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Gallery: Eurovision

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Russia has won Eurovision 2008! Dima Bilan’s “Believe”, the bookies’ favourite, won with his dramatic power ballad -complete with ice-skating. Ukraine was second and Greece third.


Bilan had previously scored second for Russia in 2006, but this win mark’s the first for his country.

The UK, which hasn’t fared well since 2002, came equal last, leading to speculation that BBC Commentator Terry Wogan may not return to the role.




























You can vote for ‘Australia’s favourite EV song’ at www.sbs.com.au/eurovision

Gallery: Eurovision
Is this really their night?
And thankyou for asking that question
Belgrade calling …shhh!
Eurovision: pure pop
Eurovision: the ballads
Pop-tastic Eurovision ready to wow
Eurovision: One month and counting
Two months and counting
UK hopes for X Factor at Eurovision
Ireland sends a turkey to Eurovision
Eurovision limits voting power

David Knox is an occasional blogger for SBS

11 Responses

  1. it’s a shame SBS didn’t advertise today’s repeat of the Eurovision final. I only stumbled on it this afternoon while channel flicking. It was tucked away at 2pm this afternoon, but only included the performances and then cut to Russia accepting their trophies and their encore. i guess being a repeat screening SBS felt they could cut it down to just a bare minimum.

  2. I caught some of these over the weekend. The Russian guy was a standout and deserved his victory. That guy within the violin in the background was awesome too, really passionate about what he was doing. I love Eurovision. Great blend of cheesy pop, hot choreography, outrageous costumes and quirky commentary. Its all goooooooood

  3. I Thought Wogan’s remarks were a bit snide, but understandable considering the amount of years commentating and watching the votes go down. I did’nt think the English song that bad and was surprised it did not rank Higher.
    Scary or not ej Mckenna, 🙂 I still think Sweden’s Hero was the best on the night, again disappointed, as6. Germany’s entry, hmmmm it had something but could have been a whole lot better, the girls sang flat and the song itself was flat, the little riff that was it’s saving grace needed more lift. Bosnia/Herzogovnia. I hated it in the semis, did not mind it in the final, (Just listen and don’t watch :)) How can you make it fairer. I don’t know? Anonymous voting?

  4. the results of thee semis tell the story, Russia finished 3rd in their semi when a lot of their friendly countries couldnt vote, as only the countries in each semi could vote, when the voting is open slather though Russia gets over the line, kinda funny really the rule changes that were meant to make things fairer has only highlighted what a farce the voting really is, I reckon the BIG 4 will demand big changes by next year, probably that only countries in the final can vote, given those 4 countries finance most of the thing they will probably get what they want!

  5. For the second year running, I’d gone a bit glassy-brained and fast forwarded through the ‘winning’ song because it seemed a bit … dull.

    LOVED Ukraine, I thought she nailed it.
    The singer from Sweden was scary.
    Britain’s song was the best they’d put forward in ages. It was a shame they came last. Spain should have come last.

    Wogan’s fighting words? Bloc voting and betting are responsible – because if you’ve got money on the line, you’ll vote for the country that will pay out. Plus, if you’re really a fan, and you want to attend Eurovision, you’ll want the winner to be nearby.

    And everyone likes to rub the UK’s face in it 🙂

  6. I adore Sir Terry’s commentary. I would have to say, though, that he was right again about the voting. The best song/performance didn’t win and yet again the whole thing degenerated into block voting.

    I would have loved to have seen Demark and Portugal come higher than they did. And any of the points that Germany and Bosnia & Herzegovina got were way too many.

    No wonder Ireland sent in a duff entry this year.

  8. let Terry Wogan quit. He annoyed me to no end tonight, and I used to be a fan of his. I think promote Paddy O’Donnell and Caroline Flack to the main event – they did a great job with commentary

  9. I think the big news is terry wogan threatening to quit! they really need to change it so only the countries involved in the final can vote, looking at the scores from the semi’s. Russia didnt even win the semi final it was in but when all its neighbours (that couldnt vote in the semi) were allowed to vote in the final, they romped it home, I really love EV, I look forward to it every year but I feel there may be a Western European revolt on our hands that is going to threaten its continuation, the “Big 4” that for the last 5 years or so have finished in the bottom 10 or so finance 80% of the competition, certainly be interesting to see what happens over the coming months, that said, the winning song was pretty good but poor Iceland..best song by far..

  10. congratulations to Russia and my fave Ukraine got 2nd so am pleased with that. Can’t understand Greece doing so well, clearly benefiting from their position in the running order, and the singers ‘assets’. And clearly the big 4 have given up even trying with decent entries, Germany? France? Spain? UK? All bizarrely bad!! Then they wonder why they score badly? And the poor Icelanders, they score one douze points and they don’t get their 2 seconds of glory on screen. Well done to Russia though they’ve been trying for a long time. And must give some credit to SBS finally taking note of years of feedback from the fans and kept the butchering to a minimum.

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