The polls for the third annual esctoday.com awards closed at midnight CET and now it is time to reveal the results, which are traditionally made public on Christmas. We continue with the categories Best female vocal performance, Best male vocal performance and Best duo/group vocal performance.

The 2008 esctoday.com award for Best female vocal performance goes to…

• VÂNIA FERNANDES of Portugal for Senhora do mar

This is the third award for Portugal already follwoing the victories in the Song of the year and Composer of the year categories. Since 1997, whenshe was twelve years old, Vânia Fernandes has participated in various singing competitions inPortugal, both on the mainland and on her home island Madeira. In 2007, she took part in the televisedtalent search Operação Triunfo and won while the same year, she also completed her studies atthe Cooservatory in Madeira, where she was trained both in pop and jazz singing. Last year, this award went to opera singer Alenka Gotar from Slovenia.

The complete results:

1. Vânia Fernandes of Portugal for Senhora do mar – 42.3%
2. Maria Haukaas Storeng of Norway for Hold on be strong – 24.8%
3. Isis Gee of Poland for For life – 13.9%
4. Ani Lorak of Ukraine for Shady lady – 13.6%
5. Csézy of Hungary for Candlelight – 5.4%

Watch the performance by the Female vocalist of the year below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NazDgzj3d7M

The 2008 esctoday.com award for Best male vocal performance goes to…

• BOAZ MAUDA of Israel for The fire in your eyes

This is the second award for Israel and Boaz Mauda this year, as he has also won in the Best male performance category. He began singing at the age of five. In 2007, he was signed up by a friend to take part in the fifth season of Kokhav Nolad, the Israeli edition of Pop Idol. In August 2007, he won the season ahead of other two finalists getting about 50% of the votes. In 2008, he was chosen internally to represent his country in the Eurovision Song Contest. He follows in the footsteps of Roger Cicero from Germany, who won this award last year.

The complete results:

1. Boaz Mauda of Israel for The fire in your eyes – 61.8%
2. Simon Mathew of Denmark for All night long – 16.6%
3. Andy Abraham of the United Kingdom for Even if – 13.4%
4. Jeronimas Milius of Lithuania for Nomads in the night – 6.0%
5. Ruslan Alahno of Belarus for Hasta la vista – 2.3%

Watch the performance by the Male vocalist of the year below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2eNU2Vh1es

The 2008 esctoday.com award for Best duo/group vocal performance goes to…

• Euroband of Iceland for This is my life

Euroband take home the second trophy having already won in the Best duo/group performance category. Regína Ósk and Friðrik Ómar had already tried to represent Iceland various times as soloist before they joined forces and founded Euroband. Regína won two song competitions when she was a teenager and would laterstudy classical singingat the Reykjavík academy of singing and vocal arts. Friðrik had his first public appearance asa singerat a festivalin school. He later won a series of singing competition in his hometown and decided to make singing his profession. Euroband are the first act to win this award, which was introduced this year.

The complete results:

1. Euroband of Iceland for This is my life– 53.6%
2. Mor ve Ötesi of Turkey for Deli – 15.7%
3. Nico & Vlad of Romania for Pe-o margine de lume – 15.0%
4. Elnur & Samir of Azerbaijan for Dayafter day – 11.5%
5. Teräsbetoni of Finland for Missä miehet ratsasta– 4.1%

Watch the performance by theJoint vocalists of the yearbelow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yb5q1nMT2g

More results will be revealed throughout the day. Stay tuned!