Malta sunk by televoting votes at Eurovision, was eighth in semi-final

Malta was sunk by a lowly eight points during televoting in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, having done better in the semi-final on Thursday.

Bulgaria, which won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday night, also topped Thursday's semi-final. Malta was eighth in the semi-final and 18th in the final.

Bulgaria took the top televote score on Saturday, while Australia won the jury vote, according to the results issued by the European Broadcasting Union and eurovoix.  

Malta, represented by Aidan, who sang “Bella, was 11th with 81 points after the jury results on Saturday,  having started strongly with a maximum of 12 points each from the juries in Ukraine, Bulgaria and San Marino, which voted immediately after each other.  

But during the televoting votes by audiences in all the participating countries, Malta received only eight votes. In contrast, it got 59 televotes during the semi final.

The results were a disappointment for Malta, given that Aidan had been on a 12-country promotional tour, including Australia. Malta got no votes from the Australian jury and just four from televoting.

Aidan was featured in a billboard campaign across several European countries and was the subject of an indepth advertorial on the Daily Mail.

The semi-final results (see below) were issued on Thursday without an order of preference, with the scoreboard being issued after the grand final was over. 

The vote results in Thursday's semi-final (eurovoix).