Australia has failed to win Eurovision after an exuberant performance by Jessica Mauboy wasn't enough to beat Israel's quirky #MeToo anthem, Toy, performed by Netta Barzilai at the 63rd Song Contest in Portugal.
Australia got the lowest score of nine points from the tele vote, despite coming 12th in the jury vote, to place 20th overall with 99 points.
It's the first time in its four years in the contest that Australia has placed outside of the top 10.
Darwin-born Mauboy put in a note-perfect rendition of the pop song We Got Love but Barzilai ran away with the victory, scoring 529 points at Lisbon's Altice Arena on Saturday night.
Wearing the same short purple dress she wore in the semi-final, Mauboy was the 16th performer out of a total 26 countries competing in the grand final.
Barzilai, a singer and looping artist, performed the quirky song with the strange chicken-noise breakdown,designed to imitate a coward who treats a woman like a toy. It marks the fourth win for Israel which has been in the contest since 1973.
Cyprus' Beyonce-alike entrant Eleni Foureira came in a close second on a dramatic night that saw the UK performance interrupted by a protester. The interrupter stormed the stage and wrangled the microphone from singer SuRie, but was led off after garbling something controversial into the microphone about "demanding freedom".
SuRie kept her composure to finish her song, Storm, which was written by Brisbane songwriter Nicole Blair, and she declined to perform again, after an invitation by the European Broadcasting Union, stating that she was proud of her first performance.
*The Grand Final will air again on SBS at 7.30pm (AEST)
Australian Associated Press
