Eurovision Song Contest 2008
| Eurovision Song Contest 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Confluence of Sound | |
| Dates and venue | |
| Semi-final 1 |
|
| Semi-final 2 |
|
| Final |
|
| Venue | Belgrade Arena Belgrade, Serbia |
| Organisation | |
| Organiser | European Broadcasting Union (EBU) |
| Executive supervisor | Svante Stockselius |
| Production | |
| Host broadcaster | Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) |
| Director | Sven Stojanović |
| Executive producer | Sandra Šuša |
| Presenters | |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 43 |
| Number of finalists | 25 |
| Debuting countries | |
| Non-returning countries | Austria |
Participation map
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs. |
| Winning song | |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the 53rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted – for the first time – of two semi-finals on 20 and 22 May and a final on 24 May 2008, held at the Belgrade Arena in Belgrade, Serbia, and presented by Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), which staged the event after winning the 2007 contest for Serbia with the song "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović.
Broadcasters from forty-three countries participated in the contest, the highest ever number of participants, beating the record of forty-two set the year before. Azerbaijan and San Marino participated for the first time, while Austria did not participate, mainly due to questions on the semi-final organisation as well as the politicisation of the contest.
The winner was Russia with the song "Believe", performed by Dima Bilan who wrote it with Jim Beanz. Ukraine, Greece, Armenia, and Norway rounded out the top five, with Armenia achieving its best result to date. Of the "Big Four" countries, Spain placed the highest, finishing 16th, while the United Kingdom ended up in last place for the second time in its Eurovision history, after 2003.
The official website, eurovision.tv, streamed national finals for this year's contest live on ESCTV for the first time. Furthermore, for the first time, the winner has been awarded the perpetual glass microphone trophy of the Eurovision Song Contest. The trophy is a handmade piece of sandblasted glass in the shape of a 1950s microphone.