Israel's Netta Wins Eurovision
The finals of the annual Eurovision Song Contest was held Saturday night in Lisbon.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
The flamboyant Netta Barzilai, representing Israel last night, won the world's biggest music show - the Eurovision Contest. Her winning song - "Toy."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
NETTA BARZILAI: (Singing) Look at me. I'm a beautiful creature. I don't care about your modern time preachers.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARZILAI: Thank you so much for choosing different. Thank you so much for accepting differences between us. Thank you for celebrating diversity. Thank you.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: On stage in Lisbon, accepting her award as more than 200 million fans watched worldwide, Netta gave an encore performance of the winning song, where she broke out into a chicken dance.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BARZILAI: (Singing) Look at me, I'm a beautiful creature. I don't care about your modern time preachers. Welcome boys, too much noise. I will teach ya.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And we had a witness to it all. NPR's Andrew Jones was in the audience for the unusual performance.
ANDREW JONES, BYLINE: I have fans streaming by me wearing various flags from the countries that they have been supporting. And obviously, the most elated fans - the ones who are getting hugs from strangers, and the ones who are screaming - are the people wrapped in the Israeli flag.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Andrew spoke to some of those fans, including Elah Pelant (ph) of Israel.
ELAH PELANT: After 20 years that we didn't host Eurovision, Netta was great. And we really hoped for her. And she won. And we're very happy.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Next year, the competition moves to Jerusalem.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TOY")
BARZILAI: (Singing) I'm not your toy, you stupid boy.
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