Songfacts®:

• During and after the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, there were numerous complaints about block voting by the former Soviet countries, and the UK presenter Terry Wogan actually quit his job in protest over it. That being said, it is difficult to view the inspirational ballad "Believe" as anything but a worthy winner. The Russian entry was performed by Dima Bilan, who co-wrote the song with two Black Americans: Jim Beanz (James David Washington) and Timbaland (Timothy Zachery Mosley). Timbaland is better known as a hip-hop producer.
• Several versions of the song were released, including in Russian and Spanish. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2
• Jim Beanz told MTV UK how he ended up writing a Eurovision winning song. He explained: "I was in Miami working on The Pussycat Dolls and Chris Cornell, I had double sessions each day. I had already worked with the winner, who is a Russian artist named Dima Bilan in the past. He called my management and really wanted to get in the studio with me. He really wanted to compete in the contest.
  
  I went into the studio and wrote the song in an hour, honestly! and did the music within that hour! The crazy part about it was, as far as writing the song, the only thing I kept thinking was every word in this song has to be something that someone from another language or country has to be able to understand.
  
  The first song that popped into my head was 'I Believe I Can Fly.' I think in general songs that people gravitate towards are the ones that are easiest to remember. I think that is the reason why 'If We Ever Meet Again' did so well on the radio over here."