Ukraine has won this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm.

The singer Jalama was crowned winner for her song "1944" which recalls the deportation of Crimean muslims by the Soviet authorities.

The 32-year-old made a plea for "peace and love" as she collected her trophy.

Australia, who competed for the second time after appearing as a guest last year, were leading the contest almost to the end but finished second, with Russia coming third.

Russia had earlier protested Ukraine's entry in the contest because of its "political" subtext - a violation of the contest's rules - but Eurovision ruled that Jamala was "historical" in nature and allowed her song to compete.

Jamala is a member of the Muslim Tatar minority of Crimea who saw her great-grandmother deported along with 240,000 others by Stalin in the penultimate year of World War II.

The victory means Ukraine gets to host the contest next year.

Asked by a Crimean journalist whether she thought the competition should be held in Crimea, Jamala answered "I hope Eurovision will be in Ukraine."

Some 26 finalists took part in the contest at Stockholm's Globe arena which was watched than 100 million viewers around the world including, for the first time, viewers in the United States.

There was no Irish contestant in last night's show, after Nicky Byrne crashed out at the semi final stage.

This was the winning song: