Eurovision Song Contest 2012
| Eurovision Song Contest 2012 | |
|---|---|
| Light Your Fire! | |
| Dates and venue | |
| Semi-final 1 |
|
| Semi-final 2 |
|
| Final |
|
| Venue | Baku Crystal Hall Baku, Azerbaijan |
| Organisation | |
| Organiser | European Broadcasting Union (EBU) |
| Executive supervisor | Jon Ola Sand |
| Production | |
| Host broadcaster | İctimai Television (İTV) |
| Director | Ladislaus Kiraly |
| Executive producer | Adil Kerimli |
| Presenters | |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 42 |
| Number of finalists | 26 |
| Returning countries | Montenegro |
| Non-returning countries | |
Participation map
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs. |
| Winning song | |
The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 22 and 24 May and a final on 26 May 2012, held at the Baku Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan, and presented by Leyla Aliyeva, Nargiz Birk-Petersen, and Eldar Gasimov. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV), which staged the event after winning the 2011 contest for Azerbaijan with the song "Running Scared" by Gasimov himself and Nigar Jamal as Ell and Nikki. It was the first time the contest was hosted in Azerbaijan – only four years after the country made its debut.
Broadcasters from 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, while Poland 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. The song won both the jury vote and televote and received 372 points out of a maximum of 492. 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.