Eurovision: To Russia with love

Malta places 14th in semi-final

The winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest is Dima Bilan representing Russia with his song Believe!

After a spectacular final at the Belgrade Arena, the winner was chosen by the 43 competing countries: Russia garnered 272 points, while Ukraine's Ani Lorak placed second followed by Greece's Kalomira.

Once again, neighbours could not resist voting for one another, and it was easy to guess throughout the night who would vote for who, with very few surprises along the way.

Meanwhile, the European Broadcasting Union released the scoreboard of how the countries placed in the two semi-finals. Malta ranked 14th out of 19 competing countries with 38 points, coming in ahead of Cyprus (36 points), Lithuania (30 points), Belarus 27 points, Czech Republic (nine points), and Hungary (six points).

Malta received eight points from Albania, six points from Czech Republic, four points from Denmark, Portugal, Croatia and Latvia; three points from Iceland and Bulgaria; and two points from the UK.

Ukraine placed first in this heat (152 points), Portugal second (120 points), and Denmark third (112 points).

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