Believe

Winner 2008 -> Russia : Dima Bilan - Believe



But .. let's believe this could have been the Top 3 ;-)

Victory for Dima Bilan - Russia

Dima Bilan won the contest for Russia with 272 points. He's the first winning male solo singer since 1990. His second trial at Eurovision, after having ended at 2nd place right behind Lordi in 2006, seems thus to have been a great success.

Don't know if Moscow is a good holiday destination for May 2009 with 6°C today and 16°C tomorrow.

Belgium really ended very low in the 1st semi-finals -> 17th place (of 19) with only 16 points (10 points received from The Netherlands and 6 from Estonia).

The Netherlands did it a bit better and ended at 13th place in the 1st semi-finals. Switzerland ended at 13th place in the 2nd semi-finals (with 47 points).

Here are the final results of the finals. As expected Russia, Ukraine and Greece share the top 3. It's good to see Norway also made it to the top 5 and Israël to the top 10.



A bit different from our votes :

Congratulations to Russia!

Congratulations to Russia, a nice winner!

While watching the show I thought the performance of France was so bad that I gave his 8 points to Ukraine. Obviously I should have made other changes but c'est la vie ;-)

My votes while watching the show leaves me with 6 of my choices in the top 10 and only a fluke having Ukraine in the top 3.

12-Israel x
10-Albania
8--Ukraine x
7--Norway x
6--Sweden
5--Romania
4--Denmark x
3--Serbia x
2--Armenia x
1--Iceland

Good Luck Everyone!

These are my picks for the finals before the show.

12-Israel
10-Albania
8--France
7--Norway
6--Sweden
5--Romania
4--Denmark
3--Serbia
2--Armenia
1--Iceland

What to expect from the finals ?

Now that we have a good number of the songs we liked in the finals, it will probably be a good show.

Seen the order they will perform, I think the start will be not that good and a lot of songs are at the end of the contest.

I think Greece, Russia, Ukraine and Serbia will end in the Top 5, but here is my personal Top 10 for the finals before the show of tomorrow :

- 12 for Norway
- 10 for Iceland
- 8 for Albania
- 7 for Serbia
- 6 for Israël
- 5 for Sweden
- 4 for Turkey
- 3 for Finland
- 2 for Portugal
- 1 for Ukraine

Our votes for the 2nd semi-finals

Different choices, but several ones in our Top 10 made it to the finals.

We was robbed!

I can't believe that Switzerland didn't make the finals :'(

Oh well here were my votes.

12 -Switzerland
10 -Albania
8 -Sweden
7 -Cyprus
6 -Ukraine
5 -Iceland
4 -Turkey
3 -Denmark
2 -Belarus
1 - FYR Macedonia

At least there will be 6 of my 10 choices in the finals.

Michel. said...
Well, his 'not so clear' singing did cost some points
May 23, 2008 11:07 AM

2nd semi final samples

My Votes for the 1st semi-final

Israel...........12
Romania......10
Andorra.......8
Norway........7
Armenia......6
Belgium.......5
Bosnia & H..4
Russia..........3
Slovenia.......2
Finland.........1

7 of my 10 choices go on to the finals

2nd semi-finals

Tomorrow the 2nd semi-finals. More good songs than in the 1st semi-finals.



We can't vote (since Belgium doesn't participate in this one), so I'm curious to see the results.

Results 1st semi finals

OK, no Belgium in the finals ...

Here are the our results given yesterday (we allowed Laurent could vote for Belgium since he is French ;-).

Glad to have Norway & Israël going to the Finals. A bit surprised that Poland, Greece and Bosnia & Herzegovina go through instead of Slovenia or The Netherlands.

Azebaijan probably made it with the great show (since singing during the song was really not great) ... it was a great entrance and start of their performance.

Get ready for the party - 1st semi-finals today

canadaguy said...
Nice posting!

This is a very good synopsis.

Thanks :-)
May 20, 2008 10:08 AM

Second Semi-Final May 22

1. Switzerland
2. Albania
3. Sweden
4. Cyprus
5. Ukraine
6. Iceland
7. Turkey
8. Denmark
9. Belarus
10. FYR Macedonia
11. Portugal
12. Hungary
13. Georgia
14. Malta
15. Lithuania
16. Bulgaria
17. Czech Republic
18. Latvia
19. Croatia

Michel. said...
Well, what a surprise to see your number 1 :-D We seem to have a similar taste .. but didn't expect you would put Sweden that high in the list ;-)
May 10, 2008 10:41 AM

canadaguy said...
Never mind about my number 1 :-P I think it will take one of the five already in the finals to beat him ;-)

First Semi-Final May 20

1. Israel
2. Romania
3. Andorra
4. Norway
5. Armenia
6. Belgium
7. Bosnia & Herzegovina
8. Russia
9. Slovenia
10. Finland
11. Moldova
12. San Marino
13. Montenegro
14. Azerbaijan
15. Poland
16. Greece
17. The Netherlands
18. Ireland
19. Estonia

Michel. said...
Except for The Netherlands we have the same in the top and at the bottom of the list ... must be a sign ;-)
May 10, 2008 10:39 AM

canadaguy said...
As they say, 'great minds think alike' ;-)We will just have to wait and see about The Netherlands :-)
May 11, 2008 8:51 AM