With the mad rush towards the end of the national final season and the excitement of the running order draw, one important thing slipped our mind here at esc-chat.com – namely, to round up the final internally selected artists for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. So let’s right that wrong now, as we complete the line-up that will seek to entertain a whole continent in Baku in May!

The BBC promised a well-established artist with many awards and record sales to his name, and they didn’t disappoint – though it’s unlikely that fans were expecting the United Kingdom‘s choice to be Engelbert Humperdinck. Turning 76 years of age next month, the Indian-born singer had two huge UK chart hits in the late 1960s with “Release Me” and “The Last Waltz”, and is still touring actively today. Thanks to the Russian grannies, however, he won’t even be the oldest singer to take to the stage in Baku – one of them is already 76 – and being drawn first in the running order is likely to hamper the chances of his contemplative ballad “Love Will Set You Free”. But on the plus side, at least he won’t have to stay up too late, even allowing for the time difference!

Having failed to reach the final last year with 1998 winner Dana International, Israel has turned to pop-rock this year with Izabo. The band released their first album in 2003 and have been active on the local scene ever since. A bilingual song, “Time”, will be their contribution to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Following earlier speculation, Slovakia finally confirmed its participation and, as hinted, the country will be represented by singer Miro Šmajda – although he will perform under the stage name of Max Jason Mai. “Don’t Close Your Eyes” is the name of the rocky number with which he will attempt to bring Slovakia its first Saturday night appearance at ESC since 1998. According to his official website, one of Šmajda’s favourite albums is by Armenian-American Serj Tankian. He might want to keep that quiet until his visa for Baku is sorted out.

And last but by no means least, what can be said about San Marino‘s entry that hasn’t already been googled, giggled and gaggled elsewhere? 37-year-old wannabe teenager Valentina Monetta will represent the microstate in Baku with a song written by ESC legend/dinosaur Ralph Siegel. And what a song it is. Originally presented as “Facebook Uh, Oh, Oh”, the title quickly obtained the suffix “(A Satirical Song)” as fan gossip suggested that the EBU would be less than happy with such outright advertising. And they were right – in the end, Monetta had to record an entirely new, heavily autotuned lyric, and she will now perform “The Social Network Song (oh oh-uh-oh oh)” – their orthography, not ours – in the first semi-final on 22 May. We hope all the effort will prove worthwhile!