Another Eurovision Song Contest has passed and it is time to hold the annual esctoday.com awards. Thousands of people have voted in the first three editions and this year, we are launching a new format. The awards will be split in two parts: The esctoday.com awards and the esctoday.com National Final awards.
The esctoday.com national final awards
The awards will honour songs and performances that have competed in the many national finals held by most of the countries to select their Eurovision Song Contest entries but did not make it to Moscow. The awards will be given out in the following categories:
- Best national final entry
- Best national final performance
- Best ballad
- Best up-tempo song
- Best male performance
- Best female performance
- Best duo/group performance
- Best entry eliminated in a semi final, quarter final or heat
There will also be awards honouring the national finals as a whole and the broadcasters:
- Best national final
- Best staging and presentation
- Best voting system
- Best webcast
Nominations – round 1
The nominations for the song and performance categories will be done in two rounds. The formula will be similar to the Song of the Decade contest, which has been held recently.
- For all countries that held a national final, there will be two polls. In the first poll, you can choose your favourite song, in the second poll, you can choose your favourite performance.
- In the second round, one song per country will compete for its eventual nomination. There will be one poll for each category with one song/performance per country competing. Therefore, the highest placed song of a country will be in the running for "best song", the highest placed ballad will be in the running for "best ballad" and so on. The top five in each category will be the eventual nominees.
As only songs that took part in a national FINAL can be nominated, there is also a special award for songs, that were already eliminated in a semi final, quarter final, or heat. You can nominate your favourites in this category by posting a reaction!
You can vote in the first round here:
| Country | Songs | Performances |
| Albania | here | here |
| Andorra | here | here |
| Armenia | here | here |
| Belarus | here | here |
| Bulgaria | here | here |
| Croatia | here | here |
| Cyprus | here | here |
| Denmark | here | here |
| Estonia | here | here |
| Finland | here | here |
| Georgia | here | here |
| Greece | here | here |
| Iceland | here | here |
| Ireland | here | here |
| Israel | here | here |
| Latvia | here | here |
| Lithuania | here | here |
| FYR Macedonia | here | here |
| Malta | here | here |
| Moldova | here | here |
| Netherlands | here | here |
| Norway | here | here |
| Poland | here | here |
| Portugal | here | here |
| Romania | here | here |
| Russia | here | here |
| Serbia | here | here |
| Slovakia | here | here |
| Slovenia | here | here |
| Spain | here | here |
| Sweden | here | here |
| Ukraine | here | here |
| United Kingdom | here |
There are some exceptions for various countries: As the Czech Republic only had two songs in its national final, the song that did not win is already in the running for the second round in the categories Best national final entry, Best national final performance, Best up-tempo song and Best du/group performance. In the United Kingdom, all three acts in the national final performed the same song, therefore only a nomination in the "performance" categories is possible. Georgia withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest, but the country still held a regular national final with the aim to choose a song for the Eurovision Song Contest, therefore Georgia can also be nominated.
The polls in the first round will be open until this Friday, 18th October, 19:00 CET.
