| Eurovision Song Contest News - 2008 Belgrade, Serbia 

Mike Ward

And so 2008 is upon us. Click on the links below to see my predictions for the voting in the two semi-finals. This voting takes into account diaspora, neighbour and block voting, as well as the type of songs generally appreciated by different countries. The final will come shortly.

semi 1: url=http://www.tummiweb.com/escnation/scorewiz/show.php?id=41152]http://www.tummiweb.com/escnation/scorewiz/show.php?id=41152/url]

semi 2: url=http://www.tummiweb.com/escnation/scorewiz/show.php?id=41249]http://www.tummiweb.com/escnation/scorewiz/show.php?id=41249/url]

The jury votes are a lot harder to predict, however, I feel that Belgium is a good contender for jury victory in semi 1. In semi 2 it will probably go to Switzerland.


Hi, I've been a fan of the Eurovision for a while now. Some of my personal favorites are Gente Di Mare (Italy 1987), Den Vilda (Sweden 1996) and more recently Deixa-Me Sonhar (Portugal 2003).

I like the way the eurovision has expanded in recent years, though I do think that neighbour and diaspora voting are a big problem. I know some people say that it's not a big issue, but when the Belarussian, Andorran, Greek, Armenian, French, German, Dutch, Belgian, Spanish or Cypriot vote is very obvious because they've given top marks to the same country for many years in a row it does spoil things. Maybe it doesn't have too much of an effect on the winner but with the one semi-final system where countries are fighting for top ten places, it did affect some participants.

This new two semi final system looks good though. I'll reserve judgement until I see it in action.

However, I would not miss the Eurovision Song Contest for the world. Bring on 2008, and may the best song win.

I have been watching eurovision since 1990. Here are my favorites from each year:

1990
1 Sweden
2 Norway
3 France

1991
1 France
2 Israel
3 Sweden

1992
1 United Kingdom
2 Malta
3 France

1993
1 Italy
2 United Kingdom
3 Norway

1994
1 Romania
2 Norway
3 United Kingdom

1995
1 Israel
2 Greece
3 Malta

1996
1 Sweden
2 Ireland
3 Norway

1997
1 Italy
2 Poland
3 United Kingdom

1998
1 Netherlands
2 United Kingdom
3 Malta

1999
1 Netherlands
2 Belgium
3 Croatia

2000
1 Denmark
2 Ireland
3 France

2001
1 France
2 Spain
3 Sweden

2002
1 France
2 Spain
3 Belgium

2003
1 Portugal
2 Iceland
3 Netherlands

2004
1 Sweden
2 Netherlands
3 Serbia and Montenegro

2005
1 Israel
2 Germany
3 Hungary

2006
1 Germany
2 Romania
3 Lithuania

2007
1 Russia
2 Sweden
3 Ireland