweden.

There were parties across the island and hopes were high for Gianluca’s catchy song, Tomorrow.

The crowd clapped throughout his performance, with many also singing to the lyrics projected behind him.

He was in fifth place after 20 of the 39 countries voted, but slipped further behind as neighbourly voting became apparent.

It had all looked very optimistic when voting got under way as San Marino, the first country to vote, gave Malta 10 points. It got another 10 points from its neighbour Italy.

This was Malta’s best result since Chiara came second in 2005 with Angel.

The Maltese public and jury gave eight points to Italy, 10 points to Ukraine and 12 points to Azerbaijan.

Gianluca is expected to arrive back in Malta today to a warm welcome.