The third annual esctoday.com awards are currently being held. While you can still cast your votes until 23rd December, we will take a closer look on the nominees and the categories in random order. Part seven is dedicated to the Best female national final performance not to qualify for Eurovision category.

History

This award will be given out for the third time. In 2006, it went to Saša Lendero from Slovenia, who had won the EMA telvote and the SMS vote, but received zero points from the jury and therefore finished second. Last year, Sapnish runner-up Mirela took home the trophy. The complete results were as follows:

2006

• Saša Lendero with Mandoline (Slovenia) – 30%
• Linda Bengtzing with Jag ljuger så bra (Sweden) – 29%
• Eve Kempbell with Not right (Belgium) – 14%
• Kristine Blond with Make this night forever (Denmark) – 14%
• Annika Eklund with Shanghain valot (Finland) – 14%

2007

• Mirela with La reina de la noche (Spain) – 41%
• Sonja Aldén with För att du finns (Sweden) – 35%
• Hania Stach with Re-group (Poland) – 9%
• Ruta Šciogolevaite with If I ever make you cry (Lithuania) – 9%
• Meri Voskanyan with Carry me in (Armenia) – 6%

2008 awards

The following acts are nominated this year:

1. Carolin Fortenbacher of Germany for Hinterm Ozean
2. Leona Daly of Ireland for Not crazy after all
3. Veronica Akselsen of Norway for Am I supposed to love again?
4. Coral of Spain for Todo está en tu mente
5. Sanna Nielsen of Sweden for Empty room

Click here to watch the videos of the nominees!

Carolin Fortenbacher, who played the role of Donna in the German version of the ABBA musical Mamma Mia! for five years, finished second in this year's German national final. She placed second in the second round of voting with 49.5% of the televotes, just one per cent less than the No Angels. Hinterm Ozean was also her debut single and peaked at #44 in the charts.

Singer-songwriter Leona Daly took part in the 2008 Irish national final with the song Not crazy after all. Her dramatic performance including a typical Eurovision Song Contest dress change from black to red brought her a second place overall behind Dustin the Turkey, one of the most controversial acts in the 2008 edition of the competion.

It was the second time that Veronica Akselsen took part in the Norwegian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2006, she had to qualify through the 'last chance' round with Like a wind and would finish outside the top four in the final. This time, she directly made it to the final with Am I supposed to love again? and eventually finished fourth in the super final with 109957 votes.

Coral entered the Spanish national final through the MySpace song selection. She received 58,339 votes in the internet and and therefore finished fourth. In the national final, she was the last to perform on stage and with her song Todo está en tu mente, she manged to finish second over all getting 48 points, 12 less than winner and early favourite Rodolfo Chikilicuatre.

Sanna Nielsen is no stranger to Swedish Melodifestivalen: she has already finished 3rd in 2001 (Igår, idag), 5th in 2003 (Hela världen för mig), 8th in 2005 (Du och jag mot världen) and 7th in 2007 (Våger du, våger jag). This year, she reached her highest position so far finishing second with the ballad Empty Room. She was the winner of the televoting but not so popular with the juries and eventually got 206 points, 18 less than Charlotte Perelli.

• Click here to vote in this and the other 19 categories now

REGISTER AS AN ESCTODAY.COM MEMBER

To vote, you must be a registered esctoday.com member. Membership is free and allows you to vote in our online polls, react to articles and enter all competitions on the website. As a member, you can also subscribe to our newsletter. Click here to register.