Baku

This year's Spanish representative, Pastora Soler, has released an English version of her much acclaimed song, Quédate Conmigo after requests from Eurovision fans all over Europe. She says that it has been a big challenge and a wonderful experience for her. Listen to it right here!

Buranovskiye Babushki's main intention for participating in the Eurovision Song Contest was to raise money to rebuild their church but reality has exceeded their expectations and the peasant families in the village of Buranovo will profit from the grannies' fame more than imagined.

The interesting for the Eurovision Song Contest in this year's host country, Azerbaijan, has been growing a lot. Something that is confirmed by the many Eurovision concerts arranged. Yesterday Mandinga from Romania was the international guest star of such a concert.  

Željko Joksimović speaks out to the Serbian press about his disappointment over the result in Baku. After coming third in Azerbaijan, the Balkan singer denies any future participation as a performer.

The 2012 Eurovision Song Contest was the most watched since 2008 with over 6.5 million viewers. Audience numbers peaked when Pastora Soler performed her song Quédate Conmigo at 22:27 CET with almost 9 million viewers. She achieved the tenth place with 97 points from 18 countries.

The line up for the final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is completed. Tonight we saw the second semifinal. 18 countries competed for ten remaining spots in the big final. Beside the participating countries the United Kingdom, France and Germany were allowed to vote.

Two former winners of the Eurovision Song Contest, Nigar Jamal (2011) and Dima Bilan (2008) have got together to make a new song and video.  They performed the song together at the Euroclub in Baku on Wednesday evening.

Europe's biggest event, the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 has started with the first semi-final in Baku’s Crystal Hall this evening. Eighteen countries have participated in the first battle for the final where only lucky ten countries could make it to Saturday evening.

After each of the 18 participants in the first semi-final have been rehearsing individually a bit over an hour on the stage in Baku it was time for the first of three dress rehearsals before the big show tomorrow night. Who stands with the best chances to qualify as things are right now?

Slovakia made some changes to the performance today as Max Jason Mai took to the stage for his second rehearsal. 

Spain rehearsed for the first time this afternoon and Pastora Soler sang with conviction and wore the pain that is needed to make her performance believable. She proved to be a first class singer with a great vocal range.

Sabina showed on her first rehearsal that music will never die and she performs really good on the stage.

World superstar Anggun takes to the stage to proudly fly the tricolor for France today. Will her global success as an artist translate into success at the contest? That all depends mainly on just how she performs.

Germany is the first of the Big 5 to start their rehearsals. Roman Lob demonstrates that men suffer too when a relationship comes to an end and that this pain makes for a really good song associated with his bashful style.

Can Bonomo has proven that he deserves a place in the final. Several changes have been made in an attempt to improve the catastrophic result from Düsseldorf 2011. The most important change is that the colours of the outfit will be white and grey, with capes featuring as an important element for the performance.

Spanish hopes have arrived in the land of fire with the aim of lighting up Europe with the strong ballad that Pastora Soler will perform. The experienced singer has also received messages of support showing that Spain trusts in her.

Today the Ukrainian team had their second rehearsal on stage in Baku. Will Gaitana be able to make it to the final with her hymn to the European Championship in soccor this summer?

Are you surprised to hear that Crystall Hall is still not ready? Well, in a country like Azerbaijan you need to have a good portion of patience. The starving press is finally beginning to get something to eat and the shuttle busses works from time to time so things will probably get done in the end.

Europe is falling in love with La La Love. The second rehearsal on stage in Baku confirmed that everbody is in love with Ivi from Cyprus.