Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, Boyzone's No Matter What, B*Witched's C'est La Vie, Because We Want To by Billie, The Spice Girls' Viva Forever or Never Ever by All Saints... which is your favourite?

Tonight we're all getting the chance to name our favourite pop song of 1998, in a special one-off television show guaranteed to get everyone in the festive mood.

The Record of the Year Show, on YTV at 6.05pm, is the first of its kind. It's the brainchild of 50-year-old pop impresario Jonathan King and is expected to see people rushing for their telephones, with 14,500 lines being opened for the event.

Producers are hoping it will turn into the biggest phone poll ever held in this country.

"It's such a simple idea and a very populist one," says the man who was responsible for turning round this country's fortunes in the Eurovision Song Contest over the past few years.

"There are always a dozen cracking songs each year and this will get people talking about them," reckons the goggle-eyed King.

1998 is also going to be remembered as the year pop came back with a bang. B*Witched took a philosophical view of proceedings with C'est La Vie, while bubblegum popsters Aqua needed the attention of Dr Jones and fab fivesome Steps recalled previous pop milestones with the Abbaesque One for Sorrow.

The show, hosted by Big Breakfast star Denise Van Outen, can best be described as Top Of The Pops meets Eurovision and Stars In Their Eyes.

So how does it all work?

Things kicked off last Saturday when 20 songs were shown on ITV in one-minute clips, based on the best-selling songs of the year, although the programme makers decided that each pop act could only have one track in the competition.

After the half-hour show has finished, phone lines will be opened for the rest of the night to allow viewers to vote for their favourite. The ten finalists will be chosen by this method plus a vote organised by music industry magazine Tip Sheet.

On the Record of the Year Show 1998 all ten acts will give live performances in the studio or have made specially-recorded videos for the event.

The first part of the show will be an hour long and the contestants will be joined by guests from other music stars not included in the final shake-up.

After this show has finished the phone lines will be thrown open again for an hour to let the expected millions of television viewers cast their votes.

Denise will return later in the evening for another half hour show to count in the votes from 15 regional juries and to discover what is the nation's favourite song of the year.

King believes the winner will show which bands we have all really been listening to during the past 12 months - as opposed to record industry awards, such as the Mercury Music Prize, which gives gongs for musical credibility.

The outspoken music industry entrepreneur was seconded by the BBC three years ago to try to turn round its fortunes at the Eurovision Song Contest and get some sort of commercial success for the UK's entries.

King himself is no stranger to chart success. His first hit was Everyone's Gone To The Moon which reached number four in 1965.

The music man went on to have 12 top 40 hits under a variety of guises up until 1979.

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