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 Best female performance and Best female vocal performance categories.

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

Yohanna (Iceland)

Nominated for: Bets female performance, Best female vocal performance

Jóhanna was born in Denmark, but her family moved to Reykjavik when she was two years old. Having successfully taken part in a singing competition, she entered a music school for children. Her talent was spotted early and she released her first album when she was only ten years old. The record turned out to be a success and a second album followed in 2001.

Her last album for a few years, which included a collection of Christmas songs, was released in 2003 and she then took a break from the music business. After years of training, in 2008 the singer launched her fourth album Butterflies and Elvis, which was a collaboration with British songwriter Lee Horrocks. With her Eurovision Song Contest entry Is it true? she managed to enter the single charts all around Europe.

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

Hadise (Turkey)

Nominated for: Best female performance

Hadise was born in Belgium in 1985 and she became famous when she took part in the first season ofthe talent search Idool in 2003. Although she did not even reach the top ten, she got her first record contract shortly after. In 2005, her first album Sweat was released. While it did not reach the Ultratop top 50 (but peaked at number 52), the album spawned the hit singles Sweat, Stir me up, Milk chocolate girl and Bad boy. In 2006, Hadise had her debut as a TV presenter in Turkey, where she hosted the highly popular show Turkiye Popstar.

In 2007, the single A good kiss was released. While it peaked at number 28 in the Flemish single charts, it became Hadise's first top ten hit in Turkey, where it peaked at number six. Shortly after, My body became her first top ten hit in Belgium reaching number eight and the song Deli oÄ�lan was a number three hit in Turkey and reached the top of various radio charts. The second album, which included these songs, was pulished in June 2008 and it was far more successful than its predecessor peaking at number 19 in the Ultratop 50 and number six in the Belgium Top 20. Her 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry Düm tek tek would become her first number one hit in Belgium.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OxuLaGgMtw

Jade Ewen (United Kingdom)

Nominated for: Best female performance, Best female vocal performance

Jade Ewen was born in 1988 as the daughter of a Jamaican mother and father who is half Sicilian. She would attend the Sylvia Young Theatre School, an insitution with famous graduates like Emma Bunton, Amy Winehouseand Leona Lewis and also 1991 UK Eurovision Song Contest representative Samantha Janus. At the age of only twelve years, she starred as Nala in the West End production of the musical The Lion King (the same role in the same prodcution was also already played by Javine, UK representative in 2005).

Later, Jade would make her way all to Australia, where she appeared in 14 episodes of the TV series Out there between 2003 and 2004. Other appearances as an actress followed, before she entered the music business in 2005. She became a member of the Trinity Stone, which was signed with Sony BMG. Some singles were released in the United Kingdom and Russia to minor success,butthe groupworked with American R&B singer Ne-Yoon his song Real Love. The group split up in 2007 and Jade hasbeen persuing her solo career since. The online single Stolen love/Got you was released in 2008. After her participation in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, she was chosen to become the new member of the successful British girl group Sugababes.

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

Patricia Kaas (France)

Nominated for: Best female performance, Best female vocal performance

Patricia Kaas is one of the most successful French singers ever. She was discoverd by actor Gérard Depardieu at the age of 19 and released a first single in 1985, but her first major success came in1988 with the release of the album Mademoiselle chante….She has sold more than 15 million records since. All of her seven studio albums had managed to reach the top ten of the French album charts when she decided to take a major break from the music business in 2005. In 2009, she returned with the release of her eighth studio album Kabaret and the announcement that she will represent France in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

Patricia Kaas is not onlyfamous in France but has also enjoyed commercial success in Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and even New Zealand. Her style is often described as "chanson" but in fact, it mixes classic French elements with American pop and rock music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81_vWTUpIW0

Nelly Ciobanu (Moldova)

Nominated for: Best female performance

Nelly Ciobanuhad her debut as a musician in 1993, when she was 18 years old and formedthe duo Master Dinamit with her brother. However, she became famous over the following years as a successful participant in countless music festivals. She won the Morning Star festival in 1994 and would later finish second in the Yalta 98 festival in Ukraine. In 2009, she took the victory in the Discovery festival in Bulgaria in 1999 as wells as in Slavic Bazaar festival in Belarus, the Spring of April festival in North Korea.

In 2005, when Moldova debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest, Nelly Ciobanu tried to represent her country for the first time. With the song One more time, she finished second behind Zdob si Zdub. On Christmas eve the same year, her first daughter was born. Nelly Ciobanu is a graduate of the Tiraspol music college. She was on tour with many international stars like Patricia Kass, who will represent France this year, and Michael Bolton. At her concerts, she performs songs in eleven different languages including Romanian, English, Russian, Italian and Korean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmC-hmnw8Mc

Malena Ernman (Sweden)

Nominated for: Best female vocal performance

Malena Ernman attended various music schools including the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden, the school of the Royal Swedish Orchestra and the conservatory in Orléans, France. The mezzo-soprano singer is one of the most popular opera stars in Sweden having had her breakthrough in 1998 with her performance in the show Staden. Over the years, she has appeared in operas like The marriage of figaro, The barber of Seville, Carmen and Don Giovanni.

She has also performed as a sloist on many occasions, notably at the 1999 Nobel Prize award ceremony. Malena has performed not only in Sweden but all around the globe going as far as to Japan. So far, five albums were released: My love, Cabaret songs, Songs in season, Nachtgesänge and The high mass.Recordings of Die Fledermaus, Julie and Hercules with her were also released on DVD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu1jYyxOtlE

Chiara (Malta)

Nominated for: Best female vocal performance

Chiara launched her career in 1998, when she took part in the Maltese selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.She was the runaway winner with The one that I love ahead of Fabrizio Faniello and Claudette Pace, who would represent the country in later contests. In Birmingham, she scored 165 points and finished third equaling Malta's best result to that date achieved in 1992. After the contest, she became a star Malta and recorded three albums over the following years: Shades of one (1998), What you want (2000) and Covering diversions (2003).

In 2005, she entered Malta Song for Europe again, this time with her own composition Angel. She got 566 televotes more than Olivia Lewis and hence won the ticket to Kyiv. Yet again, she managed to equal Malta's best placeto that date, which was the second place achieved in 2002. It is is the highest scoring Maltese entryso far and the last entry that reached the top ten. The song was not only a hit in Malta but alsoreached the charts in Germany being the first Maltese entry to do so. In 2008, she co-hosted the Maltese national final, one year before she returned to the competition again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAeSq2YRcEM

Previous winners

Best female performance

This award will be given out for the fourth time. Previously, it has went to Tina Karol from Ukraine in 2006, Magdi Rúzsa from Hungary in 2007 and Ani Lorak from Ukraine in 2008. The complete results were as follows:

2006	2007	2008
Ukraine Sweden Greece Croatia Estonia	Hungary – 24.7% Serbia – 20.4% Moldova – 19.0% Netherlands – 19.0% Georgia – 16.8%	Ukraine – 36.6% Portugal – 27.6% Norway – 18.9% Greece – 10.6% Armenia – 6.3%

The hall of fame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8FbpoSLk2E

Best female vocal performance

This award has previously been given out in 2007 and 2008. It was won by Slovenian Alenka Gotar in 2007 and Vânia Fernandes from Portugal in 2008.

The complete results:

2007	2008
Slovenia – 27.3% Serbia – 23.7% Hungary – 22.4% Netherlands – 14.3% Moldova – 12.2%	Portugal – 42.3% Norway – 24.8% Poland – 13.9% Ukraine – 13.6% Hungary – 5.4%

The hall of fame:

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

Tomorrow, we will introduce the nominees in the categories Best duo/group performance and Best duo/group vocal performance.