Final 6 September 2008 Executive supervisor Tal Barnea | Director Nikki Parsons Executive producer Alan Tyler | |
Presenter(s) Graham NortonClaudia Winkleman | ||
The Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 was the second Eurovision Dance Contest and was held in Glasgow, United Kingdom, hosted by the BBC on 6 September.
Contents
- Location
- Participants
- Controversy
- Scoreboard
- 12 points
- Results without the jury
- Voting and spokespersons
- References
The winner of contest was Poland who achieved a score of 154 points. 2nd place went to Russia, 3rd place to Ukraine, 4th place to Lithuania and 5th place to Azerbaijan who were participating for the first time.
In a change to the rules, professional couples were no longer eligible to enter the contest. At least one dancer from each couple had to be a local celebrity, not professionally trained to dance. A further change was that each couple only performed once. In 2007 each couple performed a ballroom or Latin routine followed by a freestyle dance incorporating national flavour; in the 2008 contest, couples only performed the latter. In 2008 a panel of experts was introduced with an approximate weight of 23% of the total outcome and the rest 77% determined through televoting. The highest possible points from the jury were 48 while the televoting cast a maximum of 156 points.
Location
The Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) is Scotland's largest exhibition centre, located in the district of Finnieston on the north bank of the River Clyde, Glasgow. The venue's holding company SEC Limited, is 91% owned by Glasgow City Council and 9% owned by private investors. It is probably best known for hosting concerts, particularly in Hall 4 and Hall 3.
Since the opening of the original buildings in 1985, the complex has undergone two major expansions; the first being the Clyde Auditorium in 1997, and then the SSE Hydro Arena in 2013.
Participants
According to the 2007 rules Section 2.2 on the official website, all entrants in the Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 agreed to take part in 2008 when signing up for the first contest. However, Switzerland and Germany announced their withdrawals from 2008 edition of the contest due to low ratings and poor results in 2007.
The Spanish broadcaster announced its withdrawal on 20 August, just days before the contest took place. In July they held a national selection show Quiero Bailar and named singer Rosa López and dancer Nieto as their representatives in the contest. According to the draw they were supposed to be 15th couple to perform.
As the number of dances was reduced, with each couple performing once instead of twice, new countries were allowed to enter the competition, but the only new country to enter the contest was Azerbaijan.
Among the countries that broadcast the event without sending representatives were: Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Malta and Spain. Australia also broadcast the contest on 6 May 2009, as a lead up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, on SBS. This was the first time Australia has ever broadcast the Eurovision Dance Contest, after failing to broadcast the Eurovision Dance Contest 2007, and was aired without any commentary.
Controversy
Azerbaijan and Greece announced professional dance couples as their representatives at the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008. According to the regulations of the contest, professional couples were not allowed to take part in the competition. The EBU specified that the couple had to be composed of one professional (defined as a dancer who earns his or her living through dance and dance-related activities), and one non-professional known in a field other than dance. The non-professional was not required to be a celebrity, as long as he or she was known in his field, and it was also not a requirement that the non-professional had no dance experience. Since the representatives for Azerbaijan and Greece both consisted of two professional dancers, however, it is not clear why their entries were considered valid.
Scoreboard
It is worth noting that, had the judges not been introduced (and thus only the televote been used), Poland would still have won the competition by 31 points.
12 points
The maximum twelve points awarded by each country (to the couple who had received the most phone votes) were allocated as follows:
Results without the jury
Voting and spokespersons
The order in which each country announced their votes was done in order of performance. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.