Today at 21:00 CET (23:00 local time) the Grand Final of the 54th Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Moscow's gigantic Olimpiskiy Indoor Arena. 25 contestants from 25 countries have qualified for Europe's favourite TV-show and experts expect a close finish tonight as at least 10 different countries have been named as possible winners! You can watch the show live in all participating countries, as well as here on Eurovision.tv.
Televoters and professional juries
This year, the European Broadcasting Union introduced some remarkable changes in the voting of the Eurovision Song Contest Final as for the first time in years, the winner won't be decided solely by televote. In contrast, a mixture of 50% televote and 50% jury will be used. For this purpose, national juries consisting of five music industry professionals have gathered in all 42 participating countries who will rank the songs in Eurovision Song Contest style, giving 12 points to their favourite song, 10 points to their second favourite etc. The results of the 5 jury members will then be added up and will account for 50% of the country's votes. Those results will then be combined with the televote results. So, don't forget to phone in or send an SMS for your favourite song(s)!
Tonight's contestants
The 25 songs participating in the Grand Final are the following:
1. Lithuania: Sasha Son will sing Love
2. Israel: Noa & Mira Awad will sing There Must Be Another Way
3. France: Patricia Kaas will sing Et S'il Fallait Le Faire
4. Sweden: Malena Ernman will sing La Voix
5. Croatia: Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea will sing Lijepa Tena
6. Portugal: Flor-De-Lis will sing Todas As Ruas Do Amor
7. Iceland: Yohanna will sing Is It True
8. Greece: Sakis Rouvas will sing This Is Our Night
9. Armenia: Inga & Anush will sing Jan Jan
10. Russia: Anastasia Prikhodko will sing Mamo
11. Azerbaijan: AySel & Arash will sing Always
12. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Regina will sing Bistra Voda
13. Moldova: Nelly Ciobanu will sing Hora Din Moldova
14. Malta: Chiara will sing What If We
15. Estonia: Urban Symphony will sing Rändajad
16. Denmark: Brinck will sing Believe Again
17. Germany: Alex Swings Oscar Sings will sing Miss Kiss Kiss Bang
18. Turkey: Hadise will sing Düm Tek Tek
19. Albania: Kejsi Tola will sing Carry Me in Your Dreams
20. Norway: Alexander Rybak will sing Fairytale
21. Ukraine: Svetlana Loboda will sing Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)
22. Romania: Elena will sing The Balkan Girls
23. United Kingdom: Jade Ewen will sing It's My Time
24. Finland: Waldo's People will sing Lose Control
25. Spain: Soraya will sing La Noche Es Para Mi
The final will be hosted by Alsou - Russia's participant in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest - and TV personality Ivan Urgant. It is expected that more than 100 million viewers will tune in to watch the show.
Image gallery: First dress rehearsal of the Final
Today saw the first dress rehearsal of the Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Image gallery: Dress Rehearsal for the final
Pictures from the last dress rehearsals for the final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.
Tell us what you think about the Eurovision Song Contest final!
