Keep an eye on this page if you would like to get the big headlines straight regarding the participations in the next edition of the Eurovision Song Contest.
After Azerbaijans victory in Düsseldorf, the country will host the contest next year, the first contest outside of Europe since 1999, when Israel hosted Eurovision. The final is planned on 26 May, the semi finals on 22 and 24 May.
Europe seems to be ready to travel far east. 12points.tv will keep you informed about all news regarding the contest on a daily base. On this page we'll tell you what artists and songs have been selected so far. Watch the clips of all selected songs here.
On 29 December Albania was the second country to select its entry for Baku. Rona Nishliu won the 50th edition of the Festivali i Këngës, with Suus. Normally the Albanians have their song translated into English for the big contest. And with the Albanian version being 3:45, something will have to be done about the length of this powerful ballad too.
Austria will go German again, oh well, the local version of the language anyway. Trackshittaz will sing Woki meit deim Popo in Azerbaijan.
Sabina Babayeva gets the honor to represent the host country, Azerbaijan, this year. Her song, When the Music dies, is written by the same writers as last year's winning song.
Belgium has internally selected their Star for Baku: Sixteen year old Iris will represent the country, a song has not yet been presented. Get to know Iris....
First we thought Alena Lanskaya was going to represent Belarus singing All my life, she won Eurofest, the national final in Belarus. Due to a fraude case during the voting she had to withdraw however. Now it will be Litesound, singing We are the Heroes.
For Bosnia & Hercegovina Maya Sar has been selected internally. She will sing a song written by herself.
So, now Bulgaria has selected its star for Baku too: Sofi Marinova singing Love unlimited.
Cyprus was the first one to announce their reprentative: Ivi Adamou. Ivi gained recognition in both Cyprus and Greece after her participation in Xfactor in the 2009-2010 season. She managed to reach a sixth place. The news that Ivi was internally selected by CyBC, the Cypriot broadcaster was announced on 5 August, 2011. At the end of January her song was selected: La La Love.
Nina Badrić has been selected internally to represent Croatia this year. She tried several times before, ending 2nd in 2003. This year's Dora will be a two day festival celebrating the 20th birthday of the Croatian national final. And the winning song is Nebo.
Denmark made their choice for Eurovision mid January. Danish MGP was won by Soluna Samay, she will sing Should 've known better in Baku.
Ots Lepland will sing the beautiful Kuula in Baku, representing Estonia.
Finland goes Swedish this year, completely unexpected the one song sung in Finland's second language won. Pernilla Karlsson will sing När Jag Blundar.
Anggun will try hard to bring back Eurovision to France. She is going to sing Echo (You and I) in Baku.
Roman Lob won the final of Unser Star Für Baku, with Standing Still. This will mean he'll be representing Germany with that song!
A happy Eurodisco track for Greece this year by a lady with a name that is hard to memorize: Eleftheria Eleftheriou - Aphrodisiac.
Hungary selected Compact Disco mid February. The will present their winning song Sound of our hearts in Baku.
Iceland's bet for Baku is comebacker Jónsi, together with Greta Salóme. The two of them will sing Mundu Eftir Mér. Or posibly an english evrsion of that.
What can we say, of course Jedward will go for Ireland again, With a song called Waterline this time.
Israel will be represented by rockband Izabo, singing Time.
The Sanremo festival was not won by Nina Zilli, but she does get the honor to represent Italy at Eurovision, with her song Per Sempre, at least that is what we thought first. Later on the song got replaced by another one from her latest album: L'amore è femmina. Last year it wasn't the winning song either that was sent, and we all know where that brought them: a second position. This year again? We'll see!
Latvia's Anmary will sing Beautiful Song in Azerbaijan... decide for yourselves if the title fits the song.
Donny Montell's Love is blind will be Lithuania's second musical like song in a row. Let's see if this one will do as good as last year's.
For Macedonia, Kaliopi will return to the contest. Return? You might wonder, yes, she was selected in 1996 too, to be the country's first ESC representative, but didn't get through the not televised preselection that year. On 17 January the title of her song has been revealed: Crno i Belo, written by the singer's ex husband Romeo Grill. In February it was presented: Crno i Belo.
Malta will be represented by Kurt Calleja, singing This Is The Night.
A romanian title, but a song fully in English is what Moldova has to offer this year, Lăutar, by Pasha Parfeny.
Montenegro gave up in 2009, after three unsuccessful attempts to reach the Eurovision final. This year they are back. the country will be represented by Rambo Amadeus, singing Euro Neuro.
Joan will try hard to get the Netherlands back in the final. She will be helped by Johnd de Mol, the producer behind The Voice and Big Brother. You and Me will be the Dutch song in Baku.
Norway's Melodi Grand Prix is becoming more and more professional and can easily compete with Melodifestivalen in neighboring Sweden when looking at the participating songs. The winning song this year is called a Eric Saade clone, decide for yourself if that is true: Tooji - Stay.
Portugal's national final was won by Filipa Souza this year, she will sing Vida Minha in Baku.
Mandinga tried representing Romania before but this year she managed! Zaleilah will be her song in the contest this year.
Dima Bilan took part in this year's Russian final, but it wasn't him, winning the trophee for his country. Six Udmurt grannies got that honor in stead. The Buranovskiye Babushki will represent Russia with Party for everybody.
In 2004 Željko Joksimović represented Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2012 he will be back for Serbia, with a song also written by himself. The song was revealed in March, it is called Nije Ljubav Stvar.
On 16 November Slovakian broadcaster RTVS brought out the news that the country will be represented by Miro Šmajda. He also reached star status through a talent scout program on TV. He was the runner up of Czech-Slovak Pop Idol in 2009. No date is set for the national final, yet. [UPD] On 19 November Miro's management published a statement saying his participation is not yet certain at all. In February Miro Šmajda was announced as the representative for the country anyway, but under a new artist name: Max Jason Mai. Don't Close Your Eyes will be his song in Baku.
Slovenia's ticket for baku was won by Eva Boto, Verjamem is her song.
Spain will be represented by Pastora Soler! This news was revealed by TVE on 21 December. On 3 March she presented her songs in the Spanish national final. Quédate conmigo won with no competition from the other songs at all.
SVT seemed completely prepared to have Danny Saucedo win Sweden's national final, Melodifestivalen. His song was stages last in the last semi final and last in the final again. This normally is the sign that Mr. Melodifestivalen Christer Björkman has made his choice. Everything went quite differently however. Loreen, who already managed to get a big followership since her performance in the first semi final, beat him in the final with her song Euphoria, that got a record number of 700,000 televotes. According to the local popular press, Danny was not amused. His song was better, he insisted.
Switzerland was the first country to select and present it's Eurovision entry this year. In their national final on 10 december, Sinplus managed to beat Dame Lys Assia. The two guys from the Italian part of the country will sing Unbreakable in Baku.
Can Bonomo, a relatively unknown artist in Turkey has been announced on 9 January as Turkey's hope in Baku.
The United Kingdom has announced Engelbert Humperdinck as their hope for Eurovision this year. Love will set you free is his song for the UK. He will be the oldest performing artist at the contest this year, with 76 he is even older than the Babuschki's from Russia
Gaitana will represent Ukraine. Be My Guest is her ticket to Baku.
Among rumoured or confirmed aristst in the various national finals we find three previous Eurovision winners: Lys Assia (Switzerland, 1956, reached an 8th position in the national final), Charlotte Perrelli (Sweden, 1999, she didn't make it to final, nor second chance) and Dima Bilan (Russia, 2008, confirmed).
Düsseldorf calling - who won?
Big Efforts finally paid off!
After a season that lasted nearly 9 months, new data for the music encyclopedia's of Europe could be written. The 2012 Eurovision title went to Azerbaijan for the 1st time in Eurovision history. Azerbaijan only started participating 3 years ago, and has by far the most impressive opening record, never finishing outside of the top 10, and 3 top 5 placings. Competition seemed stiff at the start of the voting, but it would soon turn into Azerbaijan's favour forgood. Their final tally was 221. The runner-up was returnee Italy with 189 points, followed by Sweden with 185 points. Eurovision heads outside of European borders for the first time since 1999 in 2012! Find the results below.
