While the voting for the fourth annual esctoday.com Awards is taking place, we take the time to introduce the nominees in the 21 categories. Today, we take a look at the Composer of the year category.

• You can vote in the 2009 esctoday.com awards here.

1. Alexander Rybak (Norway)

The Norwegian entry was written by Alexander Rybak, who also performed the song. He had already taken part in the second edition of the talent search Kjempesjansen, a Norwegian TV showthat is looking for young talents in music and dance, in 2006.He could win this show with his own composition Foolin'.He later won the Anders Jahres award and became a conductor for Norway's most famous orchestra of young musicians. He also wrote or co-wrote most of the tracks on his debut album Fairytales, which reached number one in the Norwegian album charts. On the album is also his second number one hit Funny little world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy6D5qaRfc

2. Óskar Páll Sveinsson, Tinatin Japaridze and Chris Neil (Iceland)

Óskar Páll Sveinsson, also known as Oskar Paul, has produced a series of successful albums in Iceland, but he is also a well-known name in the international music scene having worked for acts like Robbie Williams, Mike and the Mechanics, Seal, Depeche Mode and Secret Garden. One of the songs he produced is Never had a dream come true by S Club 7 (written by Cathy Dennis and Simon Ellis), which was a top te hit in Sweden and also reached the charts in New Zealand.

Christopher Neil is just as successful all over the world as he served as a producer and occasional songwriter for singers and bands including Céline Dion, Cher, Bonnie Tyler, a-ha and Rod Stewart. Songs he has produced include Think twice by Céline Dion, Dancing in the City by Marshall, Hain and the James Bond theme For your eyes only, which was performed by Sheena Easton.

Tinatin Japaridze is a singer and songwriter, who has just launched her career. She was named as "one of the fresh faces to keep an eye out for" by US American Billboard magazine. She also recorded the demo version of Is it true?.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L69Cg9Co7Q

3. Diane Warren and Andrew Lloyd Webber (United Kingdom)

Diane Warren is one of the most successful composers and lyricists of pop music in the United States. She holds various records on the US charts; among others she is the only songwriter who had songs by seven differents artists on the charts at a time and she also composed the song that stayed in the top 100 the longest. She wrote songs for acts such as Céline Dion, Cher, Meat Loaf, LeAnn Rimes, Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston. Hits composed by her include If I could turn back time (Cher), Grammy award winning Because you loved me (Céline Dion), I don't wanna miss a thing (Aerosmith), Un-break my heart (Tony Braxton) and There you'll be (Faith Hill).

Andrew Llyod Webber is probably the most successful muical composer ever. He scored 13 musicals to date including Jesus Christ superstar, Evita, Starlight Express and Cats. Many of the songs also had an impact on the popular music scene such as Don't cry for me Argentina, Memories and Take that look off your face. He won three Grammy awards and seven Tony awards as well as an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for the song You must love me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQjZ89Lomdw

4. Sven Lõhmus (Estonia)

Sven Lõhmus has worked with many Baltic music acts including Vanilla Ninja, who later represented Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. He also wrote the song that represented Estonia in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest; Let's get loud finished 20th in the semi final. He has his own record label in Estonia. Hit songs he wrote and produced include Club Kung Fu by Vanilla Ninja and Moonwalk by Laura, runner-up entry in the 2005 Estonian national final.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwwZHGc6f-A

5. Aleksandar �ovi� (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Aleksandar is the most frequent writer of Regina's songs and also a member of the band. Regina have relased a series of successful albums and the musical style is inspired by Irish rock band U2, enjoyed success all over the country. In 2000, the band took a break when Aleksandar �ovi� started his solo career as a performer. He also writes most of the songs he performs as a soloist.

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

Previous winners

This award has previously went to composers from three different countries. In 2006, Zeljko Joksimovic took home the trophy for his composition Lejla, which represented Bosnia & Herzegovina. Magdi Rusza won the award in 2007 for her Hungarian entry Unsubstantial blues. In 2008, Andrej Babic won the award for the Portuguese entry Senhora do mar.

The complete results of the previous awards:

2006	2007	2008
Zeljko Joksimovic (Bosnia & H.) Thomas G:son Bobby Ljungren Henrik Wikström (Sweden) Jane Comerford (Germany) Mr. Lordi (Finland) Peter Yiannakis (Cyprus)	Magdi Ruzsa (Hungary) – 25.6% Vladimir Graic (Serbia) – 25.4% Thomas G:son (Norway/Spain) – 19.9% Beqa Jafaridze (Georgia) – 16.2% Andrej Babic (Slovenia) – 13.0%	Andrej Babic (Porgual) – 28.0% Dana International (Israel) – 23.7% Mira Craig (Norway) – 22.9% Philip Kirkorov (Ukraine) – 12.9% Sébastien Tellier (France) – 12.5%

The hall of fame:

On Sunday, we will take a look at the two categories for the Lyricists of the year.