And the winner of Eurovision 2008 is ...

Well, as with the two semi-finals earlier in the week, I wasn't 'live-blogging' this evening, but I was preparing it throughout the evening; also, as I already commented on most of the entries during the semi-finals (1st semi-final, 2nd semi-final), I won't do comments on the performances, except for the big four (UK, Germany, France, Spain) and last year's winners (Serbia), all five of whom were exempt from the semi-finals. Sorry - slight alteration - I treacherously abandoned Denmark and France, instead voting for Russia, so I added a few comments there, too.

(09.58 BST Sunday 25MAY08) There's a summmary scoreboard of all the results on the BBC's Eurovision website here.

(23.38 BST) You can see a full table of results on the official Eurovision website here - you will need to click from there on the scoreboard for 'THE FINAL', just below the photgraph of Dima Bilan, the singer of the winning song from Russia.

(23.07 BST) And the winner is Russia with 272 points!




(22.45 BST) I think it is turning into a two-horse race between Russia and Greece.

(22.30 BST) San Marino has given 6 points to the UK, the first of the evening! Thank you! I'm publishing this now, but will be updating it several times before the final results are known.

(22.20 BST) - I just saw that the UK has given its 12 votes to Greece so London Preppy will be happy, but my vote for Russia is as nought, more or less.

(22.15 BST) OK - the performances are over and voting has closed. We are just awaiting the start of the announcement of the votes.

This evening's entrants:

Romania

United Kingdom - a lively tune, well-performed by Andy Abraham and the backing group. In a fair world it would do quite well, even if I don't think it's a 'winner'.

Albania

Germany - four quite pretty young women, singing a lively song, unfortunately seemed a little out of tune to me - one or two of the singers were reallly off-key. So no good, I'm afraid.

Armenia

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Israel

Finland

Croatia

Poland

Iceland

Turkey

Portugal

Latvia

Sweden

Denmark - This was my favourite from the two semi-finals. Did my vote go here? Sorry, but no.

Georgia

Ukraine - Placed 2nd

France - a very catchy tune, sung by a very eccentric-looking bearded man with bearded accompaniment. I like this a lot. Did my vote go here? Sorry, but no.

Azerbaijan

Greece - Placed 3rd

Spain - a jokey effort. Brave, certainly. I doubt if it will do well.

Serbia - a nice ballad sung by a very pretty woman andanice backing group. Quite a sophisticated song - may do very well. Could they win two times in a row?

Russia - Well, this very good-looking young man pulled off an even better performance than in the 1st semi-final. I may have to switch my vote! Bill deserted Denmark and France to vote for Russia! Winner!

Norway