Eurovision Song Contest 2012

The **Eurovision Song Contest 2012** was the 57th Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the Baku Crystal Hall in Azerbaijan in May of 2012. 42 countries took part, with Sweden winning with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen.

It was held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan after they won in 2011 with their song _"_Running Scared_"_ in Düsseldorf, Germany. The show was hosted by Leyla Aliyeva, Nargiz Birk-Petersen and Eldar Gasimov, who won the competition in 2011 alongside Nikki Jamal.

## Overview

The Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 consisted of 26 countries. These included the previous winning country (Azerbaijan), the Big Five countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and ten countries from each of the two semi-finals.

### First semi-final

The first semi-final took place on the 22nd of May 2012. Eighteen countries took part. Those eighteen countries plus Azerbaijan, Italy and Spain voted in this semi-final. The ten qualifiers were decided by the combined results of groups of professional jurors and the public televotes from each country.
|scope="col"||scope="col"|Country|scope="col"|Artist|scope="col"|Song|class="unsortable" scope="col"|Result|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Rambo Amadeus|"Euro Neuro"|Eliminated|||||||
|Iceland|Greta Salóme **&** Jónsi|"Never Forget"|Qualified|||||||
|Greece|Eleftheria Eleftheriou|**"Aphrodisiac"**|Qualified|||||||
|Latvia|Anmary|"Beautiful Song"|Eliminated|||||||
|Albania|Rona Nishliu|"Suus"|Qualified|||||||
|Romania|Mandinga|"Zaleilah"|Qualified|||||||
|Switzerland|Sinplus|"Unbreakable"|Eliminated|||||||
|Belgium|Iris|"Would You?"|Eliminated|||||||
|Finland|Pernilla|"När jag blundar"|Eliminated|||||||
|Israel|Izabo|"Time"|Eliminated|||||||
|San Marino|Valentina Monetta|"The Social Network Song"|Eliminated|||||||
|Cyprus|Ivi Adamou|"La La Love"|Qualified|||||||
|Denmark|Soluna Samay|"Should've Known Better"|Qualified|||||||
||Buranovskiye Babushki|"Party for Everybody"|Qualified|||||||
||Compact Disco|"Sound of Our Hearts"|Qualified|||||||
|Austria|Trackshittaz|"Woki mit deim Popo"|Eliminated|||||||
|Moldova|Pasha Parfeni|"Lăutar"|Qualified|||||||
|Ireland|Jedward|"Waterline"|Qualified|||||||

### Second semi-final

The second semi-final took place on the 24th of May 2012. Eighteen countries took part. Those countries plus France, Germany and the United Kingdom voted. Armenia was supposed to compete in this semi-final but quit the competition because of security concerns relating to their conflict with Azerbaijan. The ten qualifiers were decided by the combined results of groups of professional jurors and the public televotes from each country.
|scope="col"||scope="col"|Country|scope="col"|Artist|scope="col"|Song|class="unsortable" scope="col"|Result|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Serbia|Željko Joksimović|**"Nije ljubav stvar"**|Qualified|||||||
||Kaliopi|**"Crno i belo"**|Qualified|||||||
|Netherlands|Joan Franka|"You and Me"|Eliminated|||||||
|Malta|Kurt Calleja|"This is the Night"|Qualified|||||||
||Litesound|"We Are the Heroes"|Eliminated|||||||
|Portugal|Filipa Sousa|"Vida minha"|Eliminated|||||||
|Ukraine|Gaitana|"Be My Guest"|Qualified|||||||
||Sofi Marinova|"Love Unlimited"|Eliminated|||||||
|Slovenia|Eva Boto|"Verjamem"|Eliminated|||||||
|Croatia|Nina Badrić|"Nebo"|Eliminated|||||||
|Sweden|Loreen|"Euphoria"|Qualified|||||||
|Georgia|Anri Jokhadze|"I'm a Joker"|Eliminated|||||||
||Can Bonomo|"Love Me Back"|Qualified|||||||
|Estonia|Ott Lepland|"Kuula"|Qualified|||||||
||Max Jason Mai|"Don't Close Your Eyes"|Eliminated|||||||
|Norway|Tooji|"Stay"|Qualified|||||||
||Maya Sar|"**Korake ti znam"**|Qualified|||||||
|Lithuania|Donny Montell|"Love Is Blind"|Qualified|||||||

### Grand Final

The Grand Final took place on the 26th of May 2012. Twenty-six countries took part in the final. These were the host country (Azerbaijan), the Big Five countries and the twenty countries which passed the semi-finals.

Each country used a combination of groups of music professionals called a 'jury' and public televoting to rank the songs. Each country then awarded 12 points to their favourite song, 10 points to their second-favourite and 8 to 1 points to their third to tenth favourite songs.

The winner of the competition was Loreen, who represented Sweden with the song "Euphoria". The runners-up were the Buranovskiye Babushki from Russia with their song "Party for Everybody". This was Sweden's 5th win in the contest. Both Loreen and Moldovan contestant Pasha Parfeni returned to Eurovision 2023, which Loreen also won, making her the second person and first woman to win Eurovision twice.
||Country|Artist|Song|Score|No.|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|United Kingdom|Engelbert Humperdinck|"Love Will Set You Free"|12|25th||
||Compact Disco|"Sound of Our Hearts"|19|24th||
|Albania|Rona Nishliu|"Suus"|146|5th||
|Lithuania|Donny Montell|"Love Is Blind"|70|14th||
||Maya Sar|"Korake ti znam"|55|18th||
||Buranovskiye Babushki|"Party for Everybody"|259|2nd||
|Iceland|Greta Salóme & Jónsi|"Never Forget"|46|20th||
|Cyprus|Ivi Adamou|"La La Love"|65|16th||
||Anggun|"Echo (You and I)"|21|22nd||
||Nina Zilli|"L'amore è femmina"|101|9th||
|Estonia|Ott Lepland|"Kuula"|120|6th||
|Norway|Tooji|"Stay"|7|26th||
||Sabina Babayeva|"When the Music Dies"|150|4th||
|Romania|Mandinga|"Zaleilah"|71|12th||
|Denmark|Soluna Samay|"Should've Known Better"|21|23rd||
|Greece|Eleftheria Eleftheriou|"Aphrodisiac"|64|17th||
|Sweden|Loreen|"Euphoria"|372|1st||
||Can Bonomo|"Love Me Back"|112|7th||
|Spain|Pastora Soler|"Quédate conmigo"|97|10th||
|Germany|Roman Lob|"Standing Still"|110|8th||
|Malta|Kurt Calleja|"This is the Night"|41|21st||
||Kaliopi|"Crno i belo"|71|13th||
|Ireland|Jedward|"Waterline"|46|19th||
|Serbia|Željko Joksimović|"Nije ljubav stvar"|214|3rd||
|Ukraine|Gaitana|"Be My Guest"|65|15th||
|Moldova|Pasha Parfeni|"Lăutar"|81|11th||