While the voting for the fourth annual esctoday.com Awards is taking place, we take the time to introduce the nominees in the 21 categories. Today, we take a look at the Best male performance and Best male vocal performance categories.

• You can vote in the 2009 esctoday.com awards here.

Alexander Rybak (Norway)

Nominated for: Best male performance, Best male vocal performance

Alexander Rybak was born in Minsk,Belarus, but he grew up in Norway. He started playing the violin and the guitar at the age of fiveand he also bebgan singing and writing his own songs. He hit the stage soon andperformed with famous artists like Morten Harket of a-ha (Eurovision Song Contest 1996 host), Hanne Krogh (Norway 1971, 1985, 1991) and Arve Tellefsen.

Having already taken part in Norwegian Pop Idol in 2005,Alexander took part in the second edition of the talent search Kjempesjansen, a Norwegian TV showthat is looking for young talents in music and dance, in 2006.He could win this show with his own composition Foolin'.He later won the Anders Jahres award and became a conductor for Norway's most famous orchestra of young musicians. In 2007, he starredas fiddler in the Jerry Bock/Sheldon Harnick musical Fiddler on the roof in Oslo.After his victory in the Norwegian national final, he released his first album called Fairytales, which sold to platinum in Norway and entered the charts all over Europe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJy6D5qaRfc

Sakis Rouvas (Greece)

Nominated for: Best male performance

Having been a member of the Greek National Gymnastics team, Sakis Rouvas entered the music business in 1991 with the release of his eponymous debut album. It became a huge success reaching the top of the album charts and the song Parta peaked at number one of the radio charts. His career has been going on since and Sakis Rouvas is now one of the most successful Greek singers best known for his remarkable stage shows. He has released twelve studio albums to date and all of them reached gold or platinum status in Greece. In total, he has sold about two million albums.

In 2004, Sakis Rouvas was chosen internally to represent Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Shake it. He would finish third both in the semi final and in the final. The single was a huge success in Greece peaking at number one in the charts and being certified with four platinum records. In 2006, when the contest went to Greece after Elena Paparizou's victory, he was chosen to co-present the show in Athens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BpJja65FBg

Brinck (Denmark)

Nominated for: Best male performance, Best male vocal performance

Brinck's first successes in the music business came as a songwriter. He wrote the theme of the successful drama series Anna Pihl, which debuted in 2006. He also wrote the song The one, which was the first single released by The X Factor winner Martin Hoberg Hedegaard. In 2008, Brinck released his first album. It would peak at number three in the Danish charts. The singles In the end I started (a duet with Maria Marcus) and I don't wanna love her reached number 36 and number 18 respectively.

His 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry Believe again is his most successful song so far reaching the top of the charts in Demark. Brinck's eponymous album the song was taken from reached number three in the Danish charts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5tIdsXX7go

Sasha Son (Lithunia)

Nominated for: Best male performance, Best male vocal performance

Dmitry Šavrov was a child star in Lithuania and he released his first album at the age of only twelve. One of his best known songs of that time Mamai, which was co-written by Ovidijus Vyšniauskas, Lithuania's Eurovision Song Contest debut entrant in 1994, has become a classic and earned him a Bravo award as best newcomer. Later, he would move to London and study music for eight years before returning to his home country.

Back in Lithuania, he released the single Ne uletaj with SEL and it becamea masive radio hit peaking at number one in the Baltic airplay charts. In 2007, he entered the Lithuanian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest as a part of the project U-Soul with the song At your door. They took part in the second quarter final, which was held for semi-established performers, and they finished second making them qualify for the first semi final, where they finished seventh. The same year, he came third in the talent search Muzikos akademija. In 2008, Sasha Son entered the selection again, this time as a soloist. With Miss kiss, he won the second semi final but finished third in the finalbehind Jeronimas Milias and Aiste Pilvelyte. His 2009 Eurovision Song Contest entry rached number one in the Lithuanian single charts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuwgeNt_OhQ

Petr Elfimov (Belarus)

Nominated for: Best male performance, Best male vocal performance

Petr Elfimov was born in 1980 to afamily of musicians as his mother is a famous conductor and his father is a singer in a choir. His own stage debut came at the young age of six. In the late 1990s, he founded his first band Egoist and in 2004, he won the first prize in the Popular Song Contest of Vitebsk. He also competed in other music contests all around Europe. Over those years, he attended various music schools and he graduated from the Belarusian State Music Academy in 2005. He has been a pop vocal coach since and currently he is working on his master degree.

In 2004,Petr Elfimovwas a backing singer for Belarus in theEurovisionSong Contest. However, Alexandra & Konstantin did not makeit to the final on the country's debut. He was the third malesolo performer representing Belarus ina row in 2009 and he maintained the country's tradition of singing in English atthe competition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFc2viDY3Z0

Davor Ebner of Regina (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

Nominated for: Best male vocal performance

Regina were founded in Sarajevo in1990 by the three instrumentalists Denis �abri�, Bojan Mili�evi� and Aleksandar �ovi�. They started looking for a lead singer and after a long search, Davor Ebner was chosen. The band,whose songs are inspired by Irish rock band U2, enjoyed success all over the country. Whenthe civil war started, Regina escaped to Belgrade, where they continued their career and released six albums over the following years.

In 2006, Regina reunited when alloriginal members teamed up again for a radio festival in Serbia. They released a new albumcalled Sve mogu ja, whichturned out to be a success. In Janary 2009, it was announced that the band would represent Bosnia & Herzegovina in the Eurovision Song Contest and the song Bistra voda was the chosen song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JudEsQHACog

Previous winners

Best male performance

This award is given out for the fourth time. The previous winners were Dima Bilan from Russia in 2006, Koldun from Belarus in 2007 and Israel's Boaz Mauda in 2008.

The complete results of previous years:

2006	2007	2008
Russia Romania Bosnia & Herzegovina Slovenia Ireland	Belarus – 32.8% Germany – 27.4% Turkey – 16.0% Iceland – 15.2% Armenia – 8.7%	Israel – 39.7% Denmark – 19.7% Bosnia & Herzegovina – 15.7% Russia – 14.8% France – 10.0%

The hall of fame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TMpWKNKX_w

Best male vocal performance

This award has been already given out in 2007 and 2008. The previous winners were Germany's Roger Cicero in 2007 and Boaz Mauda from Israel in 2008.

The complete results of previous years:

2007	2008
Germany – 35.4% Iceland – 25.1% Latvia – 17.9% Armenia – 14.9% Albania – 6.7%	Israel – 61.8% Denmark – 16.6% United Kingdom – 13.4% Lithuania – 6.0% Belarus – 2.3%

The hall of fame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1pWn3qUgVg

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Best female performance and Best female vocal performance categories.