Morning-after memes and Twitter complaints aside, bottom-ranked Eurovision singer Manel 'would do it all again'

During the finals to decide Spain's entry, the public voted overwhelmingly for a singer named Mireia, but the judges backed Manel enough that he got through instead, upsetting numerous fans.

And this morning, comments on Twitter to the effect of 'serves him right' about coming last, and a flood of memes about a cockerel having escaped on stage has emerged overnight.

Manel says he had just laughed at his 'bad luck', saying 'things do go wrong when it's live'.

He was criticised by Ukrainian reporters covering the show in Kiev, who told him laughing it off was 'not the way to react when you go wrong'.

Manel apparently shrugged and said: “It could be that people just didn't like the song.”

Organisers had already said the song Do it for your lover was 'not the ideal choice' if Spain wanted any chances of getting into the top 15, despite the exotic video footage in the background showing the summer hedonism of the country's beaches.

Even though it was only the public vote that saved Spain from ending on an embarrassing nul points, Manel said he left 'with his head held high' and that the experience 'makes you even more determined to carry on'.

This is the fifth time in Eurovision history Spain has come last, although it has only once ended on nul points – in 1999, with singer Lydia Rodríguez.

Next year's Eurovision will be held in Lisbon after 27-year-old Salvador Sobral from Portugal's clear win, with a huge margin over second-placed Cristian Kostov, 17, from Bulgaria, who knocked Macedonia into third.

Debunking the myth Spain has been convinced by in the last two years – that the song needs to be in English to win the contest – Sobral's Amar pelos dois ('loving for both') was entirely in Portuguese, and the second generalisation, that the special effects are more important than the song, also proved incorrect since the only backdrop for Sobral's show was a picture of a forest.

Spain's Eurovision results have been poor this century, with its best places being 10^th in 2013 with established flamenco-pop slow-number artist Pastora Soler, and in 2014 with Ruth Lorenzo – who came fourth in the British version of The Voice - and Dancing in the rain.

Last year's entry, Say yay!, with Barei, brought new hopes with it, given its catchy, fast-paced rhythm and street-dance effects, but only ended up in 22^nd position.