Tonight the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest takes place live from the Beogradska Arena, Belgrade, Serbia. Many fans and jounalists in Belgrade believe that it is the strongest line-up ever seen in the final. 25 songs will participate, 20 of them having qualified from the two semi finals held earlier this week.

The two semi finals have meant that only 5 songs instead of 14 were guaranteed a place in the final before arriving in Belgrade. Many believe that this has resulted in a far higher quality of songs than ever before seen in the competition. Many musical styles and tastes are catered for. There is the usual mix of pop, dance, ballads and alternative electropop, heavy metal, ethno-ballads, soft rock and many more styles on show as Europe prepares for a huge party tonight.

Countries missing from the final for several years such as Iceland, Denmark and Portugal will take their places in the grand final once again and reactions in all of them have been very encouraging.

The esctoday.com BigPoll suggest a close battle with Ukraine coming out on top. Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Greece, Armenia, Portugal, Iceland, Norway, Israel and Bosnia Herzegovina all have a chance to win if the poll is right.

The only thing left to hope for after what has been seen as one of the best weeks for the Eurovision Song Contest for many years is to have a nail-biting finish with a nail-biting vote to ensure that the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 is seen as one of the best of all time.

With just two hours left before Te Deum rings out from television and radio sets across Europe and beyond, we are confident of one of the most satisfying contests of all time this evening.