The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th annual contest of the Eurovision Song Contest. It was hosted in the Baku Crystal Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan after Ell and Nikki won for Azerbaijan in 2011 with Running Scared. The two semi-finals were hosted on the 22 and 24 May 2012 and the final on 26 May 2012.
The contest was won by Loreen from Sweden with the song Euphoria which was written by Thomas G:son and Peter Boström. Euphoria earned a total of 372 points, placing it in the top spot. Russia finished in second place, with Serbia finishing in third. They were followed by the host country, Azerbaijan, which reached the 4th place. Albania achieved its first top 5 placing and finished 5th, which was their best result to date. Germany, Italy and Spain were the three members of the Big Five that managed to rank within the top 10, finishing in 8th, 9th and 10th places respectively.
Format[]
Presenters[]
LTR: Leyla Aliyeva, Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen
Television presenter Leyla Aliyeva, 2011 winner Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen (also a television presenter) hosted the three shows.[1]
Theme[]
The theme for the 2012 Contest was "Light Your Fire!"[2]This matches Azerbaijan's nickname - "Land of Fire."
An example of the postcards
The Pre-Song Postcards reflected many aspects of Azerbaijan and Baku and acted as a tourism mechanism to present the country and the city to the world. Some postcards focused on Azerbaijan, while others focused on Baku with a shot of a famous landmark or landscape. The postcards then cut to a shot of the Crystal Hall lit up in the colours of the performing country.
Location[]
Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal parts: the downtown and the old Inner City. Baku's urban population at the beginning of 2009 was estimated at just over two million people.
Participants[]
The semi-final allocation draw was held on 25 January 2012 at the Buta Palace. The insignia handover ceremony took place before the draw began, officially beginning the countdown to the contest.
The pots were as follows, calculated by the EBU's voting providers Digame and based on historical voting patterns[3]:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 | Finalists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Albania Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia North Macedonia Montenegro Serbia
|
 Denmark Estonia Finland Iceland Norway Sweden
|
 Belarus Georgia Israel Moldova Russia Ukraine
|
 Armenia Belgium Cyprus Greece The Netherlands Türkiye
|
 Ireland Latvia Lithuania Malta Portugal Romania
|
 Austria Bulgaria Hungary San Marino Slovakia Slovenia
|
 Azerbaijan (Host) France Germany Italy Spain United Kingdom
|
Returning Artists[]
| Artist(s) | Previous Year(s) |
|---|---|
| Jónsi | 2004 |
| Jedward | 2011 |
| Kaliopi | 1996 Pre-qualifier round |
| Željko Joksimović | 2004 |
Languages[]
Party for Everybody was mainly sung in Udmurt, a first for the contest.- Love Unlimited featured lyrics in Azerbaijani, another first for the contest.
- I'm a Joker featured lyrics in Georgian, yet another first for the contest.
- När jag blundar was the first Eurovision entry to be performed in Swedish since 1998.
- Woki mit deim Popo was the first Austrian entry to be performed in German since 2004.
Gallery[]
Semi-Final One[]
Azerbaijan, Italy and Spain voted in this semi-final. The EBU allowed RTSH, the Albanian broadcaster to not broadcast this semi final due to a bus accident. This meant Albania used a full jury vote instead of the televote.
Semi-Final Two[]
France, the United Kingdom and Germany voted in this semi-final. Germany requested that the country vote in this semi final. Armenia was supposed to participate in this semi, but then withdrew for security reasons.
Final[]
Withdrawing[]
- Andorra cited financial reasons for their withdrawal on 19 October 2011.[4]
- Armenia withdrew for security reasons on 7 March 2012 after President Aliyev of Azerbaijan gave a speech saying "Our main enemies are Armenians of the world and the hypocritical and corrupt politicians under their control."[5]. AMPTV was fined by the EBU for their withdrawal [6]
- The Czech Republic withdrew on 24 November 2011 due to scheduling conflicts. [7]
- Monaco seemed to be considering a return to the Contest, but Phil Bosco (a former Head of Delegation) confirmed there was a lack of funds. [8]
- Poland withdrew to concentrate on hosting the UEFA European Football Championship with Ukraine. [9]
Trivia[]
- This year marks the first time since 2003 where Greece doesn't make the top ten. Coincidentally, both songs attained the same place (17th).
- This was the first year that Georgia didn't qualify for the grand final.
- This year marked North Macedonia's first qualification since 2007, but also their last until 2019.
- This was the first year where the winner debuted the highest on the ESC Top 250.
- Azerbaijan's 4th Place was the best result for a host nation since the Semifinals were introduced
Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=51763&_t=eldar_nargiz_leyla_to_host_eurovision_2012
- ↑ http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=43383&_t=baku_2012_light_your_fire
- ↑ http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=45043&_t=results_of_the_semi-final_allocation_draw
- ↑ http://www.escdaily.com/articles/24348
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140611150354/http://en.president.az/articles/4423
- ↑ http://en.ria.ru/world/20120503/173190419.html
- ↑ http://escdaily.com/articles/26649
- ↑ http://eurovisiontimes.wordpress.com/2011/12/03/monaco-dampned-expectations/
- ↑ http://www.escdaily.com/poland-tvp-withdraws-from-eurovision-2012/