ZOMBIE rock rules. The Eurovision song contest was turned on its head last last night when a Finnish death metal group thrashed the middle-of-the-road competition to become the runaway winners of the competition.

While the British contender flopped and appeared destined for obscurity, the flame of cultural innovation passed to a pink-eyed rocker flailing across the stage in a set of 8ft bat wings.

European viewers voted Lordi’s song Hard Rock Hallelujah a monster-masked head above the big ballads and catchy pop tunes usually associated with the annual cheesefest. Clearly Finns ain’t what they used to be.

It was such an over-the- top rendition it made the Darkness look like a string quartet. “A nicely understated performance,” said Terry Wogan, the BBC commentator, with the heavy boot of sarcasm.

Lordi, frontman for the band which takes his name, grew up as an only child in Finnish Lapland with a love of fake blood.

He was dubbed the “Bat out of Helsinki” before the show, from Meat Loaf’s song Bat Out of Hell.

But as he prepared for the “day of rockening”, he appeared anxious not to jeopardise votes from some of the more squeamish judges in a contest that has become a byword for schlock.

Peering through layers of satanic make-up, he maintained he was not really a devil-worshipper: “We don’t eat babies for breakfast,” he said. There was, however, no mention of lunch or dinner.

Eurovision — watched last night by 9m people in Britain and 300m worldwide — now appears more popular for the laughs it provides than its musical value.

UK rapper Daz Sampson performed his entry Teenage Life, accompanied by five dancers dressed as schoolgirls. He sold fewer than 9,000 copies of the song in its first week of release. Last night he did little better, finishing 19th out of the 24 finalists in Athens.

Lithuania's entrants LT United comprised six men in suits singing: “We are the winners of Eurovision.” Not quite.

Britain last won the contest in 1997 but even then it took an American import, Katrina and the Waves, with a song, Love Shine a Light, which was originally penned for the Samaritans.

Last night’s show was the 51st Eurovision song contest. A continental tradition since 1956, the contest has both fans — who point to the global success of past winners such as Abba and Celine Dion — and foes who say that performers seem to be competing in eccentricity. The competition has given the world such memorable songs as Volare and Waterloo. But it has also served up such naffness as Ding-a-Dong and Boom Bang-a-Bang. Last night it was Lordi’s turn to bang their gong.

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