Eurovision 2008 was held in Serbia not by chance. In the previous year, Serbia was unable to participate, but promised to win the competition in 2007. Marija Šerifović fulfilled this promise by making Serbia the host nation of the competition.

Applications for participation in the contest were submitted by 43 countries, which became an absolute record for the entire existence of Eurovision. This excitement led to the need to change the format of the competition. Since 2008, only the countries of the Big Four, as well as the host country of the competition, could apply for mandatory participation. All other participants had to fight for a place in the final.

The remaining 38 countries were divided into two groups. The participants of the first and second semi-finals, respectively, were determined by the draw method. The first 10 countries of the final table of each semi-final received the right to participate in the Eurovision-2008 final.

Eurovision 2008 - logo, slogan and course of the contest

As before, business card of the competition remained unchanged, and inside the heart of the letter V was the flag of Serbia.

The treble clef, formed by the merging of two "currents" - blue and red, was chosen as the main image of the substrate. This logo symbolizes the confluence of the Danube and Sava - two rivers of Serbia.

The slogan of the competition was chosen to match the image and sounds like “Sound Merge”. This wording symbolizes the unification of many voices from different countries under the same Eurovision flag.

First semi-final

Kalomira

The earliest stage of the competition was held on May 20. 19 countries presented their performers to the judgment of TV viewers and jury members. The voting results showed that the first place in the first semi-final went to Greece and its representative Kalomira with the song "Secret Combunation".

The second place in the Eurovision 2008 semi-final was taken by Sirusho - an Armenian singer with the composition "Qele, Qele", performed in a mixture of English and Armenian.

Dima Bilan

Dima Bilan completed the top three with the song "Believe". For him, this was the second performance at the competition. He first took part in the event in 2006, where he won 2nd place - best result Russia after Alsou's performance at Eurovision 2000, where she also took 2nd place.

Isis G

According to the results of the jury voting, Poland and its representative Tamara Diane Wiemer, who performed under the pseudonym Isis G and performed the song "For Life", got into the 10 performers from the first semi-final. It is noteworthy that the opinion of the jury members coincided with the opinion of the viewers. Now the American singer who represented Poland is better known as Tamara Gee.

Elnur and Sameer

Debutants of 2008 also performed in the first part of the competition. At Eurovision 2008, Azerbaijan was represented by Elnur and Samir with the song "Day after day". Taking 6th place, they managed to guarantee themselves a performance in the final.

The group from San Marino "MiOdio" with the song "Complice", unfortunately, performed very unsuccessfully - it was the worst performance, which ended up on the 19th line, gaining only 5 votes.

Second semi-final

Ani Lorak

At Eurovision 2008, Ukraine presented Ani Lorak with the song "Shady Lady" - the performance was very successful, and the girl took first place in the second semi-final.

Vanya Fernandes

On the second line is the Portuguese Vanya Fernandes and his “Senhora do mar”, performed on state language.

Simon Matthew

The top three was completed by Danish singer Simon Mathew with the song "All Night Long".

Charlotte Perrelli

The reserve jury included Sweden and Charlotte Perrelli in the 10 performers from the second semi-final with the song "Hero", raising it by 2 lines relative to the audience's vote. As a result, Macedonia lost its place in the final.

  • The performance of Hungary was a failure. Singer Chesi and her song "Candlelight" got only 6 votes.

Eurovision 2008 - final

At Eurovision 2008, 25 countries took part in the final - these are representatives of the Big Four, the host country, that is, Serbia, as well as 10 winners from each semi-final.

The first place at Eurovision 2008 went to Russia, represented by. Dima's performance, like 2 years ago, was very impressive. He was supported on stage by the famous Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko, as well as the Hungarian composer and violinist Edwin Marton, who performed a live melody on the violin. Especially for the performance, a small ice rink for Plushenko was equipped. This legendary trio looked simply amazing, and the composition "Believe", filled with deep meaning moved many viewers to tears. Bilan "broke away" from other performers by as much as 42 points.

The second place was received at Eurovision 2008 - the winner of the second semi-final from Ukraine. Her performance was very dynamic, in the traditional style of pop music.

Completed the top three and the winner of the first semi-final of the competition.

At Eurovision-2008, postcards of participants were presented in a very unusual format - representatives various countries and professions "painted" the flags of the serving country different ways- painting, jumping, skating, etc. On top of such a flag, each country presented a letter to Serbia in its own state language. The letter must contain a joke. This approach was liked by many viewers and was able to defuse the tense atmosphere of the competition.

Before Serbia's performance, all the previous participants were on the postcard, and the greeting "Welcome to Serbia!" was emblazoned as an inscription.

Win or Fake?

The results of Eurovision 2008 did not satisfy everyone - Ukraine announced the falsification of points, as a result of which Dima Bilan won the victory, and not Ani Lorak. The accusation was supported by several other European countries, including the United Kingdom, whose performance in the final of the competition turned out to be the worst.

But the falsification was not proven, especially since Ukraine itself gave Russia 12 points in the final, so Dima Bilan received his crystal microphone, and Ani Lorak went home with the Eurovision Heart award.

One way or another, despite the ambiguous result, Russia managed to win the Eurovision Song Contest for the first and so far the only time. Whether it will be possible to repeat the success - we will soon find out.

The winner, as you know, was the Russian-Hungarian trio led by Dima Bilan. The second place was taken by Ani Lorak from Ukraine, and the third place was taken by a Greek singer.

Experts note the unsuccessful performance of Sweden, which qualified for the final only by the results of the jury selection, and failed in the final. Another unexpected failure was the performance of the Belarusian singer Alekhno.

In 2008, as the results show, the Slavic-Soviet group won. The Balkans, without a clear leader, could not compete this time.

The next competition will be held in Moscow.

1. Russia - 272

2. Ukraine - 230

3. Greece - 218

4. Armenia - 199

5. Norway - 182

6. Serbia - 160

7. Türkiye - 138

8. Azerbaijan - 132

9. Israel - 124

10. Bosnia and Herzegovina - 110

11. Georgia - 83

12. Latvia - 83

13. Portugal - 69

14. Iceland - 64

15. Denmark - 60

16. Spain - 55

17. Albania - 55

18. Sweden - 47

19. France - 47

20. Romania - 45

21. Croatia - 44

22. Finland - 35

23. Germany - 14

24. Poland - 14

25. Great Britain - 14

1. Greece - 156

2. Armenia - 139

3. Russia - 135

4. Norway - 106

5. Israel - 104

6. Azerbaijan - 96

7. Romania - 94

8. Finland - 79

9. Bosnia and Herzegovina - 72

10. Poland - 42

11. Slovenia - 36

12. Moldova - 36

13. Netherlands - 27

14. Montenegro - 23

15. Ireland - 22

16. Andorra - 22

17. Belgium - 16

18. Estonia - 8

19. San Marino - 5

1. Ukraine - 152

2. Portugal - 120

3. Denmark - 112

4. Croatia - 112

5. Georgia - 107

6. Latvia - 86

7. Türkiye - 85

8. Iceland - 68

9. Albania - 67

10. Sweden - 54 - chosen by the jury, although she actually took 12th place

11. Macedonia - 64

12. Bulgaria - 56

13. Switzerland - 47

14. Malta - 38

15. Cyprus - 36

16. Lithuania - 30

17. Belarus - 27

Live broadcast of the final music competition"Eurovision". It will begin on Saturday, May 24 at 23:00 Moscow time. 25 groups and performers will participate in the final. The live broadcast can also be watched on the Rossiya TV channel.

On the site "Mobile Reporter" postedVIDEO filmed in Dima Bilan's dressing room shortly before he took the stage on Tuesday.

On May 20, the first 10 finalists of Eurovision-2008 were determined. In their number with a support group in the face.According to music experts, the "Russian Musketeers", as they call themselves, have a good chance of winning the competition, according to the website of the Rossiya channel. From a technical point of view, their composition was impeccable and, without a doubt, the most difficult of the 19 that were presented on the podium of the Belgrade Arena complex on Tuesday.

Apparently, Marton felt more comfortable than the other members of the Russian trio: Plushenko, the modest size of the “pill” from artificial ice they didn’t allow him to demonstrate all his abilities, and only Dima knew what he felt standing barefoot on the ice.

“Ice will be the first time at Eurovision, and the Stradivarius violin will also be the first time,” Bilan said during.

When Marton announced that he would perform with a Russian performer and thus support Russia at Eurovision, many in Hungary began to resent. "I help a friend and repay teachers," Marton explained, urging his compatriots to vote for Russia. The violin with which he takes the stage remembers Paganini's fingers and costs about $4 million.

Plushenko explained his participation as follows: "This song is about me, about Dima, about Edwin. Naturally, there were ups and downs, many victories, but there were many defeats. Therefore, you should never give up. When I represent Russia, I only want to stand on a podium at the first place". By the way, Bilan himself at one time told about this song that it was written.

Dima's producer Yana Rudkovskaya is pleased with the performance of her ward in the semifinals. "I think that they worked for five plus. Bilan suffered this song and brought it to all viewers," she said, calling Bilan's number "the most intelligent" of what viewers saw on Tuesday. "There was no vulgarity," she explained.

Filming from Dima Bilan's dressing room

According to the results of the first semi-final, 9 more finalists were determined: Kalomira (Greece), duet Niko and Vlad (Romania), Laka (Bosnia and Herzegovina), rock group "Terasbetoni" (Finland), Boaz (Israel), Sirusho (Armenia), duet Elnur and Samir (Azerbaijan), Aizis Gee (Poland), Maria (Norway).

From what the participants of the first semi-final showed, we can conclude that the main competition for Bilan can be Greek and Armenian singers, the Azerbaijani duet and the Finns "Terasbetoni".

On May 22, the second semi-final of Eurovision was held (). According to the voting results of the audience, 10 more participants of the Saturday final were determined. They were Ani Lorak (Ukraine), group "Kraljevi ulice" (Croatia), Olta Boka (Albania), duet "Euroband" (Iceland), Diana Gurtskaya (Georgia), Simon Matthew (Denmark), Charlotte Perrelli (Sweden), group "Sea Pirates" (Latvia), group "Mor ve Ortesi" (Turkey), Vania Fernandez (Portugal). Charlotte Perrelli and Ani Lorak are considered strong contenders.

In addition to those who made it to the final through the "qualification" sieve, there will be 4 more participants in the main concert of the competition. These are performers representing the founding countries of the contest (Great Britain, France, Spain, Germany), as well as a representative of Serbia, the country hosting the contest. They do not participate in the selection and immediately go to the final.

Eurovision is one of the most watched TV shows in the world . It has been held annually since 1956. This year, Serbia hosts the contest for the first time, earning this right last year with the victory of the Serbian singer Maria Sherifovic. "Eurovision" 2008 will be the most representative in the history of the contest. It is attended by performers from 43 countries who perform in the largest auditorium in the Balkans - the Belgrade Arena, which can accommodate about 20,000 spectators.