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esctoday.com Awards 2009
Yohanna wins Best female vocal performance award
The 2009 esctoday.com Award for Best female vocal performance goes to...
- ...Yohanna of Iceland
Yohanna represented Iceland in the Eurovision Song Contest, won the first semi final and finished second in the final with her song Is it true?.
- You can find the list of all award results revealed so far this year here.
The winner
This is the second esctoday.com award for Iceland this year and the fourth one overall following victories in the categories Best duo/group performance and Best duo/group vocal performance in 2008 as well as Best backing performers in 2009. It is still the first award in this category. Previously, this award has gone to Alenka Gotar (Slovenia) in 2007 and Vânia Fernandes (Portugal) in 2008.
Jóhanna Guðrún Jónsdóttir was born in Denmark, but her family moved to Reykjavik when she was two years old. Having successfully taken part in a singing competition, she entered a music school for children. Her talent was spotted early and she released her first album when she was only ten years old. The record turned out to be a success and a second album followed in 2001. Her last album for a few years, which included a collection of Christmas songs, was released in 2003 and she then took a break from the music business.
After years of training, in 2008 the singer launched her fourth album Butterflies and Elvis, which was a collaboration with British songwriter Lee Horrocks. In 2009, she entered the Icelandic national selection for the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest and could win it with the song Is it true?. After her second place in Moscow, the song became a commercial success in many countries all over Europe. Her follow-up single I miss you also reached the single charts in the United Kingdom.
The complete results
Getting about one third of the votes, Yohanna won this category ahead of Patricia Kaas, who has already taken home the trophy for Best female performance.
- Yohanna (Iceland) - 33.4%
- Patricia Kaas (France) - 22.7%
- Jade Ewen (United Kingdom) - 19.1%
- Malena Ernman - 15.6%
- Chiara (Malta) - 9.3%
The winning performance
esctoday.com interview with Yohanna in April 2009
The next category to see its winner revealed today will be Best male vocal performance.
Related polls
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Melodi Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Milli Seçim Turu
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the final of A Dal
- Iceland: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Songvakeppni Sjonvarpsins
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of A Dal
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the third semifinal of Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the semifinal of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
- Belarus: Vote for your favourite act in the final of EuroFest 2012
Go directly to the reactions
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Congrats, Yohanna. your vocal performance along with that of Urba Symphony were the best in the show. Why was Estonia nt nominated? I do not understand Malena's presence here, she was positively scary.
Malena ? Female?
Well done Yohanna! Simply loved that song and her voice was amazing too!
i'm supprised chiara came last, she has an amazing voice, much better than most of the people nominated.
I have lost again ;-) Μy best at this category was Jade followed by Yohanna.
There is no doubt Yohanna can sing, and she can sing note perfect. However the problem I have her voice is just like water, bland and just the same. It's just too manufactured and X-Factor winner style. Whereas some other singers have something about their voice which is unique and makes me want to listen to them more, therefore I though Yohanna shouldn't have won, but it's no crime that she won considering she can at least sing 
I really liked this ong at the time, but by now it's rtotally getting on my nerves!! But still; Yohana easily had the best vocals of these five nominees.
The only other female to match her was Sandra from Estonia. Why wasn't she nominated in this category?
Patricia did a great job, and I guess so did Jade, but none of them were as good as Yohanna. Chiara did an awesome job in 98, great in 05 but merely ok this year. Her voice gets more and more nasal every year...
Why Malena was even nominated here is a mystery to me. She has a fantastic voice when she performs opera, no question about that, but this category isn't "Best female vocal in the chorus", is it?
Yohanna deserved it, but Malena was the best! La voix!
I think Yohanna gave a great vocal performance but Patricia was equally good.
i also think people went for the song and not just plain vocals.. Malena though a great voice did a terrible job, almost off key during the verses.. Chiara is definitely a better vocalist than Jade or Yohanna and I really hated "what if we" and i'm no fan of Chiara.. Patricia was indeed another good option, but all these 5 women were good singers in comparison to many other "singers" that were in Moscow so that's good anyway
Malena sang horrible during the verses. An opera voice is not suitable for "normal" singing.
I think it should have gone to Malena
Should have gone to Malena! Not a fan of La Voix but she does have an incredicle voice! or even Patricia.
I'm so sick of 'Is it true'.
Patricia deserved this award. Then, Jade as the runner up.
I agree with this choice, but for me Patricia Kaas and Jade where also very good, they deserves to win this title too !!
Good Top 5 ! Bravo iceland !
I agree with Martin. All of them are very good singers and it was difficult to choose 
Congrats to Yohanna!
I am so sick of this song...
very hard to choose among these 5. They are all winners in this category!
I voted for Jade. But Im happy for Yohanna
i met her in turkey this summer, she is really such a sweetie and of course a very good singer
No Keith - here I voted for the vocal not the song.
Here people voted for the song, not the vocals.
She definitely deserves it! She did a wonderful job!!! Studio-quality performance
Thank god Patricia didn't win!!!
Yohanna deserved this one and then Jade.
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