World Song Contest

65 countries took part in the 40th edition of the World Song Contest, an edition which welcomed Nicaragua. The South American made its first appearance in the contest, while Chile and Slovakia made their come back after a long absence.

ESC related artists proved to be a bad choice this time as if lot of them managed to qualify, they did badly in the final, Sakis Rouvas reaching the 14th position. Of course Sébastien Tellier represented France in 2008, but it was first a WSC participants, back in WSC .30. It was then for Luxembourg, and he finished second with the same number of points than the winner. This time, Sébastien Tellier reached the top 10 again, for Monaco, finishing 6th.

Monaco was not the only country represented by a song performed in French to reach the top 10. In fact, 4 songs did it as Canada, Belgium and Italy also reached the top 10, proving that French can be a winning ingredient. Among the other songs of the top 10, 4 were performed in English, one in Greek, and one in Icelandic.

If the Brazilian players of the World Song Contest allowed San Marino to win with a comfortable advance in the previous edition, this time they couldn't help Cyprus to win, despite the fact 4 of them awarded the song with their maximum vote. Cyprus was not the only song they gave support to as the Netherlands benefited from it once again to reach the 4th position, 1 point ahead of Lithuania, which prevented the country to equal its best result in WSC. Finally the danger came from somewhere else as New Zealand and Israel were separated by one point before the last vote was given, and New Zealand had an advantage of 4 points over Cyprus. But the last vote didn't change a thing, as Norway didn't vote for these songs giving the victory to Hayley Westenra and the song "Summer Rain", the song became, the second winner from Oceania.

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Born in 1987, Hayley Westenra hails from New Zealand. Classically trained as both a singer and as a dancer, she is a former member of the New Zealand Royal Ballet. Westenra's voice is an operatic instrument and she has performed with the New Zealand Opera and Orchestra. She made her recording debut at the age of 14 with a self-titled collection that took her country by storm. Universal International then released Pure, an eclectic and very engaging set of pop, classical, and sacred songs, which exploded all over the globe. Westenra's voice is unusually suited to popular music because, unlike other classical singers, she doesn't resort to using vibrato technique. Instead, her delivery is extremely clean and full, hitting notes effortlessly and letting them draw out naturally. While critics have unfortunately compared her to Charlotte Church, Westenra's interpretive gifts lie in the same terrain as singers such as Kate Bush on one side (whose "Wuthering Heights" was Pure's first single) and Barbra Streisand on the other. After the runaway success of Pure, Westenra and her family moved to London, and she began nearly nonstop world touring in support of her album. She has performed at the British Classical Awards, guaranteeing her success in the U.K. Pure was issued in the United States in April 2004, and the music video for "Wuthering Heights" has garnered considerable play on VH1, underscoring well-received performances in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. In June 2004, Universal issued My Gift to You, a collection of Christmas and seasonal songs. Westenra's second international album Odyssey was released in September 2005 and featured folk ballads, as well as a wide selection of more pop-oriented compositions. Treasure, a personal collection of Irish and Maori folk songs arrived in 2007, followed by the compilation River of Dreams: The Very Best of Hayley Westenra in 2008. The holiday-themed album Winter Magic appeared in 2009.