Eurovision 2012!!!!

Wow, Eurovision 2012 blew my mind a couple weeks ago. I'd never heard of it before, but learned that it is the longest running singing competition in the world - starting in 1956. Each country in Europe sends a singer or band to represent their country and the winner of the contest hosts the next year's show. It seems like a pretty big deal in Europe. Australia sends correspondents from one of the big TV channels and reports from the show.

This year, the show was in Azerbaijan - which I definitely had to look up on a map (and learn how to spell - I got it correct on the first try here!). The stadium was pretty amazing, with lights on the outside reflecting the flag of the country at the beginning of each performance.

Many contestants don't necessarily speak English, but chose to sing their songs in English which brings an extra level of awesome cheesiness to the competition. There's also just such a variety of music types - from traditional ballads to 90s pop to techno-ish to rock. Something for everyone, really.

I learned a TON about European geography from watching this, needing to look up where a bunch of the countries are located. Did anyone know about San Marino, a tiny country in the middle of Italy? Neither did I.

I can't help but share a few gems. Here's Montenegro, who was the first performance of Semi Final 1. This being the first performance of the night, you can imagine why I was wondering what the heck was going on.

Greece was a big favourite this year (shout out to all my Greeks!), most likely because of how beautiful she is and how short her skirt is. Ok ok, she can sing, too...about someone being an Aphrodisiac for her.

Spain was a big favourite of mine, obviously. And she sang in Spanish, which is so beautiful to me.

I also really enjoyed Romania's performance and song. I don't really know why, but perhaps because she sang in Spanish (with a little English in there). Eurovision has a rule that only 6 performers can be on stage at one time, so it was a big controversy that the trombone player (Tony) couldn't come on stage for this one.

Here's a fun example from Bulgaria. She apparently sang in 7 languages or something like that in this one song.

This video from Moldova (in between Ukraine and Romania) is a good example of a song in English that I really couldn't quite understand in its entirety without listening really hard.

Here's the entry from Azerbaijan.

Jedward from Ireland was a flashback to a 90s kid show pop song. They were big favourites, unbelievably!

This lovely lady from Slovenia was one of the youngest performance at age 17. I really loved her voice.

I have no words for Austria's performance, but one - Trackshittaz. Yes, that's the name of their group. I don't believe they made it beyond Semi Final 1.

This guy from Serbia was pretty famous - and also seemed very confident that he'd win. I quite liked his performance.

Turkey was a crowd pleaser this year, so I couldn't leave them out.

This guy from Estonia had one hell of a voice.

Here's a rock example from Switzerland.

I couldn't end without the winner of the contest this year - Sweden! I was a bit confused by her interesting dance techniques but the song was pretty good. Not my favourite, though!

Oh my god. I need to stop or else I'll have all 42 participating countries up here. Check other videos out on YouTube here. What a wonderful few nights enjoying Eurovision!