esctoday.com would like to present the full list of nominations for the first annual esctoday.com awards. The poll opened this morning, Monday 11th December at 08:00 CET. There will be a link to vote at the top of the homepage and a link will be added to this article!

The 2006esctoday.com Annual Awards are officially open!

Click here to cast your votes!

These awards are meant to be fun, to give our readers and members a chance to disagree or approve the views of the televoting publicof Europeand to have a good time in the run up to Christmas. It is also meant togive some of the people who helped to make this such a memorable year one more chance in the limelight before all eyes turn to the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest! (yes, we've included special links to the videos for you too on this occasion!).

The Eurovision Song Contest is about fun, friendship, bringing down international boundaries, and on the odd occasion, music too! Many of your favourite artists from this year are featured (and so are one or two you might not be so keen on). Of course by hugely popular demand, Carola is there, and of course, so is Anna Vissi! Eurovision kings of 2006, Lordi appear from time to time (we nearly stuck them in the fan of the year award too)!

If you were sickened by the failure of Belgium or Slovenia to qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest final, now is your chance to take revenge! If you thought Daz performed well, but needed to stick the yellow leathers in the washing machine and tell the girls to tuck their shirts in, now's your chance to say so! Silvia Night got nominated for Performance of the year because we couldn't think of anyone else to put in a Palava of the Year category (apart from whoever wrote down the rules in Moldova).

We've tried to include as many people as possible whilst staying true to the categories in which they appear. These awards are not designed to cause catfights in the reactions, quite the opposite. We are just two weeks away from Christmas, Channukah is round the corner and Europe is sliding into a wintery chill (except we'll all probably be sunbathing in Scandinavia in exactly ten years). It's also a stressful time with ticket sales stress shoving up the international price of prozac and we're less than two weeks from the first national final for the next Eurovision Song Contest. So, here's your chance to have some festive fun!

So, in the true Eurovision tradition, it's time to end this overly extended and dragged out introduction!

Without further ado, the awards and nominations for the 2006 esctoday.com Awards are…..

Eurovison Song Contest 2006:

The nominations for SONG OF THE YEAR are:

  • Hard rock hallelujah by Lordi of Finland
  • Never let you go by Dima Bilan of Russia
  • Lejla by Hari Mata Hari of Bosnia & Herzegovina
  • Tornero by Mihai Traistariuof Romania
  • Invincible by Carola of Sweden
  • Show me your love by Tina Karol of Ukraine
  • No no never by Texas Lightning of Germany
  • Je t'adoreby Kate Ryan of Belgium

click here to view the video of the nominees

The nominations for PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR are:

  • Tina Karol, Ukraine for Show me your love
  • Daz Sampson, United Kingdom forTeenage life
  • Silvia Night, Iceland forCongratulations
  • Carola, Sweden forInvincible
  • Brian Kennedy, Ireland forEvery song is a cry for love

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations for COMPOSER OF THE YEAR are:

  • Bosnia Herzegovina – Zeljko Joksimovic
  • Germany – Jane Comerford
  • Sweden – Thomas G: son, Bobby Ljunggren, Henrik Wikström
  • Cyprus – Peter Yiannakis
  • Finland – Mr. Lordi

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forCOMMENTATOROF THE YEAR are:

  • Terry Wogan, United Kingdom
  • Norway– Jostein Pedersen
  • Sweden – Pekka Heino
  • Switzerland – Sandra Studer (Sandra Simo)
  • Germany – Peter Urban

The nominations forVIDEOOF THE YEAR are:

  • Anna Vissi with Everything for Greece
  • Lordi with Hard Rock Hallelujah for Finland
  • Sibel Tüzün with Superstar for Turkey
  • Mariana Popova with Let me cry for Bulgaria
  • Las Ketchup with Bloody Mary for Spain

Click here to video the promotional videos

The nominations forBEST MALEPERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR are:

  • Hari Mata Hari of Bosnia & Herzegovina with Lejla
  • Mihai Traistariu of Romania with Tornero
  • Brian Kennedy of Ireland with Every song is a cry for love
  • An�ej De�an of Slovenia with Mr. Nobody
  • Dima Bilan of Russia with Never let you go

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forBEST FEMALEPERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR are:

  • Anna Vissi for Greece with Everything
  • Tina Karol for Ukraine with Show me your love
  • Sandra for Oxenryd Estonia with Through my window
  • Carola for Sweden with Invincible
  • Severina for Croatia with Moja štikla

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forBEST BAND PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR are:

  • Ich Troje of Poland with Follow my heart
  • Texas Lightning of Germany with No no never
  • LT United of Lithuania with We are the winners
  • Lordi of Finland with Hard rock hallelujah
  • Cosmos of Latvia with I hear your heart

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forBESTDRESSEDPERFORMER(S)OF THE YEAR are:

  • Tina Karol from Ukraine
  • Lordi from Finland
  • Eddie Butler from Israel
  • Ich Troje from Poland
  • Kate Ryan from Belgium

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forWORST DRESSED PERFORMER(S) OF THE YEAR are:

  • Carola from Sweden
  • Non Stop from Portugal
  • Daz Sampson from the United Kingdom
  • Jenny from Andorra
  • Elena Risteska from FYR Macedonia

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

National Finals 2006:

The nominations forBEST NATIONAL FINAL 2006 are:

  • Albania: Festival i Kenges
  • Sweden: Melodifestivalen
  • Norway: Melodi Grand Prix
  • Germany: 50 Jahre Grand Prix
  • Greece: Feel the party

The nominations forBEST NATIONAL FINAL PERFORMANCE (EXCLUDING WINNER)OF THE YEAR are:

  • Queentastic for Norway with Absolutely fabulous
  • Sasa Lendero for Slovenia with Mandoline
  • Gameboys for Israel with Kama ahava
  • BWO for Sweden with Temple of love
  • Ines for Estonia with Iseendale

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forBEST MALE PERFORMANCE NOT TO QUALIFY FOR EUROVISIONare:

  • Anthony Costa for the United Kingdom with Beautiful thing
  • Serj Cuzencoff for Moldova with Made in Moldova
  • Marios Tofis for Cyprus with Congratulations
  • Andreas Johnson for Sweden with Sing for me
  • Dani Elmofor Denmarkwith 2 in 1

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forBEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE NOT TO QUALIFY FOR EUROVISIONare:

  • Kristine Blond for Denmark with Make this night forever
  • Linda Bengtzing for Sweden with Jag ljuger så bra
  • Annika Eklund for Finland with Shanghain valot
  • Sasa Lendero for Slovenia with Mandoline
  • Eve Kempbell for Belgium with Not right

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations forBEST BAND PERFORMANCE NOT TO QUALIFY FOR EUROVISIONare:

  • Gameboys for Israel with Kama ahava
  • Jet Set for Poland with How many people?
  • BWO for Sweden with Temple of love
  • Akcent feat. Nico for Romania with Jokero
  • Flamingosi for Serbia & Montenegro with Ludi Letnji Ples

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

Junior Eurovison Song Contest 2006:

The nominations for BEST SONG are:

  • Novoyy den for Belarus
  • Den peirazei for Greece
  • Det finaste någon kan få for for Sweden
  • Povestea mea for Romania
  • Goed for the Netherlands

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations for BEST SINGER(S) are:

  • Nastya & Masha Tolmacheva for Russia
  • Pedro for Portugal
  • Molly Sandén for Sweden
  • Kimberly for the Netherlands
  • Dani Fernandez for Spain

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

The nominations for BESTPERFORMANCE are:

  • New star music with Povestea mea for Romania
  • Nastya & Masha Tolmacheva with Vesna for Russia
  • Andrey Kunets with Novoyy den for Belarus
  • Molly Sandén with Det finaste någon kan få for Sweden
  • Kimberly with Goed for the Netherlands

Click here to view the videos of the nominees

esctoday.com team awards:

The nominations for BEST ARTICLE are:

  • Have your say! Political, neighbourly or diaspora voting? (read here)
  • Silivia Night shines contrversially (read here)
  • Euroblog (4th December) (read here)
  • Eurovision 2006: stats, tidbits and fast facts (read here)
  • Junior Eurovision – live coverage (read here)

The nominations for EDITOR OF THE YEAR are:

  • Itamar Barak
  • Marcus Klier
  • Stella Floras
  • John Egan
  • Richard West-Soley

The nominations for BEST NEWCOMER are:

  • Stella Floras
  • Steve Hoyler / EuroBlogger
  • Yiorgos Kasapoglou
  • Ilari Karhapää

The nominations for BEST REGIONAL PARTNER WEBSITE OF THE YEAR are:

  • 12points.tv (Belgium)
  • Belgovision.com (Belgium)
  • BHeurovision (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
  • escaustria (Austria)
  • escfinland.eu (Finland)
  • esconnet.dk (Denmark)
  • escmalta.com (Malta)
  • escsweden.com (Sweden)
  • ESC-DK.dk (Denmark)
  • EurovisonArtists.nl (Netherlands)
  • Eurovision-Croatia.com (Croatia)
  • Eurovision-Spain.com (Spain)
  • EurosongOnline.com
  • Gylleneskor.se (Sweden)
  • Songcontest.nl (Netherlands)
  • Songfestival.nl (Netherlands)
  • Songfestival Weblog (Netherlands)

We have included this award to thank all of our regional partners for their efforts and co-operation over the last year. With their support, we have been able to provide much stronger coverage and we would like to thank them publically and recommend them to our readers.

esctoday.com member of the year:

  • CarinaE****
  • Owen Williams
  • zingo star
  • incomesurable sound
  • Barzin Bonyadi

To be voted for by the by the editorial and moderator teams of esctoday.com.

estoday.com chatter of the year award:

  • Hadrianople -Turkey
  • Nina – Portugal
  • Carmen -Malta
  • Minos21- Cyprus
  • Linda -Netherlands

To be voted for by the by the editorial and moderator teams of esctoday.com.

The nominations for PREVIOUS PARTICIPANT OF THE YEAR are:

  • Daz Sampson (United Kingdom 2006) – for his charity work and Eurovision documentaries
  • Celine Dion (Switzerland 1988) – for her new album and Las Vegas show
  • Ruslana (Ukraine 2004) – for her humanitarian work
  • Johnny Logan (Ireland 1980 and 1978) -for judging on the Belgian final and mentoring of Kaye Styles
  • Nanne Grönvall (Sweden 1996) – for recovering from breast cancer and fighting hard to return to her stage show and Melodifestivalen

Outstanding contribution award

This award will be given based on services to the Eurovision Song Contest, whether it be by broadcaster, artist, individual or fan.

So, from 08:00 on Monday 11th December until Midnight on Saturday 23rd December, you, the readers and members of esctoday.com have the chance to enjoy some of the highlights of 2006 and vote for your favourite performers from this year's Eurovision Song Contest, National Finals and muchmuch more.

We hope you enjoy them.