RUSSIA: Dima Bilan, this year's Eursong winner says he believed in his victory all along

Record ID: 766892

  • Title: RUSSIA: Dima Bilan, this year's Eursong winner says he believed in his victory all along
  • Date: 25th May 2008
  • Summary: DIMA BILAN RAISING HIS ARMS AS PRESENTER ANNOUNCES HIM AS THE WINNER OF THE CONTEST, HUGGING PLUSHENKO AND MARTON DIMA BILAN, PLUSHENKO AND MARTIN POSING FOR CAMERAS MEDIA AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) DIMA BILAN, EUROVISION SONG CONTEST WINNER SAYING: "Thank you very much for appreciating my work, our affection is mutual. The faith is what is most important, the faith and honesty. All along I believed in my victory." WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE, SPANISH REPORTER WAVING, ASKING FOR MICROPHONE TO ASK QUESTION
  • Embargoed: 9th June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
  • Reuters ID: LVADE4XUL269DG656C1BTZ5V5UXE
  • Story Text: "Thank you very much for appreciating my work, our affection is mutual. The faith is what is most important, the faith and honesty. All along I believed in my victory," the winner of Eurovison Song contest Dima Bilan told a news conference in Belgrade on Sunday (May 25).
    Russia won the Contest on Saturday, with Dima Bilan beating 24 contestants to clinch his country's first victory in the event with the impassioned rock ballad "Believe".
    Bilan's performance also featured figure skating from Russian Olympic gold medallist Evgeni Plushenko and a head-banging violin accompaniment from Hungarian Edvin Marton on his centuries-old Stradivarius.
    Bilan is established pop star at home who came second in the 2006 contest held in Athens and hopes to launch an international career with an English-language album this year.
    When a Spanish reporter asked him if rumours that he was planning an album in Spanish language too, Dima said he would prefer to give an answer by singing and sang his song Believe in Spanish for some 200 reporters and 60 cameras at Belgrade's news conference.
    The song contest, the European Broadcasting Union's flagship programme and one of the most popular television shows on earth, has come a long way from its beginning as a black-tie, seven-country event held in Switzerland in 1956.
    Getting bigger every year, it has launched some truly global stars like Abba, but is more commonly associated with trite lyrics and predictable voting among neighbours, old allies and ethnic kin.
    Bilan received 272 points from telephone voters in 43 countries.
    Ukraine came second with 230 points and Greece third with 218 points.
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