Today, the European Broadcasting Union and SVT have presented the logo and artwork for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.
So the slogan for the shows will be “We are one”, with the graphic of a multicoloured butterfly. Butterflies have one common name, but exist in thousands of different shapes and colours. Just like the Eurovision Song Contest – one strong identity, with rich national diversities. If we all engage and work together, we can achieve anything – We are one.
As it has been claimed this year’s theme reflects that timeless feeling millions of people that will experience in May, when Europe comes together to celebrate its diversity. The unprecedented eye for detail that this theme art reflects opens up countless possibilities for three of the best live entertainment shows Europe will see this year.
The creators of the whole concept are Happy F & B and Forsman & Bodenfors.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240"] Vaduz, Liechtenstein (Photo credit: House of Hall)[/caption]
The small state of Liechtenstein created a government owned television institution in 2008 (1FL TV) and has been trying for 6 years to make its debut in the Contest.
The head of 1 Fürstentum Liechtenstein Television (1FLTV), Peter Kölbel, had said that due to a lack of financial subsidies from the Government of Liechtenstein, participation would be impossible until 2013 at the earliest.[68] 1FLTV have been trying to join the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 2010, however the government has not granted the nation’s only channel the necessary subsidies. Kölbel stated that the country had a good chance of joining the contest in 2013, if funding was approved, but it was later announced that the country would not be participating.
We eventually hope to stop this ‘thriller’ and to see the small country of Alpes competing in our beloved institution.
EBU announced the 42 name of the spokespersons. Among them we can see some Eurovision related Artists, such as Mr. Lordi (Finland 2006) and Amaury Vassili ( France 2011) and Safura (Azerbaijan).
The complete list of the spokespersons is as follows:
The day where all Europeans sit in front of their TV sets has finally come.
It’s the Eurovision 2012 Grand Final will take place in a few hours and a new hosting country will be announced. 26 countries are competing this year for the trophy and they are all good. Azerbaijan has proved to Europe , that although way far away they can host such a huge event as the Music “Olympic Games of Europe”. After this we can also except a reentry of Baku City as a candidate city for the Olympic Games as they were not selected for the 2020 Olympic games.
What we will see tonight
26 countries are competing tonight and these are listed according to their appearance order :
1. United Kingdom – Engelbert Humperdinck – Love Will Set You Free
2. Hungary – Compact Disco – Sound of our Hearts
3. Albania – Rona Nishliu -Suus
4.Lithuania – Donny Montell – Love is Blind
5.Bosnia Herzegovina – Maya Sar – Korake ti znam
6.Russia – Buranovskiye Babushki – Party For Everybody
7. Iceland – Greta Salóme & Jónsi - Never Forget
8. Cyprus – Ivi Adamou – La La Love
9. France – Anggun – Echo (You and I)
10. Italy – Nina Zilli – L’Amore È Femmina (Out Of Love)
11.Estonia – Ott Lepland – Kuula
12.Norway – Tooji – Stay
13. Azerbaijan – Sabina Babayeva – When The Music Dies
14. Romania - Mandinga - Zaleilah
15. Denmark – Soluna Samay – Should’ve Known Better
1. Get your TV sets tuned in your national broadcaster frequency
2. Invite your friends and organise your personal Eurovision Party
3. Prepare or order your favourite meal ( Pizza, Popcorn,Bier and Gin& Tonic are the most common among Eurofans)
4. Grab a pen and a blank paper and vote for your favourites and last but not least
5. Enjoy your Eurovision Night
INFE Network will be there in the Arena and outside sending the warmest wishes for good luck to all the competing countries. An online review simultaneously to the Grand final will take place tonight through our website plus the full results of the Semifinals and the Winner´s Press Conference.
Armenian Public Television (AMPTV) officially informed the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) of their withdrawal from the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest today.
‘We are truly disappointed by the broadcaster’s decision to withdraw from this year’s Eurovision Song Contest’, said the Contest Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand on behalf of the EBU. ‘Despite the efforts of the EBU and the Host Broadcaster to ensure a smooth participation for the Armenian delegation in this year’s Contest, circumstances beyond our control lead to this unfortunate decision’.
Only 42 countries will be represented at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, where 18 countries will participate in each semifinal. France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom will automatically participate in the final as members of the big five, plus host country Azerbaijan.
BTRC, the national broadcaster of Belarus, announced that the boyband Litesound will be representing the country in Baku instead of Alena Lanskaya.Their song , titled We are the heroes is going to be the next entry for Belarus.
After a meeting in Minsk, the boyband was announced to be the country´s representation no matter what the public said in the National Final weeks ago.This is not something unknown for BTRC to happen , or should we say that this is the main rule in competing in the Belarussian National Final. And here comes the biggest question. Should or shouldn´t EBU undertake its responsibilities in the national Final of this country due to the fact that the word meritocracy does continue being an unknown word in belarussian?
Video performance in National Final
[FMP width="640" height="360"]http://infenetwork.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/litesound.flv[/FMP]
Video Copyrights: BTRC
Can Bonomo will perform Love me Back in Baku, the song has been presented today in a special show where Can performed the song live among with other of his greatest hits. Can has also composed the song while Can Saban supervised the production and wrote the lyrics; the song brings back folk and traditional Turkish sounds to the contest.
Turkey will perform on the second half of the second semifinal and will try to be back to the Final after last year’s slip.
The final of Ukrainian national selection will take place today at 11:30 CET. Twenty one participants will fight for the ticket to Baku, with the winner being decided through televoting and jury deliberation.
The show will be available to watch live on NTU First Channel at 11:30 CET and streamed online at eurovision.tv.
Line-up:
1. Olga Shanis – Dream
2. Vitaly Halay – I want to love
3. Max Barskih – Dance
4. Olya Polyakova – Lepestok
5. Edward Romanyuta – I’ll never let go
6. Lëhkyy Flyrt – MegaMix
7. Igor Titarenko – You’re my life
8. Mihaylo Hrytskan – Ya tak iskal tebya
9. Masha Sazonova and Tihon Lyevchenko – I close to you
10. Marta – My heart is sorrowing
11. Gaytana – Be my guest
12. Oksana Nesterenko – Mondo blu
13. Rapira – Get over
14. Andrey Bogomolets – Are you waiting for me
15. Bondarchuk – I don’t know why
16. Renata – Love in sunlight rays
17. Treeorange – New day
18. Nerealnye (The Incredibles) – Just a dream
19. Juliana Rudakova – Ti ne odin
20. Marietta – Rainbow
21. Lena Voloshina – Let it out
If the 2011 contest took place under the slogan Feel your heart beat!, Baku 2012 will go into the history books under the motto Light your fire!
Azerbaijan has been known as the Land Of Fire for a while now and the symbol of fire and flames is used extensively across the country. The people of Azerbaijan also take great pride in this association with fire.
“Since the dawn of time, mankind has come together around fire to communicate through the telling of stories, song and dance. The Eurovision Song Contest is where people come together to celebrate and communicate through song and dance,” the creators explained the idea behind the theme art.
All of that can be seen visually in the theme art of the 2012 edition of Europe’s favourite TV show. By the way, if you look at the main symbol closely, you can see much more in it, than you’d expect at first glance. See for yourself below!
Since 2004, the Eurovision Song Contest has a generic logo where in the heart of it the flag of the host country is displayed. However, every year the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) invites the Host Broadcaster to create the visual identity to support the logo.
The visual side of this year’s contest was designed by London-based branding company Turquoise.
The EBU announced today that the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest will take place at the newly constructed Baku Crystal Hall. The Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group, the governing body of the Contest on behalf of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), approved the venue proposed by the Host Broadcaster, Ictimai TV.
Ictimai TV, Azerbaijan’s public broadcaster and host of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, proposed three venue options and expressed its preference for the new indoor arena.
The Baku Crystal Hall, which was commissioned by the City of Baku, is a brand new multi-purpose indoor arena with an expected capacity of up to 23,000 spectators. Approximately 16,000 people will be able to attend each of the three Eurovision Song Contest live shows in May.
Jon Ola Sand, EBU’s Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest says “We are excited to hold the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in a brand new, state-of-the-art concert hall. Now that we have the assurance that the construction will be ready in time, we can look really forward to the contest.”
The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest will take place on the 22nd, 24th and 26th of May in the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. Azerbaijan won the right to host the contest when viewers and professional juries across Europe chose their 2011 entry Running Scared by Ell/Nikki as winner.
