This weekend Europe was busy with eight national Eurovision selection shows. Croatia decided on the song for Nina Badric, while Italy, Latvia and Ukraine chose their respective representative artists and songs. The semi-finals for both Sweden and Estonia also took place. Last, but not least, Georgia will decide upon its song on Sunday the19th.
UKRAINE 2012 FINAL
21 acts competed in the Ukrainian final, which again had its fair share of controversy this year. In the end, the song chosen is Be My Guest sung by Gaitana.
CROATIA 2012 SONG PRESENTATION
The 2012 Dora show celebrated the 20th anniversary of independence for Croatia and featured performances by previous Croatian representatives from the contest. The country’s decision was to send Nina Badric and the song Nebo (Heaven) to Baku in May.
LATVIA 2012 FINAL
Latvia finally decided upon its song for the Baku 2012 Eurovision Song Contest from 10 acts. Its presentation featured various special guests as Latvia is celebrating 10 years since their first and only victory in the ESC. Maria Naumova (Latvia 2002), Musiqq (Latvia 2011), Sinplus (Switzerland 2012), Olga Rajecka and cello trio Da Gamba performed as the votes came in proclaiming Anmary the winner with the song, Beautiful Song.
ITALY 2012 FINAL
The San Remo Festival 2012 once again played host to the selection process for Italy’s representative for Baku 2012. Ell & Nikki had the honour of announcing the Eurovision representative for Italy 2012: Nina Zilli with the song Per Sempre (Forever).
LITHUANIA 2012 SEMIFINAL 3
The third semifinal took place in Lithuania and featured nine acts from which three (2 by jury and 1 by televoting) proceeded to the final. VIG Roses with Come Back Home, Bekešo Vilkai with Letter By Letter and Monika with Happy joined six other finalists, while a further three acts will be chosen on February 25th to make up the final twelve.
SWEDEN 2012 SEMIFINAL 3
Swedish Television broadcast the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen 2012, one of the leading national selections for Eurovision across Europe. Eight acts fought for a place in the final (Molly Sandén with Why Am I Crying and Björn Ranelid feat. Sara Li with Mirakel (Miracle) winning through) and for a second chance (Youngblood with Youngblood and Andreas Johnson with Lovelight winning the spots).
ESTONIA 2012 SEMIFINAL 1
The Estonian national semi-final kicked off the selection with the first semifinal of Eesti Laul 2012. Ten acts performed with Pop Maniacs – I Don’t Know, Ott Lepland – Kuula, August Hunt – Tantsulõvi, Liis Lemsalu – Made Up My Mind and Loss Paranoias – Valedetektor making it to the Final.
GEORGIA 2012 FINAL
February 19th sees the Georgian national broadcaster holding the nation’s Eurovision 2012 National Final. It features nine acts and will present guest performances by Eldrine from 2011 and the Junior Eurovision 2011 winner, Candy Group, also from Georgia. You can watch the show here.
Another busy weekend of Eurovision action is about to end with a lot more in the pipeline.
