Barzilai wins Eurovision song contest

Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest held here Saturday night in Portugal's capital.

Netta Barzilai, singing a song entitled Toy, took first place for Israel in the annual competition. Cyprus finished second and Austria third.

The 63rd edition of Eurovision took place in the Altice Arena in Lisbon. The final featured 26 countries, 24 of them from Europe, plus the special guests Israel and Australia.

Each country performs a song and the general public votes for its favorite. Points are allocated to each song according to vote counts and evaluations made by national juries.

The Eurovision Song Contest is a festival of music and song, as well as a celebration of European identity and cultural, sexual and gender diversity.

Portugal organized the event for the first time. The honor of hosting the contest goes to the previous year's winning country. In 2017, Portugal won the contest, held in Kiev, Ukraine, with "Love For Two," a song sung by Salvador Sobral and written by his sister, Luisa Sobral.

The contest is broadcast all over the world with viewer figures estimated at 200 million.

Thousands of visitors also descended on Lisbon to attend the final, semi-finals and dress rehearsals, or to watch them on a giant screen at the "Eurovision Village" set up in the Praca do Comercio main square.