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 continue with the Best du/group vocal performance award.

The 2009 esctoday.com Award for Best duo/group vocal performance goes to…

• …Noa & Mira Awad of Israel
  
  

Noa & Mira Awad represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. They finished seventh in the first semi final and 16th in the final with their song There must be another way.

• You can find the list of all award results revealed so far this year here.

The winners

This is the third esctoday.com award for Israel overall and the first one in this category. Previous awards for Israel were won in the categories Best male performance and Best male vocal performance last year. Please note that this category is only for acts with two or more lead singers; if a band had only one lead singer, he or she was eligible for nomination in the Best male vocal performance or Best female vocal performance categories respectively.

Noa, whose real name is Achinoam Nini, was born in Tel Aviv to parents with Yemeni roots but she grew up in the United States before moving back to Israel at the age of 17. She later attended a music school, where she met Gil Dor with whom she has been working since. Over the years, she has develop to become one of the most successful live and recording artists of Israel having performed at famous venues all over the world. She is also very well known for her work on film soundtracks as she has worked on the music for pictures such as GoldenEye,Joan of Arc and Life is beautiful. She also sang the part of Esmeralda in the French version of the Disney film The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its album sold to triple platinum.

Mira Awad was born in Rameh to a Bulgarian mother and an Arab father. Like Noa, she graduated from the Rimon music school in Ramat HaSharon. Currently, she is famous not only as a singer, but also as an actress in films, TV seriesand stage productions. Among others, she starred in the sitcom Arab Labor and in the 2006 Eytan Fox film The bubble. In 2004, she took part in the Israeli national final for the Eurovision Song Contest but finished 14th and hence last with Znam.

Noa & Mira awad joined forces for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, but it is not the first time they worked together. Previously, MiraAwad had already appeared on Noa's 2002 album Now covering the Beatles' classic We can work it out. They were chosen internally to represent Israel in Moscow and they also wrote all four entries in the national song selection along with Gil Dor.

The complete results

Noa & Mira Awad won this category clearly ahead of the other all-female duo nominated: Inga & Anush from Armenia. Aysel & Arash from Azerbaijan follow in third place.

1. Noa & Mira Awad (Israel) – 28.6%
2. Inga & Anush (Armenia) – 21.9%
3. Aysel & Arash (Azerbaijan) – 19.1%
4. Kamil Mikulcik & Nela Pociková (Slovakia) – 17.2%
5. Igor Cukorv & Andrea (Croatia) – 13.3%

The winning performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c94p9zmgOWI

This was the last category for today. Tomorrow, we will introduce the winners in the categories Best preview video, Best arrangement and production, Best dressed act, Worst dressed act and Best choreography.