Australia's Delta Goodrem has performed a flawless version of her celestially themed love ballad Eclipse at the final of the Eurovision Song contest in Austria.
Finland's entry, Liekinheitin, or Flamethrower, a love song featuring violinist Linda Lampenius and pop singer Pete Parkkonen on a burning set, is the favourite this year, followed by Goodrem.
The final of the glitzy contest got under way in Vienna on Saturday (Sunday AEST), overshadowed by five nations' boycott over Gaza, but Israel's performance went off without any obvious sign of protest in the room.
The garish and usually good-natured competition involving pop acts from countries across Europe and beyond, now in its 70th year, has been plunged into crisis by a dispute over Israel's military offensive in Gaza, a response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.
The public broadcasters of heavyweights Spain, the Netherlands and Ireland, as well as Iceland and Slovenia, are not taking part in protest at Israel's participation.
Israel has alleged a global smear campaign against it.
Further down the bookmakers' rankings was Israel's Noam Bettan, whose trilingual love song Michelle was notable for courting less controversy than Israel's entry last year, which was sung by a survivor of the October 7 attack.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN did, however, receive a formal warning from organisers a week ago over videos posted online in which Bettan courted votes too aggressively, after a similar controversy involving Israel last year.
KAN said it plays by the rules and the videos were immediately taken down.
The boycotts cut the number of contest entries to 35, the fewest since 2003, which will almost certainly reduce the global television viewership of an event that last year was estimated at 166 million people, more than the Super Bowl's 128 million.
There will be 25 countries, including Israel, taking part in Saturday's final.
"We're going through some challenging times at the moment," Eurovision Song Contest director Martin Green told a press conference before the show.
Green urged viewers to put the world's problems to one side during the show.
"Just for a moment, well maybe four-and-a-half hours, maybe close the curtains to the outside world and dream that something else is possible," he said.
The mood in the Austrian capital has been tense and subdued, with protests over Israel's participation drawing only small crowds.
Police said they were bracing for protests on Saturday but the anticipated "blockades and disruption attempts" did not materialise.
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