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Revision as of 14:14, 27 April 2012 by Dim.vas.nikol (talk | contribs) (→Semi-final allocation draw)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) "Eurovision 2012" redirects here. For the Junior Contest, see Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012.| Eurovision Song Contest 2012 | |
|---|---|
| "Light Your Fire!" | |
 | |
| Dates | |
| Semi-final 1 | 22 May 2012 |
| Semi-final 2 | 24 May 2012 |
| Final | 26 May 2012 |
| Host | |
| Venue | Baku Crystal Hall, Baku, Azerbaijan |
| Presenter(s) | Leyla Aliyeva, Eldar Gasimov and Nargiz Birk-Petersen |
| Host broadcaster |  İTV |
| Website | eurovision |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 42 |
| Debuting countries | None |
| Returning countries |  Montenegro |
| Non-returning countries |  Armenia  Poland |
| 2011 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 2013 | |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 will be the 57th annual Eurovision Song Contest. It will be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, following Azerbaijan's win in the 2011 Contest with Eldar & Nigar's song "Running Scared". The two semi-finals will be held on 22 May and 24 May 2012, and the final on 26 May 2012. Ten countries from each semi-final will qualify for the final and will be joined by Azerbaijan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Forty-two countries have announced their participation in the contest, with Montenegro returning, having last taken part in 2009, and Poland and Armenia withdrawing.
Venue
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The venue for the 2012 Contest is the Baku Crystal Hall in the Azerbaijani capital.
On 16 May 2011, it was announced that a special concert complex with 23,000 seats for the 2012 Contest was to be built near National Flag Square in Baku. Three days later, organisers announced that they may use the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium which contains 37,000 seats, or the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex. On 4 August 2011, it was confirmed that the laying of foundations for the Baku Crystal Hall had started near the National Flag Square, but did not confirm that this was the location. The foundations were completed on 14 October 2011, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest, did still not confirm the location. Tofiq Bahramov Stadium, which is currently under repairs to host the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in September–October 2012, was to be used as a back-up option.
On 8 September 2011, Azad Azerbaijan TV (ATV) reported that Baku Crystal Hall will be the venue of Eurovision Song Contest 2012, despite not being the host broadcaster of the contest. No formal confirmation was made at the time by the EBU. On 31 October 2011, Mr. 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. On 25 January 2012, it was confirmed that the Baku Crystal Hall will be the venue of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. Even though the venue has an extended capacity of 23,000 people, only 16,000 people will be able to attend each show.
Human Rights Watch has 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 is being built. The Public Association for Assistance to Free Economy, a transparency and economic rights campaign group, has described the evictions as a "violation of human rights", and as having "no legal authority". However, in a statement from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), it was said that on a visit to Baku they had observed "that the construction of the concert hall media reports refer to is already well under way on a clean construction site and thus there are no demolitions needed". The EBU cites the "apolitical" nature of the contest and the Azerbaijani government′s claim that the construction is not tied to the Eurovision Song Contest.
Baku, Azerbaijan
Tofiq Bahramov Stadium
Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex
Baku Crystal Hall
Ticket sale
Ticket sales began on 28 February 2012, and are available online.
National host broadcaster
İctimai Television, which is the EBU member that broadcasts the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan, is one of country's public-service broadcasters. 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. On 1 December 2011, Brainpool was announced as being the official Production Partner, as İTV were impressed with the German television production company's excellence with the production of the 2011 contest.
Format
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In a meeting of the Eurovision Reference Group on 29 June 2011, it was decided that the televoting system would revert back to the 15-minute window between the 1998 Contest and 2009 Contest in which the phone and SMS lines will open after all songs have been performed instead of opening before the show starts, a system used between 2010 and 2011. The results format of each show will remain the same with each country's votes being decided on a 50:50 split between televoting and a national jury.
Under the official rules released on 24 November 2011, the number of participants in the final will be raised to 26, including the host nation, the "Big Five", and the ten qualifiers from each semi-final. This will be the second time in the Eurovision Song Contest that 26 countries will be in the final, the first being the 2003 Contest.
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) will compete in the first semi-final on 22 May 2012. The other half in that particular pot will compete in the second semi-final on 24 May 2012. This draw also acts as an approximate running order, in order for the delegations from the countries to know when their rehearsals will commence and determine which semi-final the automatic finalists will be allowed to vote in.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
- 1. Armenia withdrew 1.5 months after the semi-final allocation draw.
Graphic design
The design of the contest is expected to be built around the motto "Light your fire!", inspired by the nickname of Azerbaijan itself, "Land of Fire".
Participating countries
| Eurovision Song Contest 2012 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Countries |
| ||||||
| Artists | |||||||
| Songs |
| ||||||
On 17 January 2012, the EBU announced that forty-three countries would take part in the 2012 contest. The 57th edition sees the return of Montenegro, which last participated in 2009, as well as the withdrawal of Poland and Armenia. The draw to determine the running order for the semifinals and grand final took place on 20 March 2012.
Semi-final 1
Azerbaijan, Italy and Spain will vote in this semi-final.
- 2. Contains some phrases in Montenegrin and German.
- 3. Although the song is completely in Albanian, the title is in Latin.
- 4. "suus" is a Latin third person possessive term, and can mean either his, her, or its.
- 5. Contains some phrases in Italian.
- 6. Contains some phrases in Arabic.
- 7. Austrian entry will be sung in Mühlviertlerisch, a dialect of Upper Austria.
- 8. Although the song is completely in English, the title is in Romanian.
Semi-final 2
France, Germany and United Kingdom will vote in this semi-final. Germany requested they vote in this semi-final. Armenia was drawn to perform in the first half of this semi-final, but later withdrew from the contest due to security reasons.
- 9. The song also contains sentences in Arabic, Azerbaijani, English, French, Greek, Italian, Romani, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Finalists
| Draw | Country | Language | Artist | Song | English translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  United Kingdom
|
English | Engelbert Humperdinck | "Love Will Set You Free" | — |
| 09 |  France
|
French, English | Anggun | "Echo (You and I)" | — |
| 10 |  Italy
|
English, Italian | Nina Zilli | "L'amore è femmina (Out of Love)" | Love Is Female (Out of love) |
| 13 | Azerbaijan (host)
|
English | Sabina Babayeva | "When the Music Dies" | — |
| 19 |  Spain
|
Spanish | Pastora Soler | "Quédate conmigo" | Stay with me |
| 20 |  Germany
|
English | Roman Lob | "Standing Still" | — |
Returning artists
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) | Place(s) in the previous contest(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jónsi |  Iceland
|
2004 | 19th |
| Jedward |  Ireland
|
2011 | 8th |
| Kaliopi |  MacedoniaFYROM
|
1996 | 26th (Pre-qualifying round) |
| Željko Joksimović |  Serbia
|
2004 (for  Serbia and Montenegro)
|
2nd |
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 has plans to withdraw from the EBU entirely.- Armenia – On 7 March 2012, the EBU announced that Armenian Public Television (ARMTV) had decided to withdraw from participation. This was due to circumstances beyond the control of the EBU. In a further statement released by ARMTV, it was announced that the sudden withdrawal was due to security issues. The country has been in conflict with Azerbaijan since 1994 because of the Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Czech Republic – On 24 November 2011, it was reported that the Czech Republic would not compete in the 2012 contest, following the release of a television schedule by Česká televize (ČT).
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 debut for the nation. However, on 29 November 2011, these documents were later confirmed as editing mistakes, and thus a debut has yet to be planned.
Luxembourg – On 31 December 2011, RTL Luxembourg confirmed that Luxembourg won't participate in the forthcoming Eurovision in Baku.
Monaco – It was reported on 23 November 2011, at an EBU meeting in Geneva, that Monaco was considering a return to the 2012 contest. 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) doesn't intend to return to the Eurovision Song Contest any time in the near future, as there is no financial budget available.
Morocco – In an interview with the French delegation it was revealed that Morocco were "likely to return" to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2012 with a new broadcaster 2M TV. 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.- Poland – On 16 December 2011, it was reported on the official Facebook page of Telewizja Polska (TVP) that Poland would be withdrawing from the 2012 Contest. This was confirmed a few days later, saying that the broadcaster would be focusing on the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship (which Poland is co-hosting with Ukraine) and Summer Olympics. TVP stated that a return in 2013 has not been ruled out.
Commentators
Most countries will be sending commentators to Baku or will commentate from their own country, in order to add insight to the participants and, if necessary, provide voting information.
Australia – Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang (SBS)
Austria – Andi Knoll
Belgium – Dutch: André Vermeulen and Peter Van de Veire (Eén), French: Jean-Pierre Hautier and Jean-Louis Lahaye (La Une)- France – Cyril Féraud and Mireille Dumas (France Télévisions)
Hungary – Gábor Gundel Takács (m1)
Netherlands – Jan Smit and Daniël Dekker(TROS)
Sweden – Edward af Sillén and Gina Dirawi (SVT)- United Kingdom – Scott Mills and Sara Cox (BBC Three and BBC HD, semi-finals) and Graham Norton (BBC One and BBC One HD, final)
Spokespersons
References
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