music.wikisort.org - Composition

The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the 2011 contest with the song "Running Scared" by the duo Ell & Nikki. It was the first time Azerbaijan hosted the contest – only four years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV), the contest was held at the Baku Crystal Hall, and consisted of two semi-finals on 22 and 24 May, and a final on 26 May 2012. The three live shows were presented by Azerbaijani television presenter Leyla Aliyeva, newsreader Nargiz Birk-Petersen and singer Eldar Gasimov who was one of the previous edition's winners.[4][5]

Eurovision Song Contest 2012
Light Your Fire!
Dates
Semi-final 1	22 May 2012 (2012-05-22)
Semi-final 2	24 May 2012 (2012-05-24)
Final	26 May 2012 (2012-05-26)
Host
Venue	Baku Crystal Hall Baku, Azerbaijan
Presenter(s)	Leyla Aliyeva Quliyeva Eldar Gasimov Nargiz Birk-Petersen
Directed by	Ladislaus Kiraly
Executive supervisor	Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer	Adil Kerimli
Host broadcaster	İctimai Television (İTV)
Opening act	Grand final: Alim Qasimov performing a short mugham intro followed by traditional Azerbaijani dancers, Ell and Nikki with "Running Scared"
Interval act	Semi-final 1: Natig Rhythm Group[1] Semi-final 2: Marija Šerifović, Dima Bilan, Alexander Rybak, Lena, Ell and Nikki along with traditional Azerbaijani instruments[2] Grand final: Emin Agalarov performing "Never Enough"[3]
Website	eurovision.tv/event/baku-2012
Participants
Number of entries	42
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Montenegro
Non-returning countries	Armenia  Poland
Participation map      Participating countries     Did not qualify from the semi final     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2012
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
Nul points in final	None
Winning song	Sweden "Euphoria"
2011 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 2013

Forty-two countries participated in the contest. Montenegro returned to the contest for the first time since 2009. Meanwhile, Armenia withdrew due to security concerns in relation to the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan. Poland also did not participate due to financial concerns.

The winner was Sweden with the song "Euphoria", performed by Loreen and written by Thomas G:son and Peter Boström. Russia, Serbia, Azerbaijan and Albania rounded out the top five, with Albania achieving their best result to date. Out of the "Big Five" countries, Germany, Italy and Spain all managed to rank within the top 10, finishing eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively.

The lead-up to the contest was met with political concerns and protests surrounding the host country, including its human rights record and allegations by advocacy groups that Baku was carrying out forced evictions in the construction of the contest's venue, along with objections to the contest's presence by Iranian officials – who felt that the event was anti-Islamic because it was, according to them, a "gay parade".

Location

Azerbaijan got the right to host the 2012 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest after winning the previous 2011 edition with the song "Running Scared" performed by Ell and Nikki.[6][7] Baku, the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region, was named the host city for the contest, with the venue being the Baku Crystal Hall, built a few months prior to the contest on the city's coastline.

Shortly after Azerbaijan's victory at the 2011 edition, officials announced that a new 23,000-seat concert venue was to be built near National Flag Square in Baku, as a potential venue for the event.[8][9] Three days later, other venue options were revealed by organisers, such as the 37,000-seat Tofiq Bahramov Stadium and the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex.[10] On 2 August 2011, Alpine Bau Deutschland AG was awarded the contract to construct the Baku Crystal Hall. Preparations for construction began in the area shortly after the announcement.[11] Even though the full cost of the contract was not named, the government allocated 6 million AZN for the construction of the venue.[12]

On 8 September 2011, Azad Azerbaijan TV (ATV) reported that Baku Crystal Hall would be the venue of the contest, but no formal confirmation was made at the time by the EBU. On 31 October 2011, Ismayil Omarov, the director general of Azerbaijani national broadcaster İctimai Television announced that a decision on the venue choice would be taken by the steering committee in January 2012.[13] On 25 January 2012, it was confirmed that the Baku Crystal Hall would be the venue of the contest.[14] Even though the venue had an extended capacity of 23,000 people, only 16,000 people were able to attend each show.[14] Tickets for the contest became available online for purchase on 28 February 2012.[15][16]

Format

In a meeting of the Eurovision Reference Group on 29 June 2011,[17] it was decided that the televoting system would revert the format used most recently in the 2009 contest, in which the phone and SMS lines opened for a fifteen-minute window after all songs had been performed, instead of opening before the show starts, which was the system used between 2010 and 2011. The results format of each show remained the same with each country's votes being decided on a 50:50 split between televoting and a national jury. Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry.[18]

Under the official rules released on 24 November 2011, the number of participants in the grand final was raised to 26, including the host nation, the "Big Five", and the ten qualifiers from each semi-final. This was the second time in the Eurovision Song Contest that 26 countries were in the grand final, the first being the 2003 contest.[18][19][20]

Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final running order was held on 25 January 2012 at the Buta Palace. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (Azerbaijan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom), were split into six pots, based upon how those countries voted in past contests. From these pots, half (or as close to half as possible) competed in the first semi-final on 22 May 2012. The other half in that particular pot competed in the second semi-final on 24 May 2012.[21] This draw also acted as an approximate running order, in order for the delegations from the countries to know when their rehearsals would commence and determine which semi-final the automatic finalists would be allowed to vote in.[22][23]

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3	Pot 4	Pot 5	Pot 6
Albania  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Macedonia  Montenegro  Serbia   Switzerland	Denmark  Estonia  Finland  Iceland  Norway  Sweden	Belarus  Georgia  Israel  Moldova  Russia  Ukraine	Armenia[lower-alpha 1]  Belgium  Cyprus  Greece  Netherlands  Turkey	Ireland  Latvia  Lithuania  Malta  Portugal  Romania	Austria  Bulgaria  Hungary  San Marino  Slovakia  Slovenia

Graphic design

The design of the contest was built around the motto "Light your fire!", inspired by the nickname of Azerbaijan itself, "Land of Fire".[24]

Each introductory video postcard began with a shot of the artist and performers, followed with the flag and country name in a handwritten font with a background resembling the yellow, orange and red fire of the 2012 theme art.[25] The postcards consisted of various shots of Azerbaijan, with a caption displaying 'Azerbaijan' and underneath 'Land of ...' (e.g. Land of Abundance; Land of Poetry etc.), which were then followed by the name of a town or geographic feature, showing the landscape and culture of the country.[25] Some postcards focused on the host city of Baku with text changing to 'Baku' and underneath 'City of ...' (e.g. City of Jazz; City of Leisure etc.). The postcards finished with a shot of the Crystal Hall displayed in the colours of the performing country's flag. These postcards acted as a tourism mechanism to present the country to a wider audience.[25][26]

The artist, song and number graphics as well as tables and voting graphics were kept the same as those used in 2011, with a slight modification to incorporate the 2012 theme art.[25] The lower points (1-7) were highlighted in red squares while the top points (8, 10, 12) were highlighted in orange squares with each square increasing in size in relation to the point value. Both sets of graphics were designed by London brand design agency Turquoise Branding.[27][28]

National host broadcaster

İctimai Television (İTV), which was the EBU member that broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan, is one of country's public-service broadcasters.[29][30] Deputy Minister of Communication and Information Technology of Azerbaijan, Iltimas Mammadov, stated that telecom networks were ready to host the event. Azerbaijan's largest telecommunications operator, Azercell, was chosen as the presenting partner for the contest.[31] On 1 December 2011, İTV named the German production company Brainpool as its official production partner for the contest, citing the quality of its work on the previous year's contest.[32]

Participating countries

On 17 January 2012, the EBU announced that initially forty-three countries would take part in the 2012 contest.[33] The 57th edition saw the return of Montenegro, who was last represented by Andrea Demirović in 2009.[34] Poland decided not to participate, due to the financial burden of the UEFA Euro 2012 (which Poland co-hosted with Ukraine) and the 2012 Summer Olympics.[33] Armenia, who had originally planned to participate, later withdrew their application due to security concerns related to the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Azerbaijan, subsequently reducing the number of participating countries to 42.[35]

Returning artists

Four artists returned in this year's contest. Kaliopi for Macedonia who previously participated in the 1996 contest with the song "Samo ti", which placed in 26th position in the pre-qualifying round.[36][37] Kaliopi would then go on to represent Macedonia once more at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

Jónsi for Iceland[38] and Željko Joksimović for Serbia[39] both previously participated in 2004. Joksimović had represented Serbia and Montenegro in 2004 with the song "Lane moje" which placed second in that year, and co-hosted the 2008 contest with Jovana Janković. Jónsi performed "Heaven" in 2004, which placed 19th.[40]

For a second consecutive year Jedward participated for Ireland, after their 8th-place finish at the 2011 contest with the song "Lipstick".[41][42]

Martina Majerle, who represented Slovenia in 2009, returned as a backing vocalist for Slovenia.

Lys Assia, the winner of the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956, had entered her song "C'était ma vie" written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the 2012 contest.[43][44] The song, however, only came eighth in a closely fought national selection. Assia attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour.[45]

Languages

The Finnish entry, "När jag blundar", sung by Pernilla Karlsson, was only Finland's second entry in Swedish (after "Fri?" by Beat in 1990) and the first entry at all to be sung in Swedish since 1998. Russia's entry, "Party for Everybody", sung by Buranovskiye Babushki, was the first entry ever to be performed in Udmurt. The Georgian entry, "I'm a Joker" was the first Eurovision entry containing the Georgian language while the Bulgarian song "Love Unlimited" had a few words in the Azerbaijani language, both of whom never appeared at the contest before.

Semi-final 1

Azerbaijan, Italy and Spain voted in the first semi-final.[21] The EBU allowed the Albanian broadcaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar (RTSH) to defer transmission and only use jury votes due to the Qafa e Vishës bus accident.[46]

R/O[47]	Country[33]	Artist[48]	Song[48]	Language[49]	Points	Place[50]
1	Montenegro	Rambo Amadeus	"Euro Neuro"	English[lower-alpha 2]	20	15
2	Iceland	Greta Salóme and Jónsi	"Never Forget"	English	75	8
3	Greece	Eleftheria Eleftheriou	"Aphrodisiac"	English	116	4
4	Latvia	Anmary	"Beautiful Song"	English	17	16
5	Albania	Rona Nishliu	"Suus"	Albanian[lower-alpha 3]	146	2
6	Romania	Mandinga	"Zaleilah"	Spanish, English	120	3
7	Switzerland	Sinplus	"Unbreakable"	English	45	11
8	Belgium	Iris	"Would You?"	English	16	17
9	Finland	Pernilla	"När jag blundar"	Swedish	41	12
10	Israel	Izabo	"Time"	English, Hebrew	33	13
11	San Marino	Valentina Monetta	"The Social Network Song (Oh Oh – Uh - Oh Oh)"	English[lower-alpha 4]	31	14
12	Cyprus	Ivi Adamou	"La La Love"	English	91	7
13	Denmark	Soluna Samay	"Should've Known Better"	English	63	9
14	Russia	Buranovskiye Babushki	"Party for Everybody"	Udmurt, English	152	1
15	Hungary	Compact Disco	"Sound of Our Hearts"	English	52	10
16	Austria	Trackshittaz	"Woki mit deim Popo"	German[lower-alpha 5]	8	18
17	Moldova	Pasha Parfeny	"Lăutar"	English[lower-alpha 6]	100	5
18	Ireland	Jedward	"Waterline"	English	92	6

Semi-final 2

France, Germany and the United Kingdom voted in the second semi-final. Germany requested that they vote in this semi-final.[21] Before it withdrew, Armenia was drawn to perform in the first half of this semi-final.[35]

R/O[47]	Country[33]	Artist[48]	Song[48]	Language[49]	Points	Place[51]
1	Serbia	Željko Joksimović	"Nije ljubav stvar" (Није љубав ствар)	Serbian	159	2
2	Macedonia	Kaliopi	"Crno i belo" (Црно и бело)	Macedonian	53	9
3	Netherlands	Joan Franka	"You and Me"	English	35	15
4	Malta	Kurt Calleja	"This Is the Night"	English	70	7
5	Belarus	Litesound	"We Are the Heroes"	English	35	16
6	Portugal	Filipa Sousa	"Vida minha"	Portuguese	39	13
7	Ukraine	Gaitana	"Be My Guest"	English	64	8
8	Bulgaria	Sofi Marinova	"Love Unlimited"	Bulgarian[lower-alpha 7]	45	11
9	Slovenia	Eva Boto	"Verjamem"	Slovene	31	17
10	Croatia	Nina Badrić	"Nebo"	Croatian	42	12
11	Sweden	Loreen	"Euphoria"	English	181	1
12	Georgia	Anri Jokhadze	"I'm a Joker"	English, Georgian	36	14
13	Turkey	Can Bonomo	"Love Me Back"	English	80	5
14	Estonia	Ott Lepland	"Kuula"	Estonian	100	4
15	Slovakia	Max Jason Mai	"Don't Close Your Eyes"	English	22	18
16	Norway	Tooji	"Stay"	English	45	10
17	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Maya Sar	"Korake ti znam"	Bosnian	77	6
18	Lithuania	Donny Montell	"Love Is Blind"	English	104	3

Final

R/O[47]	Country[33]	Artist[48]	Song[48]	Language[49]	Points	Place[53]
1	United Kingdom	Engelbert Humperdinck	"Love Will Set You Free"	English	12	25
2	Hungary	Compact Disco	"Sound of Our Hearts"	English	19	24
3	Albania	Rona Nishliu	"Suus"	Albanian[lower-alpha 3]	146	5
4	Lithuania	Donny Montell	"Love Is Blind"	English	70	14
5	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Maya Sar	"Korake ti znam"	Bosnian	55	18
6	Russia	Buranovskiye Babushki	"Party for Everybody"	Udmurt, English	259	2
7	Iceland	Greta Salóme and Jónsi	"Never Forget"	English	46	20
8	Cyprus	Ivi Adamou	"La La Love"	English	65	16
9	France	Anggun	"Echo (You and I)"	French, English	21	22
10	Italy	Nina Zilli	"L'amore è femmina (Out of Love)"	English, Italian	101	9
11	Estonia	Ott Lepland	"Kuula"	Estonian	120	6
12	Norway	Tooji	"Stay"	English	7	26
13	Azerbaijan	Sabina Babayeva	"When the Music Dies"	English	150	4
14	Romania	Mandinga	"Zaleilah"	Spanish, English	71	12
15	Denmark	Soluna Samay	"Should've Known Better"	English	21	23
16	Greece	Eleftheria Eleftheriou	"Aphrodisiac"	English	64	17
17	Sweden	Loreen	"Euphoria"	English	372	1
18	Turkey	Can Bonomo	"Love Me Back"	English	112	7
19	Spain	Pastora Soler	"Quédate conmigo"	Spanish	97	10
20	Germany	Roman Lob	"Standing Still"	English	110	8
21	Malta	Kurt Calleja	"This Is the Night"	English	41	21
22	Macedonia	Kaliopi	"Crno i belo" (Црно и бело)	Macedonian	71	13
23	Ireland	Jedward	"Waterline"	English	46	19
24	Serbia	Željko Joksimović	"Nije ljubav stvar" (Није љубав ствар)	Serbian	214	3
25	Ukraine	Gaitana	"Be My Guest"	English	65	15
26	Moldova	Pasha Parfeny	"Lăutar"	English[lower-alpha 6]	81	11

Detailed voting results

The EBU and PwC audit company checked and verified the individual jury and televoting results, which were combined to create the overall national vote for the contests. On 18 June 2012, the EBU published the following results.[54][55]

Semi-final 1

Split results of semi-final 1[55]

Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Russia	152	Albania	131	Russia	189
2	Albania	146	Moldova	107	Romania	132
3	Romania	120	Greece	103	Albania	131
4	Greece	116	Cyprus	90	Ireland	116
5	Moldova	100	Romania	87	Greece	110
6	Ireland	92	Denmark	81	Cyprus	99
7	Cyprus	91	Hungary	76	Moldova	85
8	Iceland	75	Russia	75	Iceland	79
9	Denmark	63	Israel	72	Denmark	53
10	Hungary	52	Ireland	72	Switzerland	49
11	Switzerland	45	Iceland	70	Hungary	39
12	Finland	41	Finland	57	Finland	36
13	Israel	33	Switzerland	45	San Marino	25
14	San Marino	31	San Marino	42	Montenegro	24
15	Montenegro	20	Belgium	38	Latvia	18
16	Latvia	17	Montenegro	28	Israel	16
17	Belgium	16	Austria	27	Austria	15
18	Austria	8	Latvia	17	Belgium	2

Detailed voting results of semi-final 1[56][57]

		Total score	Montenegro	Iceland	Greece	Latvia	Albania	Romania	Switzerland	Belgium	Finland	Israel	San Marino	Cyprus	Denmark	Russia	Hungary	Austria	Moldova	Ireland	Azerbaijan	Italy	Spain
Contestants	Montenegro	20					12						8
	Iceland	75	5		5	5			4	5	10	4	3	8	10	1	4	2	2			1	6
	Greece	116	10	5			8	12	3	8		3	7	12	4	5		1	10	10	10	5	3
	Latvia	17	2													4			4	4	3
	Albania	146	12	3	10	4		4	12	10	5	5	10	10	7	2	10	12	1	1	12	12	4
	Romania	120	7	4	8		5		2	4		8	6	6	1	8	3	5	12	12	7	10	12
	Switzerland	45		2		7	3	2				1	1	2			8	3	8			8
	Belgium	16			4		2	1			2									6			1
	Finland	41		7		6	1		1	1		2			8		12			3
	Israel	33				1		5			3			1	3	6	5	7					2
	San Marino	31	4		2		10												7		5	3
	Cyprus	91	6	12	12	3	6	7		3	1	10				7			3	5	1	7	8
	Denmark	63		8	1	8		3	10		8		4	4		3	1			7		6
	Russia	152	8	6	7	12		6	8	12	12	12	2	7	12		7	10	6	8	8	2	7
	Hungary	52					7	8	6	6	4			5	5			4	5		2
	Austria	8		1					5	2
	Moldova	100	3		6	2	4	10	7		6	6	5	3	6	12	2	6		2	6	4	10
	Ireland	92	1	10	3	10				7	7	7	12		2	10	6	8			4		5

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semi-final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
5	Albania	Austria,  Azerbaijan,  Italy,  Montenegro,   Switzerland
	Russia	Belgium,  Denmark,  Finland,  Israel,  Latvia
3	Romania	Ireland,  Moldova,  Spain
2	Cyprus	Greece,  Iceland
	Greece	Cyprus,  Romania
1	Finland	Hungary
	Ireland	San Marino
	Moldova	Russia
	Montenegro	Albania

Semi-final 2

Split results of semi-final 2[55]

Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Sweden	181	Sweden	145	Sweden	180
2	Serbia	159	Serbia	141	Serbia	148
3	Lithuania	104	Ukraine	109	Lithuania	128
4	Estonia	100	Estonia	102	Turkey	114
5	Turkey	80	Malta	97	Estonia	88
6	Bosnia and Herzegovina	77	Bosnia and Herzegovina	77	Norway	72
7	Malta	70	Croatia	66	Bosnia and Herzegovina	70
8	Ukraine	64	Georgia	62	Macedonia	63
9	Macedonia	53	Macedonia	58	Bulgaria	59
10	Norway	45[lower-alpha 8]	Lithuania	55	Netherlands	51
11	Bulgaria	45[lower-alpha 8]	Belarus	52	Malta	39
12	Croatia	42	Portugal	49	Belarus	37
13	Portugal	39	Turkey	42	Portugal	37
14	Georgia	36	Slovenia	40	Croatia	34
15	Netherlands	35[lower-alpha 9]	Slovakia	40	Slovakia	32
16	Belarus	35[lower-alpha 9]	Netherlands	31	Slovenia	27
17	Slovenia	31	Bulgaria	27	Ukraine	24
18	Slovakia	22	Norway	25	Georgia	15

Detailed voting results of semi-final 2[58][59]

		Total score	Serbia	Macedonia	Netherlands	Malta	Belarus	Portugal	Ukraine	Bulgaria	Slovenia	Croatia	Sweden	Georgia	Turkey	Estonia	Slovakia	Norway	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Lithuania	France	Germany	United Kingdom
Contestants	Serbia	159		12	10	5	8	8	8	12	12	10	8	10		1	8	10	10	2	12	10	3
	Macedonia	53	8			1	2		5	7	6	7		1	8				8
	Netherlands	35									2		1		7	7		3		3		8	4
	Malta	70	3	2	2		5		6	6	4	5	4	4	6	3	2			6			12
	Belarus	35		1	1	4			12			2		8						7
	Portugal	39			6						3	3			1		5	5	4	1	8	3
	Ukraine	64	4	3		6	12	2		5		1	6	6		5	1	2	2	5	2		2
	Bulgaria	45	2	6		2		6							10			6	3		3	2	5
	Slovenia	31	10	4								8							5			4
	Croatia	42	12	7			1		1		8								12			1
	Sweden	181	7	8	12	8	7	10	7	10	10	6		12	5	12	12	12	7	10	6	12	8
	Georgia	36					6	1	10						3	4				12
	Turkey	80		10	7	12			2	8			7	3		2	3	1	6		7	6	6
	Estonia	100			8		4	12	3	3	1		12	7			10	8		8	10	7	7
	Slovakia	22	1			7		4					3			6					1
	Norway	45			3	3	3	3		2			10		4	8	4		1	4
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	77	5	5	5			5		1	5	12	5	2	12		6	4			4	5	1
	Lithuania	104	6		4	10	10	7	4	4	7	4	2	5	2	10	7	7			5		10

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semi-final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	Sweden	Estonia,  Georgia,  Germany,  Netherlands,  Norway,  Slovakia
4	Serbia	Bulgaria,  France,  Macedonia,  Slovenia
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Croatia,  Turkey
	Croatia	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Serbia
	Estonia	Portugal,  Sweden
1	Belarus	Ukraine
	Georgia	Lithuania
	Malta	United Kingdom
	Turkey	Malta
	Ukraine	Belarus

Final

Split results of the final[55]

Place	Combined		Jury		Televoting
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Sweden	372	Sweden	296	Sweden	343
2	Russia	259	Serbia	173	Russia	332
3	Serbia	214	Albania	157	Serbia	211
4	Azerbaijan	150	Italy	157	Turkey	176
5	Albania	146	Spain	154	Azerbaijan	151
6	Estonia	120	Estonia	152	Germany	125
7	Turkey	112	Ukraine	125	Romania	117
8	Germany	110	Azerbaijan	118	Albania	106
9	Italy	101	Moldova	104	Greece	89
10	Spain	97	Germany	98	Ireland	89
11	Moldova	81	Russia	94	Macedonia	79
12	Romania	71[lower-alpha 10]	Cyprus	85	Estonia	78
13	Macedonia	71[lower-alpha 10]	France	85	Moldova	75
14	Lithuania	70	Lithuania	82	Lithuania	68
15	Ukraine	65	Bosnia and Herzegovina	71	Cyprus	63
16	Cyprus	65	Malta	70	Bosnia and Herzegovina	57
17	Greece	64	Macedonia	69	Italy	56
18	Bosnia and Herzegovina	55	Greece	60	Spain	45
19	Ireland	46	Iceland	53	Iceland	39
20	Iceland	46	Romania	53	Ukraine	37
21	Malta	41	Denmark	51	United Kingdom	36
22	France	21	Turkey	50	Hungary	20
23	Denmark	21	Hungary	30	Denmark	18
24	Hungary	19	Norway	24	Norway	16
25	United Kingdom	12	Ireland	14	Malta	10
26	Norway	7	United Kingdom	11	France	0

Detailed voting results of the final[60][61]

		Total score	Albania	Montenegro	Romania	Austria	Ukraine	Belarus	Belgium	Azerbaijan	Malta	San Marino	France	United Kingdom	Turkey	Greece	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Moldova	Bulgaria	Switzerland	Slovenia	Cyprus	Croatia	Slovakia	Macedonia	Netherlands	Portugal	Iceland	Sweden	Norway	Lithuania	Estonia	Denmark	Latvia	Spain	Finland	Georgia	Italy	Serbia	Germany	Russia	Hungary	Israel	Ireland
Contestants	United Kingdom	12							1																							5		2										4
	Hungary	19			7										1			1						8															2
	Albania	146		10	1	8			10		1	12			5	10	6		4	12	3	4	5		12				1				5	1		6	3	12	1	6		8
	Lithuania	70		1				8		4	4		3	7					5							1				6		3		4			12				5			7
	Bosnia and Herzegovina	55		6		7									10					1	7		10	2	7														5
	Russia	259	3	4	4	5	10	12	8	10	3	10	4	3	7	4	3	6	6		8	5	6	3	4	4	8	7	7	8	6	8	8	10	8	8	5	10	7	7		7	7	6
	Iceland	46																			4	1		4						5		6	6		4	7				3		6
	Cyprus	65	6		2					2						12												8	12						5			5	8		2		3
	France	21				2											2			6								6	2					3
	Italy	101	7	2			4				10	7	1			3		5		5	5	2	2	5	5		2			4	4	7	3		1		4			2		5	4	2
	Estonia	120					1	4					10	4				2						10		7	7	10	8	7	8			8	6	10				4	6			8
	Norway	7																								3		1	3
	Azerbaijan	150	4	5			12	7			12	4		2	12	5	7	10	10			8		6	2						12						10		3		10		8	1
	Romania	71							3	6			2		4	7		12				3					4						1		10			7			1		6	5
	Denmark	21																										5		2		2				5		2		5
	Greece	64	12		8		5		2	5					3		1	4	1			12															1		4	1	3		2
	Sweden	372	5	7	10	12	6	6	12	7	6	3	12	12	6	6	8	7	8	7	10	10	7	12	6	12	3	12		12	10	12	12	12	12	12	8		10	12	12	12	12	12
	Turkey	112	10		3	3			7	12	8	5	5	1			4		7	3					8	8			6		1		2				7			8		3	1
	Spain	97			6	6			6			1	6	8			5		3	8		6				6	12	2	4			4				3						1	10
	Germany	110	2			4					2		7	6						4	2		4			2	10			3	3	10	10	7	3	1	2	8				10		10
	Malta	41					7	3		8		2		5	2										1						7								6
	Macedonia	71	8	8			3	2							8		12		2		6		8	1														1	12
	Ireland	46						1	4	1				10									3			5		4	5				4	5		4
	Serbia	214	1	12	5	10	2		5		5	6	8			8	10	3	12	10	12	7	12	7	10	10	5	3	10	10	5					2		6		10	4	4
	Ukraine	65						10		3	7					1		8							3		1			1	2	1		6	2		6	3			8			3
	Moldova	81		3	12	1	8	5				8				2				2	1		1				6						7		7			4			7	2	5

12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the grand final:

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
18	Sweden	Austria,  Belgium,  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland,  France,  Germany,  Hungary,  Iceland,  Ireland,  Israel,  Latvia,  Netherlands,  Norway,  Russia,  Slovakia,  Spain,  United Kingdom
4	Albania	Macedonia,  Italy,  San Marino,   Switzerland
	Azerbaijan	Lithuania,  Malta,  Turkey,  Ukraine
	Serbia	Bulgaria,  Croatia,  Montenegro,  Slovenia
2	Cyprus	Greece,  Sweden
	Greece	Albania,  Cyprus
	Macedonia	Bosnia and Herzegovina,  Serbia
1	Lithuania	Georgia
	Moldova	Romania
	Romania	Moldova
	Russia	Belarus
	Spain	Portugal
	Turkey	Azerbaijan

Spokespersons

The order in which each country announced their vote was determined in a draw following the jury results from the final dress rehearsal. Similar to the 2011 contest an algorithm was used to add as much excitement as possible. The spokespersons are shown alongside each country.[62]

Other countries

•  Andorra – On 19 October 2011, Andorra announced that there are no plans for the country to participate in 2012 due to financial difficulties; the country also had planned to withdraw from the EBU entirely.[64][65]
•  Armenia – On 7 March 2012, the EBU announced that Armenian Public Television (ARMTV) had decided to withdraw from participation despite originally being included in the list of participating countries. Its decision came after President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan gave a speech on 28 February 2012 when he stated "Our main enemies are Armenians of the world and the hypocritical and corrupt politicians under their control."[66][67] The country was consequently fined by the EBU and were expected to face further penalties, such as exclusion from participation in future contests if it failed to comply with the EBU requirements.[68][69] Armenia had been in a continuous state of war with Azerbaijan since the early 1990s because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.[70]
•  Czech Republic – On 24 November 2011, it was reported that the Czech Republic would not compete at the 2012 contest, following the release of a television schedule by Česká televize (ČT).[71]
•  Liechtenstein – On 26 November 2011, it was announced that two official EBU documents, published in March and October 2011, showed Liechtenstein's only national broadcaster 1FLTV as being granted active EBU membership, sparking speculations of a début for the nation.[72] However, on 29 November 2011, these documents were later confirmed as editing mistakes, and thus a début had yet to be planned.[73]
•  Luxembourg – On 31 December 2011, RTL Luxembourg confirmed that Luxembourg would not participate at the Eurovision in Baku.[74]
•  Monaco – It had been reported on 23 November 2011, at an EBU meeting in Geneva, that Monaco were considering a return to the 2012 contest.[75] However, on 3 December 2011, Phil Bosco, a former head of delegation told a French-speaking website that the Monegasque national broadcaster Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) did not intend to return to the Eurovision Song Contest any time in the near future, as there were no financial budget available.[76]
•  Morocco – In an interview with the French delegation it had been revealed that Morocco were "likely to return" to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with a new broadcaster 2M TV.[77] Reports about the proposed return of Morocco to the contest, after an absence of more than 30 years, were further enhanced at an EBU meeting in Geneva.[75][78]
•  Poland – On 16 December 2011, it had been reported on the official Facebook page of Telewizja Polska (TVP) that Poland were not returning for the 2012 contest.[79] This was confirmed a few days later, stating that the broadcaster had decided to focus on the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (which Poland co-hosted with Ukraine) and Summer Olympics. TVP stated that a return in 2013 has not been ruled out.[80][81][82]

Broadcasts

This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2021)

Most countries sent commentators to Baku or commentated from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, the provision of voting information.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Show(s)	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Albania	All shows	TVSH	Andri Xhahu
Austria	All shows	ORF eins	Andi Knoll	[83][84][85]
	Final		Stermann and Grissemann and Lukas Plöchl [de]
Azerbaijan	All shows	İTV	Konul Arifgizi and Saleh Baghirov [az]	[86]
Belarus	All shows	Belarus-1	Denis Kurian
Belgium	All shows	één, Radio 2	Dutch: André Vermeulen and Peter Van de Veire	[87]
		La Une	French: Jean-Pierre Hautier and Jean-Louis Lahaye [fr]	[88]
Bosnia and Herzegovina	All shows	BHT 1	Dejan Kukrić	[89]
Bulgaria	All shows	BNT	Georgi Kushvaliev and Elena Rosberg
Croatia	All shows	HRT 1	Duško Ćurlić
Cyprus	All shows	RIK 1	Melina Karageorgiou	[90]
Denmark	All shows	DR1, DR HD	Ole Tøpholm	[91]
Estonia	All shows	ETV	Marko Reikop
Finland	All shows	YLE TV2, YLE HD	Finnish: Tarja Närhi [fi] and Tobias Larsson	[92][93]
		YLE FST5	Swedish: Eva Frantz [fi] and Johan Lindroos
		YLE Radio Suomi	Finnish: Sanna Kojo and Jorma Hietamäki
France	SF2	France Ô	Audrey Chauveau [fr] and Bruno Berberes [fr]	[94]
	Final	France 3	Cyril Féraud and Mireille Dumas	[95]
		France Bleu	Fabien Lecœuvre [fr] and Serge Poezevara
Georgia	All shows	1TV	Temo Kvirkvelia
Germany	All shows	Das Erste	Peter Urban	[96]
		NDR 2	Thomas Mohr	[97]
		hr3	Tim Frühling	[98]
Greece	All shows	NET	Maria Kozakou	[99]
Hungary	All shows	m1	Gábor Gundel Takács [hu]	[100]
Iceland	All shows	Sjónvarpið	Hrafnhildur Halldorsdóttir	[101]
Ireland	Semi-finals	RTÉ Two	Marty Whelan	[102][103]
	Final	RTÉ One
		RTÉ Radio 1	Shay Byrne and Zbyszek Zalinski	[104]
Israel	All shows	IBA	No commentary
Italy	SF1	Rai 5	Federica Gentile [it]	[105]
	Final	Rai 2	Filippo Solibello [it] and Marco Ardemagni [it]	[106]
Latvia	All shows	LTV1	Valters Frīdenbergs	[107]
	Final		Kārlis Būmeisters	[108]
Lithuania	All shows	LRT	Darius Užkuraitis [lt]
Macedonia	All shows	MRT	Karolina Petkovska
Malta	All shows	TVM	Elaine Saliba and Ronald Briffa
Moldova	All shows	Moldova 1	Marcel Spătari
Montenegro	All shows	TVCG 1	Dražen Bauković and Tamara Ivanković
Netherlands	All shows	Nederland 1	Jan Smit and Daniël Dekker	[109][110]
Norway	All shows	NRK1	Olav Viksmo-Slettan	[111]
Portugal	All shows	RTP1	Pedro Granger [pt]	[112]
Romania	All shows	TVR 1	Leonard Miron and Gianina Corondan	[113]
Russia	All shows	Russia-1	Olga Shelest [ru] and Dmitry Guberniev	[114]
San Marino	All shows	SMtv San Marino	Lia Fiorio and Gigi Restivo	[115]
Serbia	SF1	RTS1	Dragan Ilić	[116]
	SF2/Final		Duška Vučinić-Lučić
Slovakia	All shows	Jednotka, Rádio Slovensko	Roman Bomboš
	Final	Rádio FM	Daniel Baláž [sk] and Pavol Hubinák	[117]
Slovenia	All shows	RTV SLO	Andrej Hofer [sl]
Spain	SF1	La 2	José María Íñigo	[118]
	Final	La 1
Sweden	All shows	SVT1	Gina Dirawi and Edward af Sillén	[119]
		SR P3	Carolina Norén and Björn Kjellman
Switzerland	SF1/Final	SF zwei	German: Sven Epiney	[120]
		RTS Deux	French: Jean-Marc Richard and Nicolas Tanner	[121]
	SF1	RSI La 2	Italian: Clarissa Tami [it] and Paolo Meneguzzi	[122]
	Final	RSI La 1
Turkey	All shows	TRT 1, TRT HD, TRT Türk, TRT Müzik, TRT Avaz	Bülend Özveren and Erhan Konuk [tr]	[123]
Ukraine	All shows	First National	Timur Miroshnychenko and Tetyana Terekhova	[124]
United Kingdom	Semi-finals	BBC Three	Scott Mills and Sara Cox	[125]
	Final	BBC One	Graham Norton	[126]
		BBC Radio 2	Ken Bruce	[127]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Show(s)	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref(s)
Armenia	All shows	Armenia 1	Gohar Gasparyan and Artur Grigoryan	[128]
Australia	All shows[lower-alpha 12]	SBS One	Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang	[129][130]
China	Final[lower-alpha 13]	CCTV-15	No commentary
Kazakhstan	All shows	Arna Media	Norberg Makhambetov and Kaldybek Zhaysanbay
Kyrgyzstan	All shows	KTRK	Elmar Osmonov and Aibek Akmatov

Incidents

Human rights concerns

Azerbaijan's large investment in hosting the Eurovision contest was widely discussed in Western media as an attempt to "mitigate misgivings about its poor democracy and human rights record".[131][132] Elnur Majidli, an activist imprisoned during the Arab Spring-inspired 2011 Azerbaijani protests, was released in an apparent effort to soften Azerbaijan's image ahead of the contest, but many political prisoners remained.[132] Human Rights Watch reported a "violent crackdown on protesters" on the eve of the contest,[133] and Amnesty International condemned the "stern crackdown of freedom of expression, dissent, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), critical journalists, in fact anyone who criticised the Aliyev regime too strongly" that continued up to the contest.[134]

Human Rights Watch also criticised the Azerbaijani government and the Baku City Authority for carrying out forced evictions against local residents, in order to allow for the demolition of flats to make way for construction in the neighbourhood where the Baku Crystal Hall was built.[135] The Public Association for Assistance to Free Economy, a transparency and economic rights campaign group, had described the evictions as a "violation of human rights", and as having "no legal authority". However, in a statement to the BBC, the EBU said that on a recent visit to Baku they had observed "that the construction of the concert hall [which] media reports refer to was already well under way on a clean construction site and thus there are no demolitions needed".[136] The EBU cited the "apolitical" nature of the contest and the Azerbaijani government's claim that the construction was not tied to the contest.[135]

The contest's eventual winner Loreen met local human rights activists during the contest, the only entrant to do so. She later told reporters, "Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things."[134] An Azerbaijan government spokesman criticized her in response, saying that the contest should not "be politicised"[134] and requested the EBU prevented further meetings of a similar nature.[137] Swedish diplomats replied that the EBU, the Swedish broadcaster SVT and Loreen had not acted against the competition's rules.[138]

On 26 May, a flash mob of anti-government protesters were quickly dispersed by police.[131] Activists expressed fears that they would face a crackdown when the international spotlight left Azerbaijan again at the end of the contest.[132] Before presenting the results of the German vote, the German spokesperson Anke Engelke gave a live statement that alluded to the human rights issues in Azerbaijan, saying: "Tonight nobody could vote for their own country. But it is good to be able to vote. And it is good to have a choice. Good luck on your journey, Azerbaijan. Europe is watching you."[139][140]

Tensions with Iran

Iranian officials objected to Azerbaijan hosting the contest, with Iranian clerics Ayatollah Mohammad Mojtahed Shabestari and Ayatollah Ja'far Sobhani condemning Azerbaijan for "anti-Islamic behaviour", while also claiming that Azerbaijan was hosting a gay parade.[141] This led to protests in front of Iranian embassy in Baku, where protesters carried slogans mocking the Iranian leaders. Ali Hasanov, head of the public and political issues department in Azerbaijani president's administration, said that gay parade claims were untrue, and advised Iran not to meddle in Azerbaijan's internal affairs.[142] In response, Iran recalled its ambassador from Baku,[143] while Azerbaijan demanded a formal apology from Iran for its statements in connection with Baku's hosting of the contest,[144] and later also recalled its ambassador from Iran.[145]

On 30 May, the Ministry of National Security of Azerbaijan announced that they had thwarted a series of planned terror attacks against the contest, among the targets being Baku Crystal Hall, as well as Marriott and Hilton hotels in Baku.[146] On 22 August, The Daily Telegraph reported that according to Western intelligence services, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei personally gave orders to the elite Quds Force unit to launch terrorist attacks against the West and its allies, including Azerbaijan during the contest.[147]

Other awards

In addition to the main winner's trophy, the Marcel Bezençon Awards and the Barbara Dex Award were contested during the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. The OGAE, "General Organisation of Eurovision Fans" voting poll also took place before the contest.

Marcel Bezençon Awards

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since 2002 by Sweden's then-Head of Delegation and 1992 representative Christer Björkman, and 1984 winner Richard Herrey, honours songs in the contest's final.[148] The awards are divided into three categories: Artistic Award, Composers Award, and Press Award.[149]

Category	Country	Song	Performer(s)	Composer(s)
Artistic Award	Sweden	"Euphoria"	Loreen	Thomas G:son Peter Boström
Composers Award
Press Award	Azerbaijan	"When the Music Dies"	Sabina Babayeva	Anders Bagge Sandra Bjurman Stefan Örn Johan Kronlund

OGAE

OGAE, an organisation of over forty Eurovision Song Contest fan clubs across Europe and beyond, conducts an annual voting poll first held in 2002 as the Marcel Bezençon Fan Award. After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 2012 poll was also the winner of the contest, "Euphoria" performed by Loreen; the top five results are shown below.[150][151][152]

Country	Song	Performer(s)	OGAE result
Sweden	"Euphoria"	Loreen	375
Italy	"L'amore è femmina (Out of Love)"	Nina Zilli	212
Iceland	"Never Forget"	Greta Salóme and Jónsi	211
Serbia	"Nije ljubav stvar"	Željko Joksimović	199
Norway	"Stay"	Tooji	164

Barbara Dex Award

The Barbara Dex Award is a humorous fan award given to the worst dressed artist each year. Named after Belgium's representative who came last in the 1993 contest, wearing her self-designed dress, the award was handed by the fansite House of Eurovision from 1997 to 2016 and is being carried out by the fansite songfestival.be since 2017.[153][154]

Place	Country	Performer(s)	Votes
1	Albania	Rona Nishliu	829
2	Ireland	Jedward	551
3	Bulgaria	Sofi Marinova	232
4	Netherlands	Joan Franka	163
5	Ukraine	Gaitana	145

Official album

Eurovision Song Contest: Baku 2012 was a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and released by Universal Music Group on 4 May 2012. The album featured all 42 songs that entered in the 2012 contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.[155]

Charts

Chart (2012)	Peak position
German Compilation Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[156]	2

See also

• ABU Radio Song Festival 2012
• ABU TV Song Festival 2012
• Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012

Notes

References

External links

• Official website

На других языках

---

- [en] Eurovision Song Contest 2012

---

[ru] Евровидение-2012

Конкурс песни «Евровидение-2012» (англ. Eurovision Song Contest 2012; фр. Concours Eurovision de la chanson 2012; азерб. 2012 Avroviziya Mahnı Müsabiqəsi) стал 57-м конкурсом «Евровидение»; он проводился в столице Азербайджана, в городе Баку, в специально построенном для фестиваля Бакинском кристальном зале[3]. Азербайджан проводил этот конкурс у себя впервые; право провести его было получено после того, как в 2011 году в немецком городе Дюссельдорфе дуэт «Ell & Nikki» с композицией «Running Scared» занял 1 место, набрав в финале 221 балл.

---

---