Eurovision Dance Contest 2008

The Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 was the second and final edition of the Eurovision Dance Contest and was held in Glasgow, Scotland, hosted by the BBC on 6 September. The presenters were, as in the previous edition, Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman. The contest took place at the SEC Centre.^[1]

Eurovision Dance Contest 2008
Dates
Final	6 September 2008
Host
Venue	SEC Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)	Graham Norton Claudia Winkleman
Executive producer	Alan Tyler
Director	Nikki Parsons
Executive supervisor	Tal Barnea
Host broadcaster	BBC Scotland (BBC)
Website	www.eurovisiondance.tv
Participants
Number of entries	14
Debuting countries	Azerbaijan
Returning countries	None
Non-returning countries	Germany  Spain   Switzerland
Participation map frameless}}      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2008
Vote
Voting system	Each country awards 1–8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite acts, plus additional panel of experts awards maximum of 48 points to their favourites.
Winning dancers	Poland Edyta Herbuś and Marcin Mroczek
2007 ← Eurovision Dance Contest

The winners of contest were Edyta Herbuś and Marcin Mroczek of Poland who achieved a score of 154 points. Russia placed 2nd, Ukraine 3rd, Lithuania 4th and Azerbaijan, participating for the first time, were 5th.

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.^[2] 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, the latter freestyle dance continued and this time could include elements of traditional Latin and ballroom.^[1] 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.^{[3][better source needed]}

Location

Further information on the host city: Glasgow

SEC Centre, in Glasgow – host venue of the 2008 contest.

The SEC Centre 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 SEC Armadillo in 1997, and then the OVO Hydro arena in 2013.

The host city and venue was announced by the BBC on 7 July 2008.^[1] The contest was attended by an audience of 2,000.^[4]

Format

Rules and participants

According to the 2007 rules Section 2.2^[5] 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, in June 2008, Switzerland announced their withdrawal from the contest without specifying a reason,^[6] while Germany also decided to withdraw from the event later the same month, due to comparatively low ratings for the 2007 contest in the country.^[7]

The running order was announced on 8 August.^[8] Due to a scheduling clash with the 2010 FIFA World Cup preliminaries, the Spanish broadcaster announced its late withdrawal on 28 August, just days before the contest was scheduled to took place.^[9] In July, they held a national selection show Quiero Bailar and named singer Rosa López and dancer Nieto as their representatives in the contest.^[10] According to the draw they were supposed to be 15th couple to perform.^[8]

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.^[3]

Opening and interval acts

Celtic rock band Red Hot Chilli Pipers performed as part of the opening act.

The opening of the show featured Red Hot Chilli Pipers playing a Scottish-flavoured medley of known songs, with all participating couples presented on stage in order of performance.^[11] The interval act featured a group dance routine and was followed by soprano Lesley Garrett and the Carousel cast, performing a medley of "June Is Bustin' Out All Over" and "You'll Never Walk Alone" accompanied by the City of Glasgow Chorus.^[12]

Controversy

Azerbaijan and Greece announced professional dance couples as their representatives at the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008. According to the regulations of the contest,^[5] 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.^[2] Since the representatives for Azerbaijan and Greece both consisted of two professional dancers, however, it is not clear why their entries were considered valid.

Participating countries

R/O	Country[13]	Competing dancers[13]	Dance styles[13]	Place[4]	Points[4]
01	Sweden	Danny Saucedo and Jeanette Carlsson	Cha-Cha	12	38
02	Austria	Dorian Steidl [de] and Nicole Kuntner	Slowfox/Jive/Hip-Hop	13	29
03	Denmark	Patrick Spiegelberg and Katja Svensson	Samba/Tango/Paso Doble/Jazz Dance	6	102
04	Azerbaijan	Eldar Dzhafarov and Anna Sazhina	Paso Doble/Rumba/Tango/Azeri Folk Dance	5	106
05	Ireland	Gavin Ó Fearraigh and Dearbhla Lennon	Paso Doble/Rumba/Hard Shoe Irish Dance	11	40
06	Finland	Maria Lund and Mikko Ahti [fi]	Tango	10	44
07	Netherlands	Thomas Berge and Roemjana de Haan [nl]	Rumba/Show Dance	14	1
08	Lithuania	Karina Krysko and Saulius Skambinas	Rumba/Cha-Cha/Acrobatic Elements	4	110
09	United Kingdom	Louisa Lytton and Vincent Simone	Paso Doble/Jive/Tango	9	47
10	Russia	Tatiana Navka and Alexander Litvinenko	Cha-Cha/Samba/Rumba/Paso Doble/Russian Folk Dance	2	121
11	Greece	Jason Roditis and Tonia Kosovich	Latin dances	7	72
12	Portugal	Raquel Tavares and João Tiago	Rumba/Tango	8	61
13	Poland	Edyta Herbuś and Marcin Mroczek	Rumba/Cha-Cha/Jazz Dance	1	154
14	Ukraine	Lilia Podkopayeva and Sergey Kostetskiy	Jive/Ukrainian Folk Dance/Rock'n'Roll	3	119

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. However, Ukraine and Russia would have shifted places therefore Ukraine would have finished 2nd and Russia finishing 3rd.

Voting results^[13][14]

Voting procedure used:   100% televoting   100% jury vote		Total score	Televoting score	Expert jury score	Televote
					Sweden	Austria	Denmark	Azerbaijan	Ireland	Finland	Netherlands	Lithuania	United Kingdom	Russia	Greece	Portugal	Poland	Ukraine
Contestants	Sweden	38	34	4		3	10			7		1	2	2	2	3	4
	Austria	29	29				3	2	1	3		4	5	4	5	1		1
	Denmark	102	54	48	8	7		1	3	8	2	6	4		1	7	2	5
	Azerbaijan	106	78	28	5	8			7	1	4	12	1	10	6	4	12	8
	Ireland	40	40				4	6		2		5	8	7			6	2
	Finland	44	32	12	12		6	5			1	3				2	3
	Netherlands	1	1			1
	Lithuania	110	78	32	7		7	4	10	6	5		10	5	4	5	8	7
	United Kingdom	47	39	8	1	4	5	3	8		10			1	3		1	3
	Russia	121	97	24	6	6	2	8	4	12	8	10			12	10	7	12
	Greece	72	32	40	4	2			2	5	3		3	3		6		4
	Portugal	61	61		3	5	1	7	6		6	2	7	6	7		5	6
	Poland	154	134	20	10	12	12	10	12	10	12	8	12	8	10	8		10
	Ukraine	119	103	16	2	10	8	12	5	4	7	7	6	12	8	12	10

12 points

The maximum twelve points awarded by each country (to the couple who had received the most phone votes) were allocated as follows:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
5	Poland	Austria,  Denmark,  Ireland,  Netherlands,  United Kingdom
3	Russia	Finland,  Greece,  Ukraine
	Ukraine	Azerbaijan,  Portugal,  Russia
2	Azerbaijan	Lithuania,  Poland
1	Finland	Sweden

Professional jury

An expert jury of International DanceSport Federation judges from non-participating countries acted as a jury in the contest. After each performance, each jury member awarded each performance up to 12 points. The jury members were:^[15]

• Juror A:  Singapore – Gladys Tay (head judge)
• Juror B:  Germany – Sven Traut
• Juror C:  Slovenia – Barbara Nagode Ambrož
• Juror D:  France – Michelle Ribas

The points below were converted (giving the jury vote the weight of four countries' votes in the total result) into 4 sets of 12 points, 12 for the first place couple on the jury leaderboard, 10 points for second, 8 points for third and so on, down to 1 point for 10th. The other four couples, do not receive any points from the judges.^[16]

Detailed jury votes^[17]

Draw	Song	Jurors				Total
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D
1	Sweden	8	8	8	7	31
2	Austria	7	7	7	7	28
3	Denmark	12	12	12	12	48
4	Azerbaijan	12	10	10	10	42
5	Ireland	7	7	8	7	29
6	Finland	10	8	8	8	34
7	Netherlands	8	7	7	6	28
8	Lithuania	12	10	10	10	42
9	United Kingdom	8	10	8	8	34
10	Russia	10	12	10	10	42
11	Greece	10	12	12	10	44
12	Portugal	8	7	8	7	30
13	Poland	10	10	12	8	40
14	Ukraine	10	10	10	8	38

Spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their votes was done in order of performance. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.^[18]

1.  Sweden – Carin da Silva
2.  Austria – Marvin Wolf [de]
3.  Denmark – Jens Blauenfeldt
4.  Azerbaijan – Husniyya Maharramova
5.  Ireland – Brian Osmond
6.  Finland – Jaana Pelkonen
7.  Netherlands – Marcus van Teijlingen
8.  Lithuania – Audrius Giržadas [lt]
9.  United Kingdom – Carol Smillie
10.  Russia – Larisa Verbitskaya
11.  Greece – Rika Vagianni [el]
12.  Portugal – Helena Coelho
13.  Poland – Anna Popek [pl]
14.  Ukraine – Yuliya Okropiridze [uk]

Broadcasts

Most countries sent commentators to Glasgow or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, provide voting information.^[18]

Among the countries that took part, Albania, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Malta and Spain also broadcast the event without sending representatives.^[19] In accordance with the rules, Spanish broadcaster TVE were obliged to broadcast the contest live due to their late withdrawal as an active participant.^[20] The EBU initially confirmed that the event would be broadcast on the network's second channel La 2 "for the benefit of Spanish viewers",^[21] however TVE later confirmed it would be delayed by one hour without specifying a reason.^[22] Australia also broadcast the contest on 6 May 2009, as a lead up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, on SBS.^[23] This was the first time Australia had broadcast the Eurovision Dance Contest, after failing to broadcast the 2007 edition, and was aired without any commentary.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Austria	ORF 2	Andi Knoll and Nicole Burns-Hansen	[24]
Azerbaijan	Ictimai TV	Leyla Aliyeva and Murad Ragimov	[18][25][better source needed]
Denmark	DR1	Sisse Fisker and Claus Larsen	[26]
Finland	Yle TV2	Sirpa Suutari-Jääskö and Johanna Pirttilahti [fi]	[27]
Greece	NET, ERT World	Maria Kozakou and Voula Santorineou	[18]
Ireland	RTÉ One	Marty Whelan and Brian Redmond	[18]
Lithuania	LRT	Asta Einikytė and Virginijus Visockas	[28]
Netherlands	Nederland 1	Lucille Werner and Cor van de Stroet [nl]	[29]
Poland	TVP2	Artur Orzech and Zbigniew Zasada	[30][31]
Portugal	RTP1, RTP Internacional, RTP África	Isabel Angelino [pt] and Alberto Rodrigues	[18]
Russia	Channel One	Yana Churikova and Stanislav Popov	[18]
Sweden	TV4	David Hellenius and Tony Irving	[32]
Ukraine	Pershyi Natsionalnyi	Timur Miroshnychenko and Miroslav Keba	[18]
United Kingdom	BBC One	Len Goodman and Craig Revel Horwood	[33]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Albania	RTSH	Leon Menkshi
Armenia	ARMTV	Felix Khacatryan and Hrachuhi Utmazyan
Australia	SBS (broadcast on 6 May 2009)	No commentary	[34]
Belarus	Belarus-1	Denis Kurian and Tatyana Bondarchuck
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BHT 1 (delayed)	Dejan Kukrić
Cyprus	RIK 1, RIK Sat	Melina Karageorgiou
Iceland	RÚV (delayed)	Eva María Jónsdótttir	[35]
Israel	Channel 1 (delayed)	No commentary
Macedonia	MKRTV	Milanka Rašić
Malta	TVM	Eileen Montesin
Spain	La 2, TVE Internacional (delayed)	Sandra Daviú	[36]

Viewing figures

Estimated viewership by country (in millions)

Country	Viewership	Ref(s)
Austria	0.49	[37]
Poland	4.3	[37]
Portugal	0.87	[37]
United Kingdom	4.7	[37][38]

See also

• Eurovision Song Contest 2008
• Eurovision Young Musicians 2008
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008