The 42nd edition of the World Song Contest started in August 2008, and became the biggest one ever with 76 countries taking part. Tunisia, Cape Verde and Azerbaijan joined for the first time, a first time lucky as the three of them qualified for the final. With so many entries, you could expect a lot of diversity, but you couldn't avoid the usual ESC artists or big stars, such as Gloria Estefan for Cuba, which won the semi finals of this edition. Speaking about the semi finals, it is weird to see that some songs which hardly qualified or were saved by the jury did a good job in the final, achieving a top 10 position, while other which did great in their heat of the semi finals, just crashed and finished in the bottom of the final's ranking. Songs from Andorra, Iceland and Poland, which combined quality and originality, had a hard time to qualify. Andorra and Poland qualified as best 7th, while Iceland was one of the jury's choices. They all reached the top 10 in the final. It seems some voters don't reward originality and prefer more convetionnal songs, not to say uninspired ones. This once again raise the question about the fact a potential winner can be eliminated in the semi finals. This also means a solution has to be found. In the final, there was no surprise when the Netherlands won. Not only the song received a lot of points from Dutch players, but also from Brazilian players. Eight votes from players of Brazil and the Netherlands gave 73 points (an average of 9,1 points per player) to the Netherlands, so almost 50% of their final score. Bløf already represented the Netherlands in WSC .24 where the band helped by the Counting Crows failed to qualify. This time, and with the help from friends and Dutch patriots, they gave a third victory to the Netherlands with the song "Mens". Cuba came second, followed by Israel and Norway. >> Your Comments
| THE WINNER Country: The Netherlands
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>> Semi Finals >> Scoreboard
101 pts 87 pts 79 pts Gin Wigmore: These Roses DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ A.Cinco: Solo Con Mirarte DNQ1 
The Netherlands Bløf: Mens 2 
Cuba Gloria Estefan: Hoy 3 
Israel Naama: Calling For You 4 
Andorra Jofre Bardagí: Cors 5 
Norway Alejandro Fuentes: All I'm Running For 6 
United Kingdom Yoav: Club Thing 7 
Iceland Hjaltalín: Goodbye July/Margt Að Ugga 8 
Switzerland Stefanie Heinzmann: Like A Bullet 9 
Mexico Belanova: One, Two, Three, Go! (1, 2, 3, Go!) 10 
Poland Oszibarack: Anchor Up 11 
Cape Verde Salif Keita & Cesária Évora: Yamore 12 
Brazil Sandy & Junior: Love Never Fails 13 
Finland Apocalyptica feat. Adam Gontier: I Don't Care 14 
France Mylène Farmer: Dégénération 15 
Puerto Rico Luis Fonsi: No Me Doy Por Vencido 16 
Italy Tiger Tiger!: Take Care 17 
Belgium Arsenal: Estupendo 18 
Montenegro Andrijana Božović: Krila Anđela 19 
Bosnia & Herzegovina Feminnem: Ovisna 20 
Slovenia Regina: Gabriel 21 
Japan Maaya Sakamoto: Chibikko Folk 22 
Greece Nikko Patrelakis: Arco Iris 23 
F.Y.R. of Macedonia Lambe Alabakovski: Poslednja Noć 24 
Albania Berkani: Te Dashuroj 25 
Uruguay El Cuarteto de Nos: Ya No Sé Que Hacer Conmigo 26 
Luxembourg Julien Doré: Les Limites 27 
New Zealand 28 
San Marino Studio 3: Lentamente 29 
Tunisia David Charvet: Je Te Dédie 30 
Russia Maksim: Nauchus' Letat' 31 
Cyprus Apostolia Zoi: Ta 'Xo Parei 32 
Jamaica Alaine: Rise In Love 33 
South Africa The Arrows: Next Time 34 
Belarus Ruslan Alehno, Alekseï Chumakov & Aleksandr Panaïotov: Neobyknovennaya 35 
Azerbaijan Röya: Ayrılıq 36 
Chile Solo Di Medina: Hembras De Marte 37 
Spain Beth: Hacerte Feliz 38 
Sweden Sonja Aldén: Nån Som Du 39 
Czech Republic Glen Hansard & Marketá Irglová: Falling Slowly 40 
Turkey Tarkan: Vay Anam Vay! 41 
Netherlands Antilles Izaline Calister: Yudami Lubida 42 
Argentina Loli Molina: Hasta El Mar 43 
Serbia Lejla Hot: Suza Stihova 44 
Germany Wagner Love: I Know 45 
South Korea Jang Na Ra: Dahl Paeng Ee 46 
Malta Miriam Christine: Alone Today 47 
Vietnam Minh Tuyết: Chỉ Cần Anh Thôi 48 
Romania Yarabi: I Amar 49 
Vatican City Elisa & Ligabue: Gli Ostacoli Del Cuore 50 
The Philippines Cassie: Is It You 51 
Morocco Nadja Benaissa: Immer Noch 52 
Canada Deadmau5: Faxing Berlin 53 
Croatia Jelena Rozga: Ožiljak 54 
Moldova Crazy Loop: Crazy Loop (Mm Ma Ma) 55 
Belize Lu: Duele 56 
Nicaragua Cristyana: Sin Temor 57 
Latvia Cosmos: Destination: Heaven 58 
Portugal Les Baton Rouge: Chloe Yurtz 59 
Ireland Liam Lawton feat. Brian Kennedy: Ailelú 60 
United States of America Matisyahu: Jerusalem (Out Of Darkness Comes Light) 61 
Liechtenstein R.I.O.: Shine On 62 
Venezuela 63 
Australia Xavier Rudd: Green Spandex 64 
Colombia Maía: Niña Bonita 65 
Egypt Mohamed Hamaky: Ahla Haga Fiky 66 
Estonia M.i.M: Polygonblue 67 
Namibia Stefan Ludik: Vuur En Water 68 
Austria Curbs: Everybody Loves A Junkie 69 
Indonesia Acha & Irwansyah: Ada Cinta 70 
Monaco BB Brunes: Dis-Moi 71 
India Rashid Ali: Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi 72 
Mongolia Emotion: Ingen Temeenii Duun 73 
China Aytulan: Song Ni Yi Tiao Mei Gui Hua (Give You A Rose) 74 
Slovakia IMT Smile: Pozri Jak Sa Roztápa L'Ad 75 
Lithuania Žalvarinis: Ožys 76 
Bulgaria Boni: Poludqvam Li