The votes for the fourth annual esctoday.com awards have been cast over the last three and a half weeks and now it is time to reveal the results. We start with the Best female performance award.

The 2009 esctoday.com Award for Best female performance goes to…

• … Patricia Kaas of France

Patricia Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest this year and placed eighth in the final with the song Et s'il fallait le faire.

The winner

This is the very first esctoday.com award for France and therefore also the first French victory in this category. This has award has previously went to Tina Karol (Ukraine) in 2006, Magdi Rúzsa (Hungary) in 2007 and Ani Lorak (Ukraine) in 2008.

Patricia Kaas is one of the most successful French singers ever. She was discoverd by actor Gérard Depardieu at the age of 19 and released a first single in 1985, but her first major success came in1988 with the release of the album Mademoiselle chante….She has sold more than 15 million records since.

All of her seven studio albums had managed to reach the top ten of the French album charts when she decided to take a major break from the music business in 2005. In 2009, she returned with the release of her eighth studio album Kabaret and the announcement that she will represent France in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

Patricia Kaas is not onlyfamous in France but has also enjoyed commercial success in Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and even New Zealand. Her style is often described as "chanson" but in fact, it mixes classic French elements with American pop and rock music.

The complete results

Patricia Kaas narrowly won this category ahead of Yohanna from Iceland. Remarkably, it was not only the first time that this award went to the performance of a ballad, but also the three ballad performances nominated in this category also finished in the top three.

1. Patricia Kaas (France) – 31.1%
2. Yohanna (Iceland) – 29.8.%
3. Jade Ewen (United Kingdom) – 13.9%
4. Hadise (Turkey) – 13.1%
5. Nelly Ciobanu – 12.0%

The winning performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81_vWTUpIW0

esctoday.com interview with Patricia Kaas in May 2009, prior to the Eurovision Song Contest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0UdwOJvYJw

The next category to be revealed will be Best male performance.