KIEV, May 13 (Reuters) - Portugal's Salvador Sobral won the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday performing a jazz-style ballad written by his sister, taking the top spot for the first time in the country's history and celebrating with a call to "put emotion back into music". Salvador Sobral, performing a jazz-style ballad written by his sister Luisa, was a clear winner in the annual song contest held this year in Kiev and broadcast to an expected global audience of over 200 million people. It is tradition for the home country of the year’s previous winner to host the competition, a fact which had Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling urging Europe to vote for the U.K. in this year’s competition to force Britain to host a European celebration in the wake of Brexit and anti-EU sentiment. There were also appearances from previous Ukrainian winners - Jamala, who won last year (but this year was briefly interrupted by a streaker), and Ruslana, who won in 2004, and has in recent years bravely diverted much of her energy into social activism and politics (you can’t get away from politics at Eurovision). In a grim reminder of the continued conflict in the east, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko cancelled his scheduled appearance at the competition after four civilians were killed in artillery attacks that Kiev blamed on the separatist rebels. The latest edition of the contest, that began in 1956 with just seven countries, offered the usual wacky stage acts and cheesy beats.
Salvador Sobral of Portugal wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Amar pelos dois. While the country debuted in the 1964 edition of the contest, this marks the first win by a Portuguese entrant.