2012 February 25 | Eurovision Song Contest News

Tonight Finland chose the country’s representative for Eurovision 2012 in Baku. The final of the Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu UMK (Contest for New Music) took place in the Helsinki Ice Hall and once the votes were counted Pernilla Karlsson singing När jag blundar (When I Close My Eyes) was its song choice.

Six acts qualified from the semi-final with two English language songs, three Finnish language songs and the winner, a Swedish language song. Expect some votes from Sweden to go the way of Finland should the latter qualify for the final.

Finland will present their song in the first half of the first semi-final.

Both Ireland and Austria have now chosen their songs for Eurovision 2012.

In what seemed like a foregone conclusion, Jedward ran away with the voting in Ireland and will represent the country for the second year in a row. This time the twin duo will be singing Waterline, an uptempo pop tune that’s not quite so frantic as Lipstick from last year. With the boys in place to sing in the second half of the first semi-final, bookies are looking to Ireland as one of the favourites to win the competition outright this year.

See the video to Waterline here.

On the other hand, Austria’s choice has polarized the opinions of Eurovision fans. Some love it and some hate it. There’s no grey area here. The country has decided upon the quaintly named duo Trackshittaz and the song Woki mit deim Popo, which loosely translates to Shake Your Ass. If I had to describe the track, it sounds like something the Beastie Boys may have released some years ago: kind of hip-hop, power punk party music. And it looks like they’ll be bringing along some pole dancers to Baku to liven up the party atmosphere. Even with them shaking their collective booties, I don’t see Austria progressing from its semi-final.

See the video to Woki mit deim Popo here.

Next Finland, The Netherlands, Slovenia and Bulgaria decide their songs over the next few days.