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 nine is dedicated to the Best preview video category.

History

This award will be given out for the third time. Both in 2006 and 2007, it went to the videos of female soloists: in 2006, Greece won the prize for Anna Vissi's Everything while Hungary won the award last year for Magdi Rúzsa's Unsubstantial blues. The complete results were as follows:

2006

1. Greece – 38%
2. Finland – 31%
3. Turkey – 17%
4. Bulgaria – 8%
5. Spain – 6%

2007

1. Hungary – 26%
2. Malta – 22%
3. Bulgaria – 20%
4. Russia – 18%
5. Turkey – 15%

2008 awards

The following countries are nominated this year:

1. Russia for Believe
2. Ukraine for Shady lady
3. Iceland for This is my life
4. France for Divine
5. Malta for Vodka

Click here to watch the videos of the nominees!

Russia's entry Believe was illustrated in the video by the story ofa boy, who is seriously ill but learns to keepbelieving when he sees Dima Bilan performing for him in a ice hall along with violinist Edvin Marton and ice skater Evgeni Plushenko.This performance would later be transferred on the Eurovision Song Contest stage with those two accompanying Bilanin Belgrade.

In the plotless video of the Ukrainian entry Shady lady, we can see Ani Lorak dancing in front of a skyline and in a disco as well as seducing men with her movements. With the same outfits on stage, a similar atmorsphere was created at the Eurovision Song Contest stage in Belgrade.Although Ukraine has always done well in the performance categories, this is the first nomination in the video category.

Iceland's video is a spoof of lyp-synching performances of famous songs by unknown people like they can be found on various video platforms. A stereotypical Eurovision fan performs This is my life in a rather crazy way before he is magically transferred to the actual video, where he is allowed to perform with Euroband. It is only the second time, a Nordic country is nominated for 'best video' following Finland in 2006.

In the video of France's entry Divine, a 1970s feeling is tried to be created not only by the outfits but also by a reduced picture quality. We can see Sébastien Tellier singing his song in various settings. Like in the Eurovision Song Contest, a beach theme is used in the video to illustrated the music that reminds of the Beach Boys. It is the first time France is nominated in this category as their 2006 and 2007 videos were mainly consisting of live performances of the respective songs.

Malta illustrated the Russian theme of their entry Vodka by making a spy film out of their preview video. In the plot, Morena has to find a secret password, which is of course Vodka. Lasting more than five minutes, it was the longest preview video of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Last year, the country has already finished second in this category.

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