This year’s Eurovision Song Contest has been won by a singer from Serbia with a powerfulballadabout anestranged lover. But it was a disappointing night for the UK, whose teamtied withFrance in joint second-last place.

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition between more than 40 European countries, which isbroadcastlive on television throughout Europe and the rest of the world.

Each participating country sends onemusical actto the competition to sing a song. Once all the acts have performed, each country awards points to the singers they liked best – these points are usually based on phone andtext message votessent in by viewers in the various countries.

However, the contest has facedmounting criticismin recent years as countries havetendedto vote for their neighbours and "friends" rather than judging each entrant on theirmerits.

This process, known as "block voting", often seesScandinavian,BalticandBalkancountries voting for each other while other countries receive few votes or even no points at all – the dreaded "nul points".

But some commentators say the competition should not be taken too seriously and thatnational partisanshipis all part of the fun.

Whatever the result, the Eurovision Song Contest is always aspectaclefeaturingcamp acts,baffling lyricsand incomprehensible titles such as "Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley" and "Ding-A-Dong".

The competition has acted as thespringboardfor a few successful musical careers and many failed ones.

Eurovision winners who have gone on tosuperstardominclude Abba, who won the competition in 1974 with the hit song "Waterloo", and Celine Dion, who won the competition in 1988 representing Switzerland despite being a French–Canadian.