BoNF 2012

Best of National Finals 2012

2012′s edition is the eighth BoNF; it was held the spring of 2012, between April and May, as explained in the rules here. Probably one of the strongest editions ever, it features the highest score ever awarded to a song (114 out of a possible 120) as well as the highest runner-up (at 103 the only runner-up above 100pts). The final also featured no less than 6 returning artists including two former winners! And for the first time ever, more than half (8 out of 15) singers in a BoNF’s final also represented their respective countries in Eurovision! Last interesting and relevant fact, 9 of the 15 finalist spots were from the same country between 2011 and 2012 (Austria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iceland, Italy, 2 Sweden and 3 Estonia)! “Euphoria” is so far the only Eurovision winning song to have competed in a BoNF final (“Fairytale” or “Satellite” stopped in semi). I continued to work harder on getting a good logo, personalized pics for the finalists… 42 countries took part in the 2012 Eurovisiong Song Contest. 30 of them used some sort of national finals in which 452 songs  were performed. I wrote down a list of 90 songs I liked and then came up with these top 30:

Albania | “Suus” Rona Nishliu
Austria | “Comme ça” Valerie Sajdik
Belarus | “Superheroes” Nuteki
Bosnia & Herzegovina | “Korake ti znam” Maja Sarihodzić
Denmark | “Take our hearts” Jesper Nohrstedt
Estonia | “A little soldier” Soundclear
Estonia | “Bye” Robin Juhkental
Estonia | “Mina jään” Lenna Kuurmaa
Estonia | “Nasa” Traffic
Estonia | “Oblivion” Tenfold Rabbit
Estonia | “The Destination” Mimicry
Estonia | “Valedetektor” Loss Paranoias
Finland | “Mun taivas” Aili
Finland | “När jag blundar” Pernilla Karlsson
Germany | “Standing still” Roman Lob
Iceland | “Hjartað brennur” Regína Ósk Óskarsdóttir
Iceland | “Mundu eftir mér” Gréta Salóme & Jón Jósep Snæbjörnsson
Iceland | “Stund með þér” Rósa Birgitta Ísfeld
Israel | “Time” Izabo
Italy | “Per sempre” Nina Zilli
Latvia | “Disco superfly” PeR
Lithuania | “Amazed by you” Alive Way
Norway | “Sammen” Yaseen & Julie Maria
Portugal | “Outono em forma de gente” Pedro Macedo
Serbia | “Nije ljubav stvar” Željko Joksimović
Sweden | “Euphoria” Loreen Talhaoui
Sweden | “Kyss mig” Axel Algmark
Sweden | “Sanningen” Carolina Wallin Pérez
Sweden | “Soldiers” Ulrik Munther
Turkey | “Love me back” Can Bonomo

Semifinal

My friends recieved the mp3 of these 30 songs and they have graded each of them with a 1 (awful) through 5 (great) system. For the fourth year, I saved the full results of the semifinal. And so we have from 30th to 16th:

30  Portugal | “Outono em forma de gente” Pedro Macedo (22pts)
29 Belarus | “Superheroes” Nuteki (24pts)
28 Iceland | “Stund með þér” Rósa Birgitta Ísfeld (26pts)
27 Denmark | “Take our hearts” Jesper Nohrstedt (27pts)
26 Estonia | “A little soldier” Soundclear (28pts)
25 Sweden | “Sanningen” Carolina Wallin Pérez (29pts)
24 Norway | “Sammen” Yaseen & Julie Maria (29pts)
23  Lithuania | “Amazed by you” Alive Way (30pts)
22  Estonia | “The Destination” Mimicry (32pts)
21 Germany | “Standing still” Roman Lob (33pts)
20  Sweden | “Kyss mig” Axel Algmark (33pts)
19 Estonia | “Valedetektor” Loss Paranoias (33pts)
18 Finland | “När jag blundar” Pernilla Karlsson (34pts)
17 Estonia | “Mina jään” Lenna Kuurmaa (35pts)
16 Latvia | “Disco superfly” PeR (35pts)

Finalists scored: 36, 39, 40, 42, 43, 43, 45, 46, 46, 46, 46, 47, 48, 50, 50.

Final

So now I had all 15 finalists! As usual by now, I also managed to get the songwriter and the composer down for each of them. I used a computer “random playlist” to get the running order for the final:

01
Sweden
“Soldiers”
Ulrik Munther
(Ulrik Munther, Johan Åberg, Linnea Deb, Joy Deb & David Jackson)

02
Estonia
“Nasa”
Traffic
(Ago Teppand & Jaan Pehk)

03
Italy
“Per sempre”
Nina Zilli
(Roberto Casalino & Nina Zilli)

04
Finland
“Mun taivas”
Aili
(Jussi Petäjä)

05
Estonia
“Oblivion”
Tenfold Rabbit
(Andres Kõpper)

06
Austria
“Comme ça”
Valerie Sajdik
(Valerie Sajdik)

07
Bosnia & Herzegovina
“Korake ti znam”
Maja Sarihodzić
(Maja Sarihodzić)

08
Israel
“Time”
Izabo
(Ran Shem-Tov & Shiri Hadar)

09
Iceland
“Hjartað brennur”
Regína Ósk Óskarsdóttir
(María Björk Sverrisdóttir, Marcus Frenell & Fredrik Randquist)

10
Turkey
“Love me back”
Can Bonomo
(Can Bonomo)

11
Serbia
“Nije ljubav stvar”
Željko Joksimović
(Željko Joksimović, Marina Tucakovic & Milos Roganovic)

12
Iceland
“Mundu eftir mér”
Gréta Salóme & Jón Jósep Snæbjörnsson
(Gréta Salóme Stefánsdóttir)

13
Sweden
“Euphoria”
Loreen Talhaoui
(Thomas G:son & Peter Boström)

14
Albania
“Suus”
Rona Nishliu
(Florent Boshnjaku & Rona Nishliu)

15
Estonia
“Bye”
Robin Juhkental
(Robin Juhkental)

Results

If you don’t remember those songs, you can check BoNF’s youtube page or this recap video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqKa67Qch7k