On the Windows Phone Developer blog Microsoft has announced the finalists for its Windows Phone Next App Star contest, which aims to shine a spotlight on top apps, and ultimately, feature one of them in a prime-time US TV advert. The overall winner of the contest will be determined in a public vote via the Windows Phone Facebook page.

If you look through the list of finalists you'll likely see some familiar names, but there are a number of less well known apps too, covering a whole range of categories. It's a good opportunity to find something new for your Windows Phone handset.

Microsoft notes that the 64 finalists were chosen from more than 9,000 entrants, and therefore represent some of crème de la crème of the Windows Phone app scene:

Today, I’m pleased to announce the 64 finalist apps that will advance to the public voting phase of the competition. Developers from more than 79 markets entered a total of 9,000 apps in the competition, a higher volume than we had anticipated.Judging was conducted on a scoring of 50% based on total app ratings scores for the period March 6-12, and 50% on app quality, as determined by Microsoft. Congratulations to the finalists, and thank you to all developers who entered apps in the contest - all entries were creative and unique; some apps will be well-known to you while others are newcomers. Narrowing the field to 64 apps - 32 paid apps and 32 free apps - was not an easy task.

You can vote for your favourites on Facebook and in doing so will be entered into a draw for a Lumia 920.

Here's the bracket for the first round of voting: