Eurovision Song Contest 2012

Eurovision Song Contest 2012
Light Your Fire!
Dates
Semi-final 1	22 May 2012 (2012-05-22)
Semi-final 2	24 May 2012 (2012-05-24)
Final	26 May 2012 (2012-05-26)
Host
Venue	Baku Crystal Hall Baku, Azerbaijan
Presenter(s)	Leyla Aliyeva Quliyeva Eldar Gasimov Nargiz Birk-Petersen
Directed by	Ladislaus Kiraly
Executive supervisor	Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer	Adil Kerimli
Host broadcaster	İctimai Television (İTV)
Website	eurovision.tv/event/baku-2012
Participants
Number of entries	42
Number of finalists	26
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Montenegro
Non-returning countries	Armenia  Poland
Participation map      Finalist countries     Countries eliminated in the semi-finals     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2012
Vote
Voting system	Each country awarded 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs.
Winning song	Sweden "Euphoria"
2011 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 2013

The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the 2011 contest with the song "Running Scared" by Ell and Nikki. It was the first time Azerbaijan hosted the contest – only four years after the country made its debut. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV), the contest was held at the Baku Crystal Hall, and consisted of two semi-finals on 22 and 24 May, and a final on 26 May 2012. The three live shows were presented by Azerbaijani television presenter Leyla Aliyeva, newsreader Nargiz Birk-Petersen and singer Eldar Gasimov, the latter of whom was one of the previous edition's winners.^[1][2]

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. Poland also 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.