Serifovic's powerful ballad Molitva had been second-favourite with bookmakers in the run-up to the competition.

She scored 268 points, beating Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serdyuchka into second place. Russia was third, with Turkey fourth and Bulgaria fifth.

British act Scooch managed only 19 points with their song Flying the Flag.


EUROVISION TOP FIVE
1. Serbia (268 points)
2. Ukraine (235)
3. Russia (207)
4. Turkey (163)
5. Bulgaria (157)



'So proud'

Serbia took first place with its first entry as a solo state at the Eurovision, having declared its union with Montenegro defunct last year.

The Eastern European state will now be charged with hosting the event in 2008.

Following her win, Ms Serifovic told reporters "a new chapter has opened for Serbia".

"I am so proud. All my success is made by singing."

The competition had been embraced by people in the Finnish capital, which earned the right to stage the event when rock group Lordi won in 2006.

Lordi's song Hard Rock Hallelujah was reprised as the opening number of the show, at Helsinki's largest ice hockey stadium.

Big-screen TVs were erected in the city centre, where fans gathered to watch the ceremony.

Some 350 spin-off events had also been organised as part of Eurovision "fever".

The contest - held since 1956 - had a record 42 entries this year, but 18 were eliminated in qualifying rounds before Saturday's final.

It was broadcast to an estimated global TV audience of 100 million, with the winner selected after a poll in each country involving telephone votes and text messages.

I think we had some people here watching this.. unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. Who saw it?

well most of europe saw it, even i saw abit of it. Here in europe its pretty darn big dont know why thou.

testing theory...