MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - The glitzy Eurovision final gets underway later Saturday night at Moscow's Olympiyskiy Indoor Arena and promises to be the most extravagant and flamboyant song contest in Euro history.
Moscow, which has spent an impressive $42 million on the competition, won the right to host the event for the first time when Russian pop singer Dima Bilan took first place in last year's Eurovision final, held in Belgrade, with his song Believe.
This year sees the introduction of new voting rules, involving a mixture of SMS and jury votes to select the most popular acts out of the 25 countries.
Over 100 million people are expected to tune in to watch the live show, which starts at 23:00 p.m. Moscow time (19:00 GMT), with bookies favorite Norway tipped to win, closely followed by Greece, Azerbaijan, Turkey and the U.K.
Russia will be represented by Ukrainian singer Anastasia Prikhodko with her song Mamo.
The running order for Saturday's final is as follows:
1 Lithuania Sasha Son, song Love
2 Israel Noa and Mira Awad , song There Must Be Another Way
3 France Patricia Kaas, song Et S'il Fallait Le Faire
4 Sweden Malena Ernman, song La Voix
5 Croatia Igor Cukrov and Andrea Susnjara, song Lijepa Tena
6 Portugal Flor-de-lis, song Todas As Ruas Do Amor
7 Iceland Yohanna, song Is It True?
8 Greece Sakis Rouvas, song This Is Our Night
9 Armenia Inga and Anush, song Jan-Jan
10 Russia Anastasia Prikhodko song Mamo
11 Azerbaijan AySel and Arash, song Always
12 Bosnia and Herzegovina Regina, song Bistra Voda
13 Moldova Nelly Ciobanu, song Hora din Moldova
14 Malta Chiara, song What If We
15 Estonia Urban Symphony, song Randajad
16 Denmark Brinck, song Believe Again
17 Germany Alex Swings, Oscar Sings! song Miss Kiss Kiss Bang
18 Turkey Hadise, song Dum Tek Tek
19 Albania Kejsi Tola, song Carry me in your dreams
20 Norway Alexander Rybak, song Fairytale
21 Ukraine Svetlana Loboda, song Be my Valentine/Anti-crisis girl
22 Romania Elena, song The Balkan Girls
23 United Kingdom Jade Ewen, song It's My Time
24 Finland Waldo's People, song Lose Control
25 Spain Soraya, song La Noche Es Para Mi
Security is expected to be tight with over 8,500 police and security officers on duty at the venue.
