Russian Revolution

In a close result Russia has won the 2008 Eurovision, followed by Ukraine and Greece. The top five scoreboards was:

1st Russia (272 points)
2nd Ukraine (230 points)
3rd Greece (218 points)
4th Armenia (199 points)
5th Norway (182 points)

UK contestant Andy Abraham came in joint last place with just 14 points, equal with Germany and Poland.

For the second year running there was remarkable agreement between the voting in Western and Eastern Europe. Despite immediate claims of Eastern bias from a BBC commentator, an analysis of the voting from Western European countries (with the Eastern votes excluded) produced virtually identical results with the same top five countries, just in a slightly different order.

It is yet to be confirmed which Russian city will host the next Eurovision, however it is likely to be Moscow. The provisional dates for the 2009 competition have been announced by the EBU listen.

Eurovision Dream-Team

At the second Semi-Final broadcast in Australia on Saturday, ten countries qualified for Sunday's Grand Final. The quality of the music was generally higher than in the first Semi-Final with fewer novelty songs. Highest-profile casualties were Malta and Switzerland who failed to make it through to the Final. Listen to the winning artists speak after their victory below.

We Came, We Sang, We Qualified

At the first Semi-Final broadcast in Australia on Friday, ten countries qualified for Sunday's Grand Final. Heavy Metal act Finland confounded the critics and qualified, but nine countries were eliminated, including the two novelty acts Ireland (Dustin The Turkey) and Estonia (Crazy Radio). Each country drew their position in the running order to Sunday's Grand Final (position shown in brackets). Listen to the winning artists speak after their victory below.

1954 Eurovision Winner in Belgrade

The winner of the first ever Eurovision Song Contest from 1954 Lys Assia was a surprise guest to the otherwise largely technical EBU press conference. She spoke about the changes in the Eurovision over the last 50+ years and hinted at her tip for this year's winner listen. Ms Assia will open the voting for the second Semi-Final, and a famous Serbian basketball player will open the voting for the Grand Final.

Dramatic Changes to Russian Stageshow

The second Russian rehearsals revealed dramatic changes to the Russian Stageshow with the removal of planned steps and a frame. This was explained by Dima's choreographer as follows listen. The Olympic skater Pluschenko described the ice rink they are using listen and compared Eurovision with the Olympics listen.

Rude Awakening

There was hilarity at the last Swiss press conference when singer Paolo Meneguzzi asked the Serbian TV compere to confirm the what Paolo's surname meant in Serbian. After some reluctance the compere Mladen Popovich translated Meneguzzi, to the delight of the watching press listen. It remains to be see how this will affect the voting for Switzerland from the former countries of Yugoslavia.

Good enough to win it

British singer Andy Abraham talked about his reaction on being selected to represent the United Kingdom and suggestions that his song was too good for the Eurovision listen. He had not heard the Irish entrant's comments about the British song listen. He concluded by talking about his song's chances in the competition listen.

French song broke rules

Long-time Eurovision entrant France found itself in in breach of the Eurovision rules this year with the synthesized voices used in the backing track of Sébastien Tellier's song Divine. Any form of prerecorded voices are disallowed, which forced the French to find a last-minute solution listen. The irony of the situation was not lost on Sébastien listen.

Azerbaijan demonstrates Moghan

The ancient musical art of Moghan singing which heavily influenced this year's Azerbaijani entry was the topic of the second Azerbaijani press conference. First the Elnur and Samir explained the music listen which was followed by a short demonstration of the art listen.

Crocodile Tears of Joy for Belgium

The Belgian group Ishtar came to their second press conference armed with numerous crocodile teddy bears - it was left to the Serbian Television moderator to explain why listen. The group demonstrated their vocal dexterity by singing a Serbian song they had only just heard on the bus on the way back, to the utter surprise and delight of the Serbians in audience listen.

Niente to Miodio

The San Marino group Miodio suffered a stunning rejection during their second press conference today. When asked to name their dream team of Eurovision artists to visit San Marino they listed only groups with pretty girls listen. This clearly did not go down well with the equally pretty Serbian girls at the back of the room, because when these girls were asked what they thought of the San Marino song there was a single-world reply listen.

Mummy took my Teddy away!

Moldovan singer Geta Burlacu brought her children's teddy bear with her to her second press conference which she related to the message of her song listen. When challenged as to what her children said when she took their teddy bear away, she explained as follows listen.

Not your typical Eurovision song and dance act

The Portugese singer Vânia Fernandes is anything but your typical female Eurovision entrant - short, black-haired and statuesque rather than tall, blond and skinny; she is singing a powerful ballad rather than an up-tempo pop song; and the story has a sad, not happy, ending. And she pulls it off. Her songwriter Carlos talked about the folk story which is behind her song listen. Her entire group do not wear shoes during the performance
which she explained as follows listen.

"No Angel" Jessica withdraws from rehearsals

One of the four No Angels from Germany has withdrawn from rehearsals due to illness. In a statement read by the German Head of Delegation Manfred Witt said that Doctors had advised Jessica could take no further part in the rehearsals but would most likely be well enough for Saturday's final. Her place today was taken by backing singer Lejla.

Morena reveals the secret of Vodka

In today's Maltese press conference singer Morena revealed that the title of her song did not refer to the popular Russian drink, but rather the storyline of her
song listen. She went on to describe the work involved in the filming of her
music video during which a car was destroyed listen. Her producer talked about
the location for the shoot listen. Her stage show is spartan by comparison which her choreographer explained as follows listen.

Dustin The Turkey less confrontational

In the second Irish press conference Dustin The Turkey was less confrontational. Apart from apologizing about getting the Australian reference in his song wrong (see lead story) he limited his comments to Irish talent - without however being able to resist one last dig at Terry Wogan.

listen: Dustin on former Irish Eurovision winner Linda Martin
listen: Dustin on Bono and the US Presidential Election
listen: Dustin on Terry Wogan's wig
listen: Dustin does Riverdance
listen: Dustin on his past, future and Ireland's special relationship with the Eurovision
listen: Dustin on where he met his backing singers
listen: Dustin on his two national final judges, former winners Dana and Marja
listen: Dustin on how he got into television

Georgian Jerusalem Of Gold

This year's singer from Georgia is Diana Gurtskaya who is blind. She addressed this handicap first in her press conference listen. Then upon request from Israeli Radio and quite without advance notice she sang her ethereal version of Jerusalem Of Gold listen.

Bulgaria creates a unique sound

The Bulgarian group Deep Zone and Balthazar have a unique sound at the Eurovision, with their DJ sample sound mixed in with original music played on very unique instruments listen. DJ Balthazar went on to describe a unique new method for mixing the music on show for the first time at the Eurovision listen.

Croatian artist pays homage to early Eurovision star Domenico Mudugno

This year's Croatian entry is a combination of a long-established street music band, the Street Kings, with a 75-year old veteran of the Croatian music scene known as 75 cents. The band revealed the meaning of the words spoken at the start of their song listen and 75 cents recalled his earliest memories of Eurovision listen.

Pirates invade the Eurovision

The Latvian group Pirates Of The Sea burst onto the stage at the Eurovision with what must be one of the most catchy tunes of the contest.

The group carried the good humour of their performance into the press conference, where they had to address the question that they might lose out because voting started after most children's bedtimes listen.

Switzerland sings in Italian

The Swiss artist Paolo Meneguzzi has chosen to sing in Italian which is spoken in the Ticino part of Switzerland in the South of the country. The choice of language was the first thing addressed by their Head of Delegation listen. Paolo explained why his experience allowed him to feel more relaxed at the Eurovision than some of the other artists listen.

Sweet Sixteen

The Albanian singer Olta Boka is at 16 years old by far the youngest of the competition however she has been singing professionally since she was 9. She described her impression of the stage and her song's message listen. The song is a haunting ballad whose title translates as Hearts Trapped in Time.

Dustin The Turkey apologizes to Australia

In the second Irish press conference Dustin The Turkey apologized for confusing Australia with Austria and including the line "G'Day Austria" in his song, blaming the error on his bad atlas listen.

Dustin is unlikely to lose any votes over the issue because Austria pulled out of the Eurovision last year in a fit of good taste, so now the Austrians, like the Australians, are unable to participate in the official voting.

Unmetal Ballad

Lithuania has entered the lead singer of a Heavy Metal Jeronimas Milius singing a ballad, and the result is truly extraordinary. Asked how singing solo in the Eurovision would help his Heavy Metal career, at first Jeronimas did not seem sure listen. He finished the press conference by singing a traditional Lithuanian song listen.

Born in the USSR

The bubbly Ukrainian singer Ani Lorak was particularly insightful in her plans for Belgrade listen. Her publicist Uri Sak went on to describe her work as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations listen. Her songwriter Philipp Kirkorov enthused about old times listen. Ani finished by singing the chorus of her song listen.

Turkey acknowledges the West

This year Turkey has entered has entered a very western-sounding melodic rock track Deli from group Mor ve Ötesi. They explained the sound of their music by citing their influences listen, mostly English bands ranging from The Beatles to Radiohead. They explained the meaning of the song listen which is about growing up and rebelling against authority.

Acoustic feedback from Iceland

For the first time in the history of the Eurovision, a tribute band specializing in covers of Eurovision classics of the past has itself entered the Eurovision. Icelandic group Euroband have never before recorded an original song - and plan never to do so again, as they explained listen. They went on to talk about their innovative video where a tragic Eurovision fan imagines himself onstage. The video was produced by ... well listen and you'll find out by whom.

Stradivarius upstages Dima

In a curious press conference from Russian Singer Dima Bilan the sounds of Vivaldi wafted through the Eurovision Press Centre listen as one of Dima's musicians had brought his antique violin and wanted to demonstrate he could play it. There then followed a strange live version of Dima's song where the violinist seemed to be playing to a different beat if not a different tune altogether while Dima struggled and failed to hold his microphone correctly to get a clear sound listen.

Dima was also joined on the stage by Russian Olympic figure skating champion Eugeni Pluschenko, although his relevance to Eurovision was not explained. The press conference was brought to a close by an even more bizarre version of last year's winning song Molitva listen.

Romanian Duet stay the course

Nico and Vlad from Romania talked about how long it had taken them to reach the Eurovision listen. Nico sang a part of Duce Amaruie, her entry at the Golden Stag International Pop Music Festival in Romania listen.

Armenia criticizes Security

Armenian singer Sirusho made lightly veiled criticisms of Serbian security when they said they had been denied use of their pyrotechnics at their rehearsal listen. They went on to explain the meaning and context of their song title Qele, Qele listen.

Andorra under pressure

Andorran entrant Gisela spoke of the pressure to perform given that it was the second time her country had sent her to Eurovision listen and described her expectations of the contest.

Isis answers Dustin

Polish entrant Isis Gee commented on Dustin's advances during her own press conference later in the day listen. She also responded to a question about comparisons that had been made between her and Celine Dione listen. Finally she sang a piece from her song Hidden Treasure listen.

Caught in a Dustin Storm

The Irish entry Dustin the Turkey brought the contest preparations to a halt with his spontaneous and sometimes politically incorrect observations, including suggesting he might join SBS's commentator Terry Wogan in the commentary booth for the Grand Final.


listen: Dustin on Terry Wogan
listen: Dustin on Dana and Johnny Logan
listen: Dustin on last year's winner Marja
listen: Dustin on Turkey Recipes and the Polish Singer Isis Gee
listen: Dustin on this year's Turkish entry
listen: Dustin on standing for President of Ireland
listen: Dustin on the 2008 UK Entry

Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore

Norwegian entrant Maria demonstrated her vocal dexterity and wide musical experience by singing in Norwegian the chorus from the most well known song from one of the musicals she has starred in listen.

Virgin Territory for Azerbaijan

For the first time this remote former USSR constituent country is taking part in the Eurovision - and immediately made a lasting impression with an artistic and innovative song and stage show about the battle between good and evil. The composer Govher Hasanzadeh described her approach to the song listen.

Ishtar delight with song in Serbian

Belgian folk music group Ishtar delighted the watching journalists at their first press conference today by unexpectedly singing a song in written by the group in the Serbian language listen. Ishtar's contest song is in a made-up language of the group's own creation, however it carries a special message which they described as follows listen.

Getting intimate with Moldova

Breaking the cliché, Moldova has submitted an ethno-jazz singer Geta Burlacu to the Eurovision this year. Geta certainly felt at home in the arena listen praising the intimacy she could achieve despite the large space.

Montenegro counts on the block vote, Slovenia on national pride

In his first press conference at the Eurovision, Montenegran artist Stefan Filipović justified his decision not to sing in English listen, explaining that he expected greater support from neighbouring countries (of ex-Yugoslavia) by singing in their native language.




This same subject was later addressed by the Slovenian artist Rebeka Dremelj who explained her same decision in very different terms listen. She went on to compare her experiences as a former Miss World contestant with the Eurovision listen.

Russia finally to hear wedding bells?

With Eurovision rehearsals starting tomorrow in Belgrade, there has been a dramatic change in the bookies' predictions for the 2008 winner since we last looked. Ireland has dropped to 6th place with Russia now assuming the position of favourite.

Russia is the eternal-bridesmaid-never-bride of the Eurovision, having been placed in the top three in the last two grand finals and otherwise finishing strongly but never yet actually winning. This year Russia is represented again by Dima Bilan watch who also represented Russia in Eurovision Athens in 2006 with an memorable act which involved a ballet dancer emerging from a piano mid-song.