The polls for the third annual esctoday.com awards are closed and now it is time to reveal the results, which are traditionally made public on Christmas. We continue with the first two national final categories: Best national final and Best national final performance not to qualify for Eurovision.
The 2008 esctoday.com award for Best national final goes to…
- MELODIFESTIVALEN of Sweden
Swedish Melodifestivalen followed the same pattern as in recent years. On 9th February, the first of four semi finals with eight participants each was held. The top two songs in each heat moved forward to the national final while the third and fourth placed songs entered the second chance round. Eventually, ten songs were presented in the national final and Charlotte Perelli was chosen to represented the country in Belgrade. Like always, many entries were successful in the Swedish single charts. It is the third year in a row that Sweden wins in this category.
The complete results:
- Melodifestivalen (Sweden) – 60.6%
- MGP (Norway) – 15.6%
- Festival da Canção (Portugal) – 10.2%
- Land of fire (Azerbaijan) – 8.4%
- Eurosong (Cyprus) – 5.2%
Watch one of the interval performances below:
The 2008 esctoday.com award for Best national final performance not to qualify for Eurovision goes to…
- SANNA NIELSEN of Sweden for Empty room
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.The song was written by Aleena Gibson and Bobby Ljungren and it was a #2 hit in Sweden. This is the second award for a Swedish act in this category following BWO in 2006. Mirela from Spain won in this category in 2007.
The complete results:
- Sanna Nielsen of Sweden for Empty room – 44.8%
- La Casa Azúl of Spain for La revolución sexual – 17.5%
- Carolin Fortenbacher of Germany for Hinterm Ozean – 14.2%
- Veronica Akselsen of Norway for Am I supposed to love again? – 11.8%
- Biondo of Romania for Shine – 11.7%
Watch the Best national final performance not to qualify for Eurovision of the year below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0bcWNcSKLI
The final results will be revealed later today. Stay tuned!
