Eurovision singers welcomed at opening of Baku event
Opening ceremony of the Eurovision song contest to be held this weekend in the Azerbaijani capital Baku was held in EuroClub last Saturday.
The contestants arrived in EuroClub on buses and went down the red carpet.
The representative of Turkey Can Bonomo welcomed the audience, walking with the Azerbaijani flag.
People warmly welcomed the representatives of Azerbaijan and Russia, Sabina Babayeva and Buranovskie Babushki (Grannies), a unique band consisting of senior citizens.
Contestants from Ireland and Germany, Jedward and Roman Loeb, talked with the fans and gave them disks with their songs.
Speaking at the ceremony, the contest`s executive supervisor, Jon Ola Sand, greeted visitors with the opening of EuroClub.
According to Sand, perfect conditions have been provided to hold the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. ``This contest will be long in the memory of the audience,`` he said.
Leading the evening, presenters Leyla Aliyeva and Nargiz Birk-Petersen welcomed the guests and opened a concert. It was attended by the winners of Eurovision 2011 Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal, who performed their winning song Running Scared. Then Alexander Rybak of Norway, who won the Eurovision contest in 2009, came on the stage. Rybak performed his hit Fairytale.
Further, all eyes were on participants of this year`s contest, who performed their Eurovision songs.
The opening ceremony continued with a discotheque and fireworks until morning.
The 57th Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Baku Crystal Hall, built near the National Flag Square on the Caspian shore. The hall seats 23,000 spectators and another 16,000 spectators will be able to watch the contest`s semi-finals and final live on big screens. The television audience of Eurovision 2012 is more than 100 million people in 50 countries. The final of the contest will take place on Saturday following semifinals on Tuesday and Thursday.
Representatives of 42 countries will participate in this year`s contest starting 00:00 local time that is 8pm GMT.
18 countries will perform at the first semifinal in the following order: Montenegro, Iceland, Greece, Latvia, Albania, Romania, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Israel, San Marino, Cyprus, Denmark, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Moldova, and Ireland.
In the second semifinal, the order of performances is as follows: Serbia, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Malta, Belarus, Portugal, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Sweden, Georgia, Turkey, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Lithuania.
As for Saturday`s final, only six positions in the order of performances are known so far. Britain will perform first, while France will appear ninth, followed by Italy. Azerbaijan will be 13th, while Spain - 19th, and Germany 20th.
The other countries to proceed to the Eurovision final will be selected during voting in the semifinals. The order of performances in the final will be determined by a draw to be held after the semifinals.
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