ThIS year's Eurovision song contest winner, Denmark's Emmelie de Forest, has had some help from a Scottish musician.
Ms De Forest has for five years been performing with Fraser Neill, a Scottish folk musician now based in Denmark.
Ms de Forest won Eurovision on Saturday before an international TV audience of about 125 million people, clinching the euro-pop crown with a folk-influenced ballad backed by flutes and drums.
The 20-year-old blonde stole the show as predicted by bookmakers with Only Teardrops, in a final that saw 26 countries battle it out in the Swedish city of Malmo.
Denmark, which has won the contest twice before – most recently in 2000 with the Olsen Brothers – was clearly in the lead even after just half of the votes were cast.
Speaking after the votes came in, the UK's entrant Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, who topped charts around the world in her 1980s heyday, said that despite her final score of just 23 points the experience had been "fantastic".
She said: "I got the feeling tonight that I got at the Grammy awards. I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience.
"I did the best that I could do with a great song. I don't feel down and I'm ready to party.
"The songs at the top of the table totally deserve to be up there. Of course I would have liked to bring it back to the UK, but it's been a night to remember."
Bookmakers had her at 50/1 to claim the Eurovision title.
Her performance was pared-down compared to many in the competition, accompanied by backing vocalists but no dancers, singing the country tune in an off-the-shoulder black outfit with silver detail.
The only nod to the camp that often characterises the contest was Tyler being lifted up on a platform in the middle of the 11,000-crowd for the end of the song.
The performance was watched by an estimated international audience of 125 million.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article