This year's Eurovision Song Contest had an unexpected outcome. The international music competition, usually dominated by ballad singers like the German Nicole with "Ein bißchen Friede", was won by a band whose participation had already caused quite a stir beforehand. The Finnish entry Lordi, a hard rock band named after their singer and dressed in self-made monster costumes, achieved a clear victory with 292 points for their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah", ahead of the second-placed Dima Bilan from Russia with 248 points. The German entry from Texas Lightning, which strongly reminded one of Bush's home state, ended up in a disappointing 15th place. As was announced after the final, Lordi had already won the semifinal with the same score by a significant margin.
Before the performance of the Finnish rockers, various groups tried to prevent it by all means. Due to their martial costumes, especially church members accused the band of spreading satanic ideas. However, this is contradicted by their biggest hit "Devil is a loser" from their debut album "Get Heavy" released in 2002. Regardless, the protests continued. Cyprus even threatened to prohibit the broadcast of the entire program on television, but then only withdrew because in that case the entry from Cyprus would have been disqualified.
Before the performance of the Finnish rockers, various groups tried to prevent it by all means. Due to their martial costumes, especially church members accused the band of spreading satanic ideas. However, this is contradicted by their biggest hit "Devil is a loser" from their debut album "Get Heavy" released in 2002. Regardless, the protests continued. Cyprus even threatened to prohibit the broadcast of the entire program on television, but then only withdrew because in that case the entry from Cyprus would have been disqualified.
