Ireland's Brian Kennedy finished a respectable 10th in Saturday night's Eurovision Song Contest final, the surprise winner of which was Finnish monster metal band Lordi with their stadium-style anthem, Hard Rock Hallelujah.
This strong finish for Ireland, which scored 93 points from 38 voting countries around Europe, means that Ireland passes directly to next year's final without having to qualify in the semi-final.
"This is the result we were looking for," said the head of RTÉ's Eurovision delegation, Julian Vignoles. "We made it into the final next year, and that was the mission."
Kennedy gave a heartfelt performance of his ballad, Every Song is a Cry for Love, which stood out in its simplicity in a contest dominated by extravagant theatrics and pyrotechnics.
Both of these were on lavish display in Lordi's act, which captured Europe's imagination in the weeks leading up to the contest because it was so different from the ethnic pop music which has dominated the contest in recent years.
The Lordi quintet perform dressed as monsters, with latex masks, horns and capes, and their Eurovision act featured plumes of flame and spinning pinwheels of fireworks onstage.
Phone and text voters across Europe awarded the Finnish group 292 points, far ahead of second- place finishers Russia, who earned 248 points.
Two acts which had been tipped by bookmakers to win, Sweden's Carola and Greece's Anna Vissi, finished fifth and ninth respectively.
"How weird is this?" asked the Finnish group's lead singer Mr Lordi (whose real name is Tomi Putaansuu) during the press conference after Saturday night's contest. "It's a victory for rock music and for open-mindedness. Europe is a great place." The band hope that their victory will open up Eurovision to "different musical styles beyond pop and ballads".
The win is a particularly sweet one for Finland, which has never won the contest and has one of the worst performance records among Eurovision's participant countries. It brings further European focus on a country which will take over the EU presidency in July.
Putaansuu (32) created the character of Mr Lordi 15 years ago as an exam project in film school, and formed the band a year later.
The group are never seen in public out of costume; this "element of mystery is at the heart of Lordi", the group's leader explained on Saturday night.
The highest points awarded to Ireland came from Monaco, who gave Kennedy's song 10 points. Ireland was the only country to give its douze points to the Lithuanian entry, We are the Winners, a satirical send-up of the contest.
In fact, the real winner, Mr Lordi, sang the title line of the Lithuanian song to open his press conference on Saturday night, to the delight of the several hundred journalists and fans in attendance.