Eurovision Song Contest 2012

[CopenhagenPop]

So appenrently the preliminary dates for semifinals are 22nd and 24th May and for final 26th May. Venue is probably Baku, Azerbaijan. Can't wait!

[WowWowWowWow]

I've been trying to see what the possible venues would be in Baku (or in Azerbaijan overall). Düsseldorf Arena sat 24,000 with all its "Eurovision touch-ups," so I'm using that as my benchmark. It appears that most of the football stadiums in Azerbaijan are open-air, so I don't know if they would consider building a detachable roof or what.

There is one venue (the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex) which is indoors -- and they were scheduled to host the Eurovision Dance Contest there, postponed indefinitely! -- but it only seats 7,800 people. Maybe it would be there as it seems like a few of the venues where Eurovision was held in the 2000s (Kiev Palace of Sports, Skonto Hall) hold less people than that.

I don't know why I care so much about this.

[CopenhagenPop]

It's a good thing that you do!

Wikipedia writes that the economy has been suffering from very high inflation but that government has pushed for economic reforms with succes. So it's interesting whether they can afford to host the show and if so, how and where as you point out.

I'm under the impression that they've spent a lot of money on marketing their songs in the past few years (especially last year) so they must have wanted the victory very badly. Hence one should think they actually have ideas on how they are going to host it, both financially and creatively. I guess we can only wait and see, while hoping for the best.

[Alex F.]

They still have the oil money - so they can afford it, I think.

[Monkey0]

Their president can pay for it from his private fortune, he's filthy rich. Petro dollars will make next year Eurovision a 1001 Nights Fantasy Extravaganza. They probably are building a state-of-art stadium at sea as we speak.

I'm curious about political consequences. What will Armenia do? What about authoritarian regime of Aliyev? It's going to be a controversial contest.

[CopenhagenPop]

I had heard about the oil money! And an extravaganza would be nice, but not at the expense of the public!

What the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan? I'm ignorant about that area in the world.

[Monkey0]

They are technicaly at war over Nagorno-Karabakh teritory (wich was an Azeri territory but with majority of its population Armenian). War broke out right after both republics gained independence. Armenia won and even occupied terriories in Azerbaijan but they signed a ceasefire treaty which froze the issuse and stopped military action. There are ongoin diplomatic talks and Nagorno-Karabakh is de facto independent republic not recognized by anyone.

There was some controversies about this issues before in Eurovision when Armenian entry in 2009, Inga and Anush* used a famous statue from Nagorno-Karabakh in their video and their were voices that Azeri TV didn't show telephone numbers during their performance or something like that.

*It might be different entry, I don't remember it too good.

EDIT: There's whole wiki page about Azeri-Armenian relations in Eurovision! This is some serious shit y'all!

[Alex F.]

I think Armenia will pull out.

but not at the expense of the public!

Oh, don't worry - the public does not get any of the oil money. Aliev family & Co take it all.

[CopenhagenPop]

I think Armenia will pull out.

but not at the expense of the public!

Oh, don't worry - the public does not get any of the oil money. Aliev family & Co take it all.

That's what I was worrying about. Not a nice regime down there... Well it's not a political contest. *cough cough*

[AcerBen]

Flights from the UK are about £500 return... I'm out.

[duckface]

I think Armenia will pull out.

Probably, but I hope not. I'd like to see them pull a Cyprus 2004 and do really well in "enemy territory". Especially after the voter interrogation fiasco a couple of years ago.

Azerbaijan is ridiculous. All they want is to sell their country's touristic potential. I hate how so much of eastern Europe has an agenda with the contest. It's not about music, it's not about national pride, it's about selling themselves for EU membership.

[CopenhagenPop]

I think Armenia will pull out.

Probably, but I hope not. I'd like to see them pull a Cyprus 2004 and do really well in "enemy territory". Especially after the voter interrogation fiasco a couple of years ago.

Azerbaijan is ridiculous. All they want is to sell their country's touristic potential. I hate how so much of eastern Europe has an agenda with the contest. It's not about music, it's not about national pride, it's about selling themselves for EU membership.

I agree about the political part. I hope Armenia stays next year. One of my favorite countries.

[markthegab1]

According to wikipedia (i know, I know) Armenia have already withdrawn from next years competition. I didn't check the source.

[jinzo]

EDIT: There's whole wiki page about Azeri-Armenian relations in Eurovision! This is some serious shit y'all!

In August 2009 a number of Azerbaijanis who had voted for Armenia's entry during the contest were summoned for questioning at the Ministry of National Security in Baku, during which they were accused of being "unpatriotic" and "a potential security threat". One of those summoned, Rovshan Nasirli, said that he was told by his interrogators that they had the names and addresses of all 43 Azerbaijanis who had voted for Armenia.

Brilliantly ridiculous.

[duckface]

Do people in Nagorno-Karabakh vote as part of Armenia or Azerbaijan?

[CopenhagenPop]

Do people in Nagorno-Karabakh vote as part of Armenia or Azerbaijan?

Well, that depends on the truce they agreed upon I guess?

[CopenhagenPop]

Czech Republic is allegedly back in the contest in 2012. Nice to have them back I suppose, but I don't really remember any of their previous entries.

[duckface]

Czech Republic is allegedly back in the contest in 2012. Nice to have them back I suppose, but I don't really remember any of their previous entries.

Their first entry was amazing but no one but me liked it.
The second was that pretty girl with bad teeth and terrible dancers.

[markthegab1]

Czech Republic is allegedly back in the contest in 2012. Nice to have them back I suppose, but I don't really remember any of their previous entries.

Their first entry was amazing but no one but me liked it.
The second was that pretty girl with bad teeth and terrible dancers.

Amongst those terrible dancerS were the Twins from Slovakia. Have Some Fun was actually my favourite of 2008. I hated myself for it, but I thought it was amazing!

[CopenhagenPop]

Czech Republic is allegedly back in the contest in 2012. Nice to have them back I suppose, but I don't really remember any of their previous entries.

Their first entry was amazing but no one but me liked it.
The second was that pretty girl with bad teeth and terrible dancers.

Amongst those terrible dancerS were the Twins from Slovakia. Have Some Fun was actually my favourite of 2008. I hated myself for it, but I thought it was amazing!

Need to check them out again!

[markthegab1]

So what do we think will happen next year regarding the big 5? As long as all the big 5 countries return next year, we will have 6 automatic qualifiers including Azerbaijan. Will there now be 26 countries in the final or maybe they will cut it back to 24 and just have the top 9 from each semi advance to the final.
Or less likely, maybe one of the big 5 will lose their 'big' status? I seem to remember that of the previous big 4, Spain was the country that put the least money into eurovision, only marginally more than Denmark or Sweden if my memory serves me correctly.

[kandinski]

The rumours have started already,jane mcdonald for the uk?

[MadeInHeaven]

So what do we think will happen next year regarding the big 5? As long as all the big 5 countries return next year, we will have 6 automatic qualifiers including Azerbaijan. Will there now be 26 countries in the final or maybe they will cut it back to 24 and just have the top 9 from each semi advance to the final.
Or less likely, maybe one of the big 5 will lose their 'big' status? I seem to remember that of the previous big 4, Spain was the country that put the least money into eurovision, only marginally more than Denmark or Sweden if my memory serves me correctly.

I'm intrigued about this too.

It'll be an interesting one, though there was a precedent for 26 songs back in 2003. I did hear that Spain would be the one to lose 'Big Four/Five' status, but I've also heard that Russia aren't that far off being able to make a case that they contribute as much.

I think there comes a point at which it becomes ridiculous if it expands to a 'Big Six', but equally if it gets whittled down to 'the host country and 2 or 3 others' then that seems daft too.

[duckface]

Unless those two or three others get immediate qualification on a rotating basis, i.e. Russia, Italy, UK, Spain, France and Germany all get 'Big Six' status, but three of them get it on even years and the others on odd years.

I doubt that would ever happen (Italy and UK would both likely nag about having to pay for competitions they aren't part of) but it would be interesting to see the effect such a scenario would have on the amount of effort the UK and Spain put into the competition.

[MadeInHeaven]

Quite so. I'm starting to wonder whether that many people in the UK tune into Eurovision on a Saturday night purely to see the UK perform and/or to watch how well/badly we do in the voting. It'd be interesting to see what happened over time to the audience figures in countries who didn't make the final in some years but did in others. I'm sure it made a difference to the viewing figures, but was it that significant?

There again, the increase in viewers this year in the UK is being attributed to the double whammy of Blue and Jedward...