SWEDEN won its sixth Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, as Mans Zelmerlow, with his pop song “Heroes,” beat out Russia’s Polina Gagarina, who performed an English-language song called “A Million Voices.”

    Zelmerlow’s performance during the event’s 60th anniversary edition in Vienna, Austria included animated visuals.

    Austria hosted the event, under the motto “Building Bridges” after drag queen Conchita Wurst won last year’s competition.

    Overall, a record 27 countries participated in the finals. Among them was Australia, which was invited to compete, despite being nowhere near Europe. The country had in the past asked if it could participate, citing the competition’s popularity in Australia.

    Zelmerlow had been a favorite of bookies. He ended up with 365 points from the 40 voting countries, which each hand out a smaller amount of points along with 8, 10 and 12 points each for their favorite. No country is allowed to give its own performer any points.

    (SD-Agencies)