British viewers made Poland's controversial act Donatan and Cleo the clear winners in voting for the Eurovision song contest – but the duo was relegated in the rankings after the verdict of the official panel was factored in.

A breakdown of the voting competition organisers revealed that Poland's song, We Are Slavic, featuring a group of scantily clad young women dressed as milk maids, was the runaway favourite of the British public.

But the UK's expert jury – headed by former Fame Academy judge Carrie Grant – ranked it last in 25th place. It had Malta's entry Firelight in first place on average, slotting the eventual overall winner, Austria's drag artist Conchita Wurst, in third.

The final score from each country is weighted 50/50 between the public vote and the five-member panel so Conchita ened up being allotted the UK's top marks of 12 points.

The gulf between popular and expert opinion was not limited to the UK. Irish, Norwegian and Ukrainian voters also placed Donatan and Cleo first while their panels gave the Poles a low ranking. They also proved popular in the Netherlands, Iceland, Austria, Macedonia, France, Germany and Sweden, where voters placed them in the top three.



Despite their popularity the duo came 14th in the final voting on 62 points, which was three places above Britain's Molly Smitten-Downes.



Their eye-opening performance left host Graham Norton, who was commentating for the UK audience tuning into BBC One's coverage, speechless as the performers danced suggestively to lyrics which included the line "shake what your mama gave you". The video of the single has had more than 40m hits on YouTube.

The group have also courted political controversy with their pro-Slavic message and Donatan's support for the Red Army.