Finns win Eurovision 2006 song contest

Finland defeated all competitors from other European countries early Sunday with a surprise win in the 51st Eurovision song contest held Athens.

The monster-themed hard metal rock band Lordi beat 23 other competitors, including the favorites from Greece, Russia and Sweden, scoring 292 points from tele-voters in 38 countries.

With Dima Bilan's "Never let you go," Russian finished second winning 248 points in the contest, which began on Saturday evening.

Bosnia ranked third with 229 points going to the group Hari Mata Hari singing the melodic "Layla."

"What this has shown is that there are different styles of music than just pop and rock," Lordi, the leading singer of the band, told a press conference after the contest. "That should be the goal of Eurovision."

The Eurovision contest was broadcast live in 38 countries with an estimated 100 million TV audience.

Source: Xinhua