Editorial: Looking Back on 2012

Editorial - I made it an habit to publish a long editorial about the year just passed which features both a personal opinion on the songs and the contest and analysis of the results. After 2010 and 2011, I promised 2012 and never actually got to publish it. As the 2013 post-contest fever comes down, with the after glow turning into disaster because of many accusations, why not take a time out to look back on 2012?

Azerbaijan jails three over Eurovision ‘terrorist plot’

Azerbaijan – A court in Azerbaijan has sentenced three people to prison in connection with an alleged “terrorist” plot to attack last year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the capital, Baku. According to news reports, the Azerbaijani citizens were guilty of “attempting to blow up the Israeli embassy” on the eve of the competition, court documents were quoted as saying.

Eurovision and Twitter: Research on Most Tweeted About Acts

Twitter – There have been several academic research projects in the past based on Eurovision, but the latest shows some interesting facts about Eurovision and the use of the social networking site Twitter in last year’s contest in Baku. The annual Internet Research conference, which is being held in the UK today, saw a paper presented on this subject. Can you guess who the acts were that were most tweeted about?

Documentary: Eurovision 2012 in Rewind

 Eurovision 2012 – The official Azeri website of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, eurovision.az has released a great 55-minute video of backstage footage from Eurovision week 2012. For everyone who was not in Baku the video is a great opportunity to get a feeling of the atmosphere. We see artists arriving at the airport, partying and more! Thanks to JP from Radio International for the tip!

64 Million See Eurovision Final 2012

  Eurovision 2012 – eurovision.tv has just revealed the viewing figures of all three shows of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The Final was watched by 64 million people. The first semi-final gathered 19,4 million viewers in front of their television screens , while the second semi-final did a little better with 19,6 million viewers.The overall ratings share for the final of 37% was considerably higher than one year ago.

Eurovision 2012: Split Jury / Televote Revealed

  Eurovision 2012 – The EBU has not finally revealed the split jury and televote results of the final and both semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. As expected after their landslide win, Sweden won the jury and the televote. Here is the full split result:

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Denmark: Jury Results Revealed

Denmark – The results of the Jury vote in Denmark have been revealed, and they show large disagreements between the Danish jury and the Danish public. According to Danish website dr.dk, the Danish TV viewers loved the grandmothers from Russia and the power ballad from Iceland. The jury however favoured europop from Cyprus, Spain, Greece and Israel.

Eurovision 2012 in 29 Seconds

  YouTube – How do you condense three and a half hours of high-class television into less than half a minute? See for yourselves:

EBU: Where Are The Split Results?

  EBU – It’s been 2 full weeks since the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Portugal, Germany and Finland have to this point revealed how their jury voted, while Italy published the televoting results. The EBU has not revealed any split result as of yet. This may be a sign that for the first time since the 50/50 system between televoting and jury voting was introduced in 2009, the televoting favorite did not win. That would be Russia. However, no matter what the results were,

The ESC Awards 2012: The Winner Is….

  ESC Awards 2012 – Thousands of Eurovision fans have voted in the first ESC Awards by “The Eurovision Times” and we now have the result. Thank you all for voting for your favorites. We had 15 categories, some of them positive some of them negative. Here is the result:

Eurovision 2012: The Annual Cartoon

  Eurovision 2012 – The website “Scandinavia and the world” have published their annual Eurovision cartoon. It includes Russian grannies, Swedish arrogance and Icelandic and Greek happiness about not winning. Here is the whole cartoon: “Scandinavia and the world”

Romania Wins the Italian Televote

Italian broadcaster RAI have revealed the televoting percentages in this year’s Italian vote. The results show Romania’s Mandinga easily winning the vote of the Italian public in both the semifinal and the Grand Final. Albania and Moldova came second and third, respectively, on both shows. The Italians disliked Belgium the most in the first semifinal. In the Grand Final, the United Kingdom was least popular.

Finnish Jury Results Show Points for Neighbours

Finnish broadcaster YLE was one of the first to announce their jury votes this year, with them giving their neighbours Sweden 12 points, Estonia 10 points and Denmark 8 points. The Finnish jury was made up of Anne Hautala (presenter, journalist), Christina Wheeler (musician), Freeman (musician), Maki Kolehhmainen (producer, musician) and Leri Leskinen (producer, musician).

Portugal Jury Choices Revealed

Hot on the heels of the German announcement, comes the declaration of the Portugese jury. The jury in Portugal gave their 12 points in the grand final to Spain. There’s some eyebrow raising and interesting point awarding in the semifinal though, with the Portugese jury giving points to Georgia and Slovakia.

Germany: Sweden Wins Jury Vote, Turkey Wins Televote

The German jury votes have been revealed on eurovision.de. The national  jury comprised of Anke Engelke, Tim Bendzko, presenter & singer Ben, MIA’s singer Miezekatz and Sabine Henrich. They gave their 12 points to Sweden’s Loreen. The results of the semifinal jury vote have also been released. See how it compared to the final German vote, once televotes were added.

Viewing Figures Announced in Norway

NRK has announced its viewing figures for Eurovision 2012. This year 1.094m saw their entrant, Tooji, come last. This is a slight increase on last year (993,000) when Norway failed to make the final. The fact that Norway were playing England in football that night may have accounted for anything up to 300,000 viewers deserting.  NRK are said to be happy with 74% of the market share, also an increase on last year.

Eleftheria Eleftheriou’s Love for Azerbaijan as Greek Inquest Continues

This year’s Greek representative, Eleftheria Eleftheriou, has spoken of her love of Azerbaijan. Speaking to AzerTAc, the 23 year old singer, who finished in 17th place in this year’s contest with ‘Aphrodisiac’ ,said that she was glad to have discovered such a  wonderful country, such sincere people, and that she intended to return there.

Barbara Dex Award: Won by Rona Nishliu

The House of Eurovision has announced this year’s winner of the Barbara Dex award… and it goes to Rona Nishliu of Albania. Ireland’s Jedward came second, as they did last year, and Bulgaria’s Sofi Marinova was in third place. The award is given for the worst dressed artist in the contest, and named after Barbara Dex, who represented Belgium in 1993.

Prediction: The UK Will Win Eurovision 2013

  Eurovision 2013 – There are 349 days to go until the Eurovision Final 2013, but when it comes to certain statistics the winner is already clear: The United Kingdom will win Eurovision 2013. Why? Well here we go:

Eurovision 2012: The Ratings

  Eurovision 2012 – We now know the viewing figures for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in  20 countries. While the Contest loses some ground in Germany (post-Lena), the UK and France, it grew in popularity in Spain, Estonia and Albania. Here are the numbers we know for Saturday’s final:

Eurovision Voting 2012: Did Azerbaijan Cheat?

  Azerbaijan – Just so you don’t get the wrong idea: I have no interest in targeting Azerbaijan or any other countries, but the news come as they come. This Saturday, Cyprus gave its 8 points to Azerbaijan. The Cypriot jury got suspicious and complained to CyBC as they had not awarded a single point to the Azeri song. That suggest that Azerbaijan must’ve probably won the Cypriot televote. Now information surfaces that Azerbaijan got 3500 SMS in Cyprus but not a single phone call. Some people suggest that Azerbaijan may have hired PR companies in smaller

Spain: Pastora Soler May Return To Eurovision

  Spain – The Spanish representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, Pastora Soler, achieved the best result for her country in years when she came 10th last Saturday. At a press conference in Madrid she said: “I would do Eurovision again” and called the competition in Baku a “unique, moving and wonderful experience.” She added that she wouldn’t come back next year as the last six months have been quite demanding for her.

Eurovision Particularities

  Eurovision – The three big television shows is what everyone sees on their television screen. what makes Eurovision most memorable, however, are the small moments, that only fans that spend hours of their day during Eurovision week watching special reports and videos. Here are some of these moments:

ESC Awards 2012

  ESC Awards 2012 – Eurovision 2012 has just come to an end. Time to vote for the Best and worst vocal performance, best and worst outfit, best show etc. We have chosen up to 8 nominees in each category! In case you have another favorite than the one’s mentioned you can add it under “Other”. Have fun voting! The results will be released in a few days so stay tuned!

iTunes Update: Loreen Destroys The Competition With Euphoria

  Sweden – The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 has a winner. Loreen won for Sweden with her song Euphoria and with the second highest score in Eurovision history (closely following Alexander Rybak). She has now officially achieved success beyond other Eurovision winners by reaching the #1 on iTunes UK. Additionally she is #1 in 20 other countries as well and is still increasing in most of them.

Editorial: Letter To “The Guardian”

  United Kingdom – Engelbert Humperdinck’s failure at last night’s Eurovision Song Contest was sure to create some reactions in the UK press. I expected tabloids like “The Sun” and such to blame the bad result on the evil east and the political voting as usual, but when I had to read an article by the (in my view) respected Guardian, I just could not resist to write an answer. Here is my letter to Mark Lawson, the author of “A belligerent Eurovision night fit for a broken Europe”

Editorial: The Eurovision Final 2012

  Editorial – It’s all over… not quite yet. To avoid the hole and the famous AED, After Eurovision Depression, we can rejoice in chart positions, analysis and more concerning this year’s contest. Here now my personal impressions from last night’s final. Please add your comments at the end of the article! An analysis of the placings and the voting will follow in the coming days!

Loreen And Euphoria Rule iTunes Everywhere

  Sweden – The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 has a winner. Loreen won for Sweden with her song Euphoria and with the second highest score in Eurovision history (closely following Alexander Rybak). Right after her glorious victory, Loreen has started to climb the itunes charts in several countries.  She is currently #1 in at least 12 countries.  Here are the current standings:

Germany: Danke, Anke!

  Germany – The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 from Azerbaijan was a big and perfectly organized spectacle. The arena and the fireworks were more Olympia than Eurovision. During the entire final, no one could notice anything concerning human rights violations, deficites in democracy etc. (except maybe for the horrible interval performance of the president’s son in law). One person gave the suppressed opposition in Azerbaijan a voice during the voting. Anke Engelke, last year’s host thanked Azerbaijan for the great show and then added this sentence: