Romania Places 20th At 2008 Eurovision Song Contest
Moldova and Spain each gave Romania 12 points, San Marino – one point, Israel – six points, Cyprus – three points, Ireland – three points, France – four points and Portugal – four points.
However, Great Britain, Macedonia, Ukraine, Germany, Estonia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Albania, Belgium, Latvia, Serbia, Island, Norway, Hungary, Andorra, Poland, Slovenia, Armenia, the Czech Republic, Holland, Turkey, Malta, Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Greece, Finland, Croatia, Sweden, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Montenegro, Georgia and Denmark gave Romania no points.
Bilan’s ballad "Believe" gave him a comfortable win over rivals from Ukraine- 230 points and Greece- 218 points, and brought Russia its first win at the yearly pop and rock contest.
Bilan was joined on stage by Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton and Russian Olympic skater Evgeny Plushchenko, who pirouetted on artificial ice to the tune.
The 2008 edition of the Eurovision song contest featured a record 43 countries and was held in the Serbian capital Belgrade because their contestant, Marija Serifovic, won in Finland last year with her ballad "Molitva" or "Prayer.”