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Today TVE announced Pastora Soler will represent the country at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku.

33 year old Pastora Soler has been selected internally by TVE to represent Spain at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan. The song she is going to zing has not been selected yet, but will be determined in a televised show, where jury and televote will together select the winning song.

Soler has been active in the Spanish music scene since the mid nineties and has quite some albums on her CV. This year she was nominated for a Latin Grammy with her album '15 años' . Source TVE

Finally a top position, for sure!

News Round-up of the day. The president of the Danish Eurovision fanclub urges DR to boycott the contest because of human right issues.

Johann Sørensen, the president of MelodiGrandPrisFans.dk has released a press statement in which he askes Danish broadcaster DR to boycott this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan. This was a direct response to a documentary earlier this week, broadcast by BBC, in which it was shown how people were forced out of their houses in downtown Baku on the spot where the buildings for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest are planned. More ESC news below.

++ MF snippets on Thursday ++ Spanish and Slovak entries known beginning of February ++ Greek go commercial ++ ..

The Azerbaijani  are obviously very proud about the logo of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. The logo symbolizing a fire flower. It has even been declared the best Eurovision logo ever. Do you agree? Or do you prefer the colourful logo in Moscow, the graphical one in Helsinki or the pearls in Oslo? Please do let us know!

++ Sanremo continues ++  Belarus selected an artist! ++ Georgia announces its national final ++..

TVE, the Spanish broadcaster has announced the four songs for Pastora Soler today. Listen to them here, and tell us which one you like best! Two of them (Quédate Conmigo and Tu vida es tu vida) are already qualified for the final on 3 March and a third one will join them from the remaining two.

++ Most expensive contest ever! ++ New albums and singles released  ++ Finally a Eurovision song in Azerbaijani! ++..

"Blood of the European scum must be shed by the will of Allah.", that's the statement a Azeri terror group has released yeaterday. This message came shortly after a crackdown on the group by Azeri authorities. Extra measurements have been taken now to assure the safety of all artists participating.

++ Spain gives us goosebumps ++ Jedward will carry Olympic flame  ++ Irish winners on tour ++ Douze points continues ++..

OGAE, the biggest international Eurovision fan club, with branches in almost all countries taking part in the contest asks its members each year to speak out, what they think about that year's entries. Resulting in a Eurovision style voting, with a 12, a 10, an 8, etc. being awarded to the songs by each and every country. The results right now, after 27 countries' voting, is showing a clear victory for Sweden. Loreen's Euphoria got no leaa than 295 points so far, with number two, Italy far behind with 162 points. See the current top 10 below. A number of countries still has to vote, but wether that can change results is to be doubted.

++ Line up Spain complete ++  Amnesty International critical about Azerbaijan ++ Talking to Charlotte tonight! ++ ..

There is the general prejudice that non-white artists don't get too many votes from eastern European countries. Recent examples are Norway's entry last year and the Netherlands in 2007. This year Ukraine almost seems to have made a statement against this prejudice, selecting Gaitana to represent the country in Baku. Gaitana is partly Congolese but she was born and raised in Ukraine. Apparently this now hasn't turned out to be accepted generally in the country anyway. In Ukrainian press Yuriy Syrotyuk, of the Svoboda party, said that "Gaitana is not an organic representative of the Ukrainian culture." "Eurovision is our chance to promote Ukraine," "We need to show our originality," he told Kyiv Post on Feb. 21. Such a pity! 

For all common countries the Baku experience has started last weekend, now the big five are getting ready to enter the home of Eurovision this year.

Today the second round of rehearsals start for all semi finalists. All rehearsals will be a bit shorter so more of them are fitted in a day too. Tomorrow this will continue and go on on Saturday and Sunday. In the weekend the big five (Spain, France, UK, Germany and Italy) will also start their rehearsals as well as host country Azerbaijan. Are they ready for it?

The big 5. Yesterday the five countries contributing most to the contest and therefor entitled to a final placing immediately, hit the stage for the first time.

This year we have to admit that the big five have all invested in quality, strong voices, experienced singers (with young German Roman Lob being the exception when it comes to much experience) and good songs. And, well, their long awaited first rehearsals mostly went well too. Not splendid in every detail, but it would be boring if there were to be nothing to improve still.