Italy’s act Maneskin has won the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam with the rock track Zitti E Buoni.

The UK came last for the second year running, with act James Newman who performed his self-penned dance track Embers, scoring the dreaded nil points.

It means next year’s contest will head to Italy, as is Eurovision tradition, after Maneskin scored a mammoth 524 points.

France came second, with Switzerland third.

COVID-19 had threatened to overshadow the event this year, which was held in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, forcing some acts to miss key rehearsals or even live shows after positive COVID-19 tests.

Self-isolating Iceland act Dadi Freyr, who had to watch from his hotel room as his rehearsal performance was played out, came in fourth.

Eurovision was set against an unescapable backdrop of the pandemic, meaning the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, where the contest is being held, only had 3,500 fans inside.

The contest had to be scrapped completely last year, owing to the emergence of the pandemic on the continent, meaning 2019’s winner Duncan Laurence had a two-year reign as champion.

Laurence, who was due to perform and hand over the trophy to the winner, ended up self-isolating after testing positive for COVID-19.

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