Poll : Sexiest Woman of Eurovision 2012

Well, we didn't actually get round to it last year, but it's high time to revive the annual tradition of the sexiest woman of Eurovision poll! The previous winners are Paula Seling (Romania) in 2010, Hadise (Turkey) in 2009 and Kalomira (Greece) in 2008. Who is your favourite of 2012? The voting form is in the sidebar, and you can vote for as many women as you like.

Here is the full list of contenders -

Greta Salóme (Iceland)
Eleftheria Eleftheriou (Greece)
Anmary (Latvia)
Rona Nishliu (Albania)
Elena Ionescu (Romania)
Iris (Belgium)
Pernilla Karlsson (Finland)
Shiri Hadar (Israel)
Valentina Monetta (San Marino)
Ivi Adamou (Cyprus)
Soluna Samay (Denmark)
Granya Baysarova (Russia)
Alevtina Begisheva (Russia)
Zoya Dorodova (Russia)
Galina Koneva (Russia)
Natalya Pugachyova (Russia)
Valentina Pyatchenko (Russia)
Yekaterina Shklyaeva (Russia)
Kaliopi (Macedonia)
Joan Franka (Netherlands)
Filipa Sousa (Portugal)
Gaitana (Ukraine)
Sofi Marinova (Bulgaria)
Eva Boto (Slovenia)
Nina Badrić (Croatia)
Loreen (Sweden)
Maya Sar (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Anggun (France)
Nina Zilli (Italy)
Sabina Babayeva (Azerbaijan)
Pastora Soler (Spain)

NOTE : In spite of my best efforts, I couldn't work out which of the seven Russian grannies is being left out, so I included all of them to be on the safe side!

Paula Seling voted sexiest woman of Eurovision 2010

Romania's Paula Seling, who finished third in Eurovision 2010 alongside her compatriot Ovi, has won a decisive victory in our third annual poll to find the sexiest woman of the contest. In second place is the victorious German singer Lena Meyer-Landrut, while Armenia's Eva Rivas is in third - no doubt assisted by the strategic close-up of her cleavage at the start of her live performance on Saturday! Here are the full results...

1 Paula Seling (Romania) 21%
2 Lena Meyer-Landrut (Germany) 12%
3 Eva Rivas (Armenia) 11%
4 Filipa Azevedo (Portugal) 10%
5 Juliana Pasha (Albania) 9%
6 Kristína Peláková (Slovakia) 7%
7 Sopho Nizharadze (Georgia) 6%
8 Safura Alizadeh (Azerbaijan) 5%
= Sieneke Peeters (Netherlands) 5%
10 Anna Henrietta Bergendahl (Sweden) 4%
11 Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland) 2%
12 Pamela Ramljak (Croatia) 1%
= Alyosha (Ukraine) 1%
= Christina Chanée (Denmark) 1%
= Yulia Shisko (Belarus) 1%
= Aisha (Latvia) 1%
= Johanna Virtanen (Finland) 1%
= Susan Aho (Finland) 1%
= Olia Tira (Moldova) 1%

The previous winners of the poll were Greece's Kalomira in 2008, and Turkey's Hadise in 2009.

Poll : Sexiest Woman of Eurovision 2010

So here we go again with the third running of our annual 'sexiest of Eurovision' poll! Will it be yet another close run thing, after razor-thin victories for Greece's Kalomira in 2008, and Turkey's Hadise in 2009? Here is the full list of contenders, in the order they will first perform in the contest -

Olia Tira (Moldova)
Kristína Peláková (Slovakia)
Susan Aho (Finland)
Johanna Virtanen (Finland)
Aisha (Latvia)
Thea Garrett (Malta)
Juliana Pasha (Albania)
Filipa Azevedo (Portugal)
Yulia Shisko (Belarus)
Alyona Karpovich (Belarus)
Ninel Karpovich (Belarus)
Hera Björk (Iceland)
Eva Rivas (Armenia)
Christina Chanée (Denmark)
Anna Henrietta Bergendahl (Sweden)
Safura Alizadeh (Azerbaijan)
Alyosha (Ukraine)
Sieneke Peeters (Netherlands)
Paula Seling (Romania)
Kalamari singer (Slovenia)
Niamh Kavanagh (Ireland)
Sylvia Strand (Cyprus)
Katherine Squire (Cyprus)
Neda Parmać (Croatia)
Pamela Ramljak (Croatia)
Nika Antolos (Croatia)
Sopho Nizharadze (Georgia)
Lena Meyer-Landrut (Germany)

Rather annoyingly, I couldn't track down the name of the Slovenian singer, but hopefully I'll work it out in time for the results. Multiple voting is permitted this time - hopefully this will dilute the effect of voting along national lines, which has been a problem in the past. As ever, vote wisely!

Eurovision sexiest 2010 - the one that got away

Kristīna Zaharova of Latvia

Looking ahead to our annual 'sexiest woman of Eurovision' poll later in the year, it's such a pity that the song Snow in July didn't win the Latvian preselection on Saturday, as singer Kristīna Zaharova would have been sure to be a contender (for the poll rather than for the Eurovision itself!). Instead, Aisha and her song What For? goes forward to Oslo, and it'll be interesting to see how both she and her beautiful backing performers fare in the poll when it opens.

Featured : Kuunkuiskaajat

Kuunkuiskaajat are a female folk music duo, who have been selected to represent Finland in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest. The women concerned are Susan Aho and Johanna Virtanen, who also form part of the folk music group Värttinä. The name Kuunkuiskaajat translates into English as Moon Whispers, and the victory of their song Työlki ellää in the Finnish national selection is thought to owe a lot to the success of Estonia's superb 'ethnic' entry to Eurovision last year.

Kuunkuiskaajat's official website, containing photo galleries, can be found here.

Hadise voted sexiest woman of Eurovision 2009

She may have only finished fourth in the contest, but it appears that Turkey's representative succeeded in making quite a few hearts go 'Düm Tek Tek' after all. For the second year in a row it's been an incredibly tight result - in last year's poll Kalomira edged out Ani Lorak by just one vote, and this time round Hadise held off the challenge of enigmatic Estonian singer Sandra Nurmsalu by just three votes. Here are the final results -

1 Hadise Açıkgöz (Turkey) 21%
2 Sandra Nurmsalu (Estonia) 20%
3 Aysel Teymurzadeh (Azerbaijan) 9%
4 Jade Ewen (United Kingdom) 9%
5 Elena Gheorghe (Romania) 7%
6 Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir (Iceland) 7%
7 Karoliina Kallio (Finland) 3%
8 Soraya Arnelas (Spain) 3%
9 Chiara Siracusa (Malta) 2%
10 Svetlana Loboda (Ukraine) 2%
11 Kejsi Tola (Albania) 1%
12 Marilin Kongo (Estonia) 1%
13 Lidia Kopania (Poland) 1%
14 Mann Helstein (Estonia) **
= Sinéad Mulvey (Ireland) **
16 Anastasiya Prykhodko (Russia) **
= Mari Möldre (Estonia) **
= Martina Majerle (Slovenia) **
= Christina Metaxa (Cyprus) **
= Andrea Šušnjara (Croatia) **
= Daniela Varela (Portugal) **
= Noa (Israel) **
= Susanne Georgi (Andorra) **
24 Patricia Kaas (France) **
= Johanna Mängel (Estonia) **
= Nela Pocisková (Slovakia) **
= Mira Awad (Israel) **
= Inga Arshakyan (Armenia) **
= Malena Ernman (Sweden) **
= Andrea Demirović (Montenegro) **

(** - less than 1% but more than zero)

337 votes were cast in total.

Intriguingly, there was a huge surge of support for Aysel Teymurzadeh after the final was broadcast on Saturday night. My strong impression is that, if only post-final votes had been counted, she would have won convincingly.

Finally, apologies for my inadvertent mistake in leaving out the Portuguese accordion player. She might well have been a contender!

Poll : Sexiest Woman of Eurovision 2009

So apologies for the delay, but at long last the big poll of the year is open! I haven't been keeping track of which singer Keith Mills has particularly got it in for, so you don't even have to worry about me attempting to rig it this year! After the complaints about the women I omitted from the curling poll I've tried to be as exhaustive as possible - I've even included non-singers when they're integral members of bands (although I have left out backing singers for solo artists).

Here are the full list of contenders -

Andrea Demirović (Montenegro)
Malena Ernman (Sweden)
Inga Arshakyan (Armemia)
Anush Arshakyan (Armenia)
Susanne Georgi (Andorra)
Hadise Açıkgöz (Turkey)
Noa (Israel)
Mira Awad (Israel)
Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir (Iceland)
Elena Gheorghe (Romania)
Karoliina Kallio (Finland)
Daniela Varela (Portugal)
Chiara Siracusa (Malta)
Andrea Šušnjara (Croatia)
Sinéad Mulvey (Ireland)
Lesley-Ann Halvey (Ireland)
Asta Milleriene (Ireland)
Nicole Billings (Ireland)
Lidia Kopania (Poland)
Christina Metaxa (Cyprus)
Nela Pocisková (Slovakia)
Martina Majerle (Slovenia)

Aysel Teymurzadeh (Azerbaijan)
Nelly Ciobanu (Moldova)
Kejsi Tola (Albania)
Svetlana Loboda (Ukraine)
Sandra Nurmsalu (Estonia)
Mann Helstein (Estonia)
Johanna Mängel (Estonia)
Mari Möldre (Estonia)
Marilin Kongo (Estonia)
Mirjam Mesak (Estonia)
Patricia Kaas (France)
Anastasiya Prykhodko (Russia)
Jade Ewen (United Kingdom)
Soraya Arnelas (Spain)

As with last year, they're organised in the order in which they will first perform, in case you want to keep track. The poll will close on Monday 18th May (ie. two days after the final). Vote wisely!

Another update on the curling poll - Jennifer Jones storms into lead

I know I did hopefully mutter something along the lines of 'there might be a late flurry of votes' but that was mainly just my optimistic nature. But thanks to an unexpected plug for the poll on the Curling News blog (albeit with some understandable reservations about ethics!) it's actually happened. So, several dozen votes later, Canadian skip Jennifer Jones now holds a slender lead over Switzerland's Carmen Schaefer, with Scottish skip Eve Muirhead in third. Former leader Marianne Rørvik is now trailing somewhat in fifth place.

Update on the update : China may have now claimed their historic first world women's curling title, but as promised the poll will remain open for a couple more days. As things stand Jennifer Jones and Carmen Schaefer are deadlocked for the lead, with three-time world junior champion Eve Muirhead very close behind in third place. Here are the current standings -

Carmen Schaefer (Switzerland) 16%
Jennifer Jones (Canada) 16%
Eve Muirhead (Scotland) 15%

Ines voted all-time sexiest Estonian singer at Eurovision

Our Estonian poll has closed, with the nation's 2000 representative Ines claiming a narrow win over the previous year's entrant Evelin Samuel. Here are the final results in full -

1 Ines 35%
2 Evelin Samuel 29%
3 Sahlene 17%
4 Gerli Padar 11%
5 Sandra Oxenryd 5%

Bear in mind that the poll covered all those female singers and girlbands who have represented Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest, rather than those who are Estonian citizens. Therefore Vanilla Ninja were excluded, while Swedes Sandra Oxenryd and Sahlene were both on the list.

Featured : Vanilla Ninja

Vanilla Ninja are a girlband from Estonia. They were the overwhelming favourites of the public when they competed in Eurolaul - the Estonian national selection for Eurovision - with the song Club Kung-Fu, but were overlooked by the international jury of musical 'experts' who made the final decision. Strangely they were then invited to compete for Switzerland in the 2005 competition, which at least had the advantage of allowing the Estonian public to vote for them in the televote! They did so in droves, and the group's rock track Cool Vibes finished in a creditable eighth position on the final leaderboard.

You can visit Vanilla Ninja's official site, complete with photos and videos, here. Please note the site will first appear in Estonian, but there is an option in the top right-hand corner to switch to English.

Estonian Eurovision poll

It's still a couple of months before all the entries will be known and we can open our 'sexiest woman of Eurovision 2009' poll, but in the meantime we'll have some other Eurovision-related polls to whet your appetite. We're starting today by asking you who you think is the sexiest singer or girlband to compete for Estonia since the country first appeared in the contest in 1994.

Among the contenders are Ines, who famously performed in a green cowboy hat in 2000. She started as favourite to win the competition but ultimately finished fourth. Others are the Swedish imports Sahlene (who controversially carried the hopes of the country when it hosted the contest in 2002) and Sandra Oxenryd. Also there is Maarja, who has the rare distinction of having sung in the Eurovision in two consecutive years.

Vote wisely!

Eurovision 2008 poll

Kalomira of Greece won a knife-edge victory over Ukraine's Ani Lorak to be crowned the sexiest woman of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in our poll. Both women polled 14% of the vote, but Kalomira was one ahead in terms of the absolute votes cast.

1 Kalomira (Greece) 14%
2 Ani Lorak (Ukraine) 14%
3 Vânia Fernandes (Portugal) 12%
4 Maria Haukaas Storeng (Norway) 11%
5 Morena (Malta) 7%
6 Jelena Tomašević (Serbia) 6%
= Nico (Romania) 6%
8 Tereza Kerndlová (Czech Republic) 5%
9 Rebeka Dremelj (Slovenia) 3%
10 Sirusho (Armenia) 3%
= Tamara (Macedonia) 3%
12 Regína Ósk (Iceland) 2%
13 Olta Boka (Albania) 1%
= Soetkin Baptist (Belgium) 1%
= Hind (Netherlands) 1%
= Isis Gee (Poland) 1%
17 Kathleen Burke (Ireland) **
= Gisela (Andorra) **
= Diana Gurtskaya (Georgia) **

(** - less than 1% but more than zero)