Olta Boka did well in the final, her performance was even better in the semi-final. She got only one 12 pts and it was from Macedonia. Olta ended in pos. 17 with 55 pts.

The winner was Russia, so the ESC 2009 will be held in Russia.

1. Russia - 272
2. Ukraine - 230
3. Greece - 218
4. Armenia - 199
5. Norway - 182
6. Serbia - 160
7. Turkey - 138
8. Azerbaijan - 132
9. Israel - 124
10. Bosnia & Herzegovina - 110
11. Georgia - 83
12. Latvia - 83
13. Portugal - 69
14. Iceland - 64
15. Denmark - 60
16. Spain - 55
17. Albania - 55
18. Sweden - 47
19. France - 47
20. Romania - 45
21. Croatia - 44
22. Finland - 35
23. Germany - 14
24. Poland - 14
25. United Kingdom - 14

Serbs booed when Albania’s representative in ESC went on stage during the tests on Friday. The protracted conflict between Serbia and Kosovo are the basis for the outbreaks.

“I think probably she would like to see more booing when we go live out to the whole of Europe,” according to Simon Simonovic, who is working as an advisor to the Norwegian Entranse-SINTEF project in Serbia, and follows the rehearsals together with the Norwegian businessmen.

“This shows that Serbs will never accept Kosovo as a state”, he says.

Will lead to sympathy votes
“I think this will give Albania sympathy votes from the other countries,“ according to Per Sundnes.

“She is so confident and good for being only 16 years, that this fall on its own unreasonableness, and I believe it will lead to sympathy votes from the rest of Europe” he says.
75 Cent from Croatia also experienced booing from the audience during the tests on Friday.
He also believes that Romania, Spain, Bosnia and the Russian Federation will get to experience extraordinary amount of applause from the audience because they have not recognized Kosovo as a state. This will also have an impact on the votes from Serbia in the morning. (source: nrk.no)

After the Second Semi-Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest had finished, representatives of the ten qualifying countries gathered for the official winners press conference. At the same time, their starting positions in the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday were decided by drawing lots.

The third country to answer questions was Albania. Olta Boka was asked if her dream came true, she said “My heart is beating so fast now, it’s a big thing for me to be in the final, and I am so so happy, and I will do my best again in the final, despite certain sections of the crowd booing.”Albania was drawn 3rd in the final. [read more]

16 year old Albanian singer Olta Boka is the youngest participant in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision.tv’s Glen Webb caught up with Olta earlier today.
Can we begin Olta by getting a little background information on your career so far, from when you began performing right through to now?

Olta: “I started singing at nine years old, with the Choir of Angels led by National Opera Music Master Suzana Turku. I then took part in a lot of childrens festivals both in Albania, and also countries like Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia. I also entered a European Song Contest for children, and I came in second place. At age 10 I was part of a concert in Albania called Little Genius where I took the prize for greatest interpretation. My biggest victory was of course in the Albanian national selection, which I won and it got me the ticket here.” [read more]