By JPOST.COM STAFFHarel Skaat Eurovision 311(photo credit: Courtesy)
OSLO, Norway — Germany's Lena Meyer-Landrut won the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday with "Satellite," an upbeat, catchy pop song.Meyer-Landrut, who turned 19 during the competition in Norway, won 246 points.Turkey came second with 170 points and Romania third with 162 points.Israeli representative Harel Skaat and his song "Milim" came in fourteenth place with 71 points.Voting was based on a mix of 50% from a national jury and 50% from the telephone votes of fans in each participating country.It was Germany's second win in the songfest's 55-year history, and the victory means it will host next year's contest. Norway spent $31 million hosting the competition.Google successfully predicted the winner by ranking the competitor's Google search rankings. They also successfully predicted last year's winner.This year several countries have pulled out of the extravaganza citing financial strains, including the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Andorra and Hungary.Earlier this week, 34 contestants were whittled down to 20 in two semifinals. They were competing in the final with five pre-qualified countries — last year's winner, Norway, and the contest's four perennials: Britain, Germany, France and Spain.Politically motivated voting, as well as bloc voting, has been fairly common in Eurovision, and this year was no exception, with former Soviet bloc countries supporting each other, a trend that has helped the region win five of the last 10 contests.
