By Barry Hatton
LISBON, Portugal (AP) --Netta Barzilai is sassy, she's fun and she can sing — and now the Israeli has won the Eurovision Song Contest with a catchy techno dance tune about women's empowerment.
The 25-year-old pre-competition favorite beat out competition from 42 other countries' performers Saturday to claim the music extravaganza's annual crown at the Grand Final with her song "Toy."
There was a strong field of contestants at this year's event in Lisbon, Portugal, which was watched by an estimated 200 million people. The votes coming in live from the capitals of participating countries delivered a tense finale, with Israel gripped in a tight, five-way race with Cyprus, Austria, Sweden and Germany.
Barzilai eventually racked up 529 points, compared with 436 for runner-up Cyprus with "Fuego" by Eleni Foureira, and 342 for third-place Austria with Cesar Sampson's "Nobody But You."
The contest largely shed its traditional hallmarks of glitz and glitter in favor of a more restrained and tasteful tone in Lisbon, which was hosting the event because it won last year with Salvador Sobral's sober and subdued ballad "Amar pelos Dois."
Sobral last week criticized "Toy" as "horrible music," insisting the focus should be on the music and not the spectacle.
But Barzilai, with her Asian-themed show in red and yellow and her dancers doing funky chicken moves, was unrepentant.
"I'm happy people chose something different. It's refreshing," she said. "I believe authenticity (shows) through."
Her win — Israel's fourth and first since 1998 — means her country hosts next year's Eurovision Song Contest.
"Next time in Jersualem!" Barzilai shouted to the audience as she picked up her award.
The international contest began as a competition between European countries, but its huge popularity has led to the inclusion of Israel and Australia among the performers.
Barzilai, known more usually as Netta, has a witty and endearing personality. Before the Grand Final, her song had already racked up more than 20 million views on Eurovision's YouTube channel.
In "Toy," Netta makes funny noises, including a clucking sound like a chicken and barely decipherable words, and uses a looping machine and synthesizer.
The lyrics say, "I'm not your toy, You stupid boy, I'll take you down."
Portugal came last, with 39 points.
Fans caught their breath when a protester ran onto the stage and snatched away the microphone of the United Kingdom's contestant SuRie.
The man got hold of the microphone but was quickly tackled by security and taken away while SuRie stood by. The British singer kept her composure and picked up her song where she left off.
Previous editions of the annual event have also witnessed protesters getting onto the stage.
The event is organized by the European Broadcasting Union, an alliance of public service broadcasters. In each participating country, a jury and viewers award between one and a maximum 12 points to their favorite songs. Those votes are combined to give each country a single score.
Past winners have rarely become household names, but they include Swedish pop group ABBA and Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More