After an exciting voting in front of thousands of people in a fully packed Moscow Olimpisky Indoor Arena and millions of TV viewers all over Europe, it was finally Alexander Rybak from Norway who received the highest number of points from televoters and juries from the 42 countries participating in this year’s edition of Europe’s favourite TV-show! Norway managed to gather 387 points altogether – a new record! -, followed by Yohanna from Iceland with 218 points and Azerbaijan’s AySel & Arash who collected 207 points. You can find the full results of the Grand Final here and of the 2 Semi-Finals here and here.

Europe experienced a breath-taking show live from the Olimpisky Indoor Arena in Moscow tonight with 25 acts from 25 countries giving their very best. 20 of these had qualified from the two Semi-Finals while host nation Russia and the so-called ‘Big Four’ – France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom – were automatically set for the Final. After all 42 countries had voted, it was Alexander Rybak from Norway who was the lucky winner with his song Fairytale, collecting 387 points altogether.

 Alexander Rybak was born in Minsk (Belarus) on the 13th of May, 1986. He grew up in Nesodden just outside the Norwegian capital Oslo. Alexander has played violin and piano since he was five years old, he also composes his own music and sings. Alexander has performed with artists like Arve Tellefsen, Morten Harket, Hanne Krogh and Knutsen & Ludvigsen. In 2006 he won the Norwegian talentshow Kjempesjansen with his own song Foolin’. Alexander has performed with one of the worlds most celebrated violinists, Pinchas Zukerman. He also played the role of the fiddler in Fiddler On The Roof at Oslo Nye Theatre (2007) and has a role in the forthcoming movie Yohan – Child Wanderer which will be released in August 2009.
50 percent jury impact.

This year, the European Broadcasting Union introduced changes in the voting of the Eurovision Song Contest Final as for the first time in years, the winner wasn’t decided solely by televoting. In contrast, a mixture of 50% televote and 50% jury was used. For this purpose, national juries consisting of five music industry professionals gathered in all 42 participating countries who ranked the songs in Eurovision Song Contest style, giving 12 points to their favourite song, 10 points to their second favourite, etc. The results of the five jury members were then added up and accounted for 50% of the country’s votes. Those results were then combined with the televoting results.

For those of you who are not that familiar with what the whole Europe has seen on TV tonight (they are talking about 100 mill viewers):

 

 

That’s the third time Norway has won: in 1985 with Bobbysocks and 1995 with Secret Garden was the last time.

Without interruption, the Eurovision Song Contest has been broadcast every year since 1956, which makes it one of the longest-running television programmes in the world.

In 2003, the first ever Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place, while the Eurovision Song Contest celebrated her 50th anniversary 2005. Viewers picked ABBA’s Waterloo as best ever Eurovision Song Contest song.

In 2007, Europe could see the first ever Eurovision Dance Contest.

The 2008 we saw a record of 43 represented countries, as Azerbaijan and San Marino joined the family. The competition has been broadcast throughout Europe, but also in Australia, Canada, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Jordan, Korea, New Zealand and the United States, even though these countries do not participate.

In 2009, an Asian version of the Eurovision Song Contest is expected to be launched. That’s the best start for tomorrow, since its Norway’s Constitution and National Day.