Lena-Mania hits Germany as Eurovision winner comes home (Roundup)

May 30, 2010, 16:29 GMT

Hanover - Germany was in the grip of 'Lena Mania' Sunday, as the teenage singing sensation who won the Eurovision Song Contest the night before, Lena Meyer-Landrut, returned home.

Thousands of fans turned out to watch the 19-year-old high school student perform her winning song 'Satellite' in front of the city hall in her home town of Hanover.

'It's just totally crazy,' she told the assembled fans.

Lena was met at the airport by state premier Christian Wulff as her special Lufthansa flight returned from Oslo.

'I'm just trying to enjoy it right now,' she said as she stepped off the plane.

The famously chatty Lena was visibly wowed by the hundreds of fans who turned out at the airport to meet her and watch her walk off the plane onto a red carpet.

'Normally we greet presidents like this, but I think Lena has earned it,' Wulff said on ARD television.

Lena won the contest by a clear margin, after gaining the maximum 12 points from country juries an astonishing nine times.

The mayor of Hanover, Stephan Weil, has announced that Lena will be entered in the city's 'Golden Book' of honour.

Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Lena for her 'great success in Oslo.'

'Lena really impressed me with her unpretentiousness and warmth. She's a wonderful example of young Germany,' Merkel told the Bild newspaper.