The Votes Are In
Televoters from 43 countries have decided - the winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest is Dima Bilan representing Russia with his song Believe!

After a spectacular Final tonight at the Belgrade Arena, the winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest was finally found: Russia won this year's edition receiving 272 points. The runner-ups were Ukraine's Ani Lorak and Greece's Kalomira.

The Grand Final consisted of entries from 25 countries: Serbia was already qualified due to being hosts, the big four contributors (UK, Spain, France and Germany) and two times 10 qualifiers from the respective Semi-Finals earlier this week.

Congratulations Russia!!!

Voting Analysis

Placings:

· Russia won the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time having competed eleven times before.

· For the eighth year in a row, a country won the contest that had never won it before.

· The United Kingdom finished last for the second time in the history of the contest (the other time being in 2003). If the tie-break rule were not taken into account, Germany would have finished last for the sixth time and the fourth time on a shared last place. Poland would have finished last for the first time.

· The following countries achieved their best placing so far: Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (as a debutant) and Georgia.

· The following countries have achieve their worst placing so far: Poland, Croatia and Serbia.

· For the fifth time in the history of the contest, the top three songs were all performed entirely in English (this had previously happened in 1992, 2000, 2002 and 2005; in 2001 this almost happened but the Greek entry was partly performed in Greek).

· For the second year in a row, a ballad won the contest.

· Dima Bilan is the first male soloist to win the contest since Toto Cutugno in 1990 and Believe is the seventh winning song by a male soloist (the ninth winning song, if the Israeli performance of 1978 is not seen as a group performance).

Points:

· No country got points from all other countries. Russia and Greece got points from the highest number of countries: 36 of 42 each. All countries got points from at least two other countries.

· Dima Bilan scored 272 points. That is the third highest score in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest.

· Armenia, which only finished 4th, is the country that scored 12 points the most times: eight times. Russia scored 12 only seven times, Greece six times and Ukraine even only once.

· 17 countries, which means almost 70% of the competing 25 received at least one set of 12 points.

· Russia scored an average of 6.48 points. The record of the highest average score is kept by the Brotherhood of Man who won for the United Kingdom in 1976 with an average of 9.65.

· Russia won with 42 points ahead of the entry from Ukraine. This is the second biggest winning margin since the semi final was introduced in 2004. Curiously enough, the biggest winning margin in this era was in 2006 when Dima Bilan finished 44 points behind Lordi from Finland.

· Both in the semi final and in the final, the United Kingdom gave no points to the winning song.

Running Order:

Nothing has changed when it comes to the running order: the top three songs have all been performed in the second half although four songs from the first half reached the top ten (but only one song the top five: the Armenian entry). After a top five finish for Israel in the first semi final, the #2 was no lucky number for the United Kingdom and brought the country a last place. #3 Was not successful either: Albania finished 17th. Only one of the last six songs performed and only two of the last eight songs performed finished outside the top ten.

Friendly neighbours and diaspora voting:

Five countries did not award any points to Russia, all of them from Western Europe: Iceland, United Kingdom, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and San Marino. Two countries gave only one point to Russia, those were also from Western Europe: the Netherlands and France. The story continues with the only 3 points Russia got which came from Belgium (Russia never scored two). On the other hand, five of Russia’s six sets of 12 points came from former USSR countries. Another 12 came from Israel, a country with a strong Russian diaspora. Other countries that might have profited by diaspora voting are Turkey (10 points from Germany, France, the Netherlands and Belgium) and Armenia (12 points from France, Belgium and the Netherlands) to name two examples. However, these statistics are always pretty unsure as nobody knows who votes for which country.

Five of the six former Yugoslav countries gave their twelve points each other, only F.Y.R. Macedonia gave its top mark to their neighbours from Albania. The Nordic countries also sticked together: Norway got its 12 points from Finland and Sweden, Finland got 14 of its 38 points from Iceland, Norway and Sweden (but no points from Denmark). Although Charlotte Perrelli’s highest vote came from Malta, the second, third and fourth highest marks came from Denmark, Norway and Finland. Iceland got its only 12 points from Denmark.

Dima Bilan Interview
After Dima Bilan representing Russia won the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, it was time for the winner's press conference at the Press Centre at Sava Centre. Read the answers of Dima and his team here!

At the press conference, Dima Bilan and the rest of the Russian delegation were received by the fans and accredited press. Dima Bilan had to receive the new generic Eurovision Song Contest trophy, a painting and additional awards.

Dima Bilan said this was a commemorable day, and he sincerely thanked the team behind him. They did not always smile, Dima Bilan said, but it has been a long, hard journey. Moreover he gave a personal thanks to Eugeni Pluschenko, who was the figure skater next to Bilan during his performance of Believe. The Eurovision trophy is going to the composer of the song, Dima Bilan said.

Thereafter the floor was opened for questions, and a reporter asked Dima Bilan what his plans for the future were. To this Dima Bilan said that he was going to promote his new CD and to go on with his career. Half of the victory was Evgeni Pluschenko's, a Russian journalist claimed, and heasked the renowned figure skater if hewantedto singhimself in the future. Evgeni responded that he was a figure skater and not a singer, and therefore he had no plans of singing on stage.

When Dima was asked about his feelings after his victory, he replied that it would probably take him three days to realize what victory actually means to him, just as Marija Serifovic said last year. Another journalist asked him, if his performance tonight had been the longest, the shortest or the happiest three minutes in his life - and he answered that it was actually all three of them. Dima went on to sing a part of his winning song Believe in Spanish, accompanied by Edvin Marton on his Stradivari violin.

Another journalist hinted at the fact that Edvin Marton could not play his Stradivari violin live on stage according to the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest rules. Edvin Marton replied that, actually, he had been playing live, it could just not be heard. The last question was how Dima managed to write a song that was even better than last year's winning song. He answered that, in fact, he had not sung a better song, but just a different one.

The Venue
The 2008 Eurovision Song Contest took place at the Belgrade Arena, one of the most appealing concert venues in the region. The Beogradska Arena is one of the largest European multi functional indoor arena's. It was constructed for sports, cultural events and sports events. Covering an area of 48,000 square meters, and a total maximum capacity of up to 23,000 seats, it is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe.

The official opening of the arena took place on the 31st of July, 2004, when the Diamond Ball basketball tournament was held.

About The Arena:
“Belgrade Arena” became Belgrade’s trademark and one of the new symbols of the Serbian capital, as well as the place of interest for the visitors to our capital and the country. It is a facility that fully meets the latest standards and, together with the “Prague Arena”, it is at the highest technological level in Europe. This extraordinary building was the work of architect Vlada Slavica, and the investor was the Belgrade City Assembly Secretariat for Sports and Youth.

The Belgrade Arena complex consists of three units: a large hall, a small hall, and the parking space.

The large hall covers the area of 48 000 m2 and has six levels, the seating capacity of 20 000 - 25 000, depending on the event to be held.

The small hall covers the area of 2 275 m2 on two levels; the over-all dimensions of the hall are 30 x 60m and it serves as the ancillary facility that is used for athletes’ preparation and training. It was designed as the facility where the athletes can warm up and then, through the underground pedestrian walkway, under the road on the South, go to the large hall. The field in the small hall is 29.20m x 43.70m and the height of the hall is 10m. It is possible to divide it into two basketball fields (with wall mounted basketball hoops). With all its ancillary facilities (4 dressing-rooms, café bar, gym, reception desk, and 1 cargo lift connecting these two levels), it can operate as a completely independent unit.

The Presenters
The hosts of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade are none other than former entrant, Zeljko Joksimovic and Jovana Jankovic.

Zeljko Joksimovic:
Zeljko was the representative for Serbia & Montenegro at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest with Lane Moje. He took second place at the competition in Istanbul and will be the male host this year. He will be accompanied by Jovana Jankovic, a popular Serbian television show host on RTS1.

Jovana Jankovic:
Jovana was host of the draw for the semifinals, which was held a couple of weeks ago in Belgrade City hall. She started her career in BKTV where she hosted "Blockbuster", a show about movies. Then she changed her working environment and left RTS. Now she is the host of the Morning Programme on Radio Televizija Srbije, RTS.

They both said they are very honoured to be the hosts. Jovana said she thinks that she did a great job during the draw ceremony so probably they decided to choose her therefore. Zeljko said he thought he was going to be just a guest at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, but when they offered him to be a host, he was very proud and decided to accept the role.