esc-chat.com is slowly awakening from the summer break, so it’s time for a first look at the upcoming 2012 season!

Participating countries

So far, 42 countries are said to have confirmed their participation. The unofficial list includes Armenia, although participation has yet to be confirmed by armtv so far.

Iceland and Portugal are still missing from the list. However, an Icelandic participation is expected, whereas there appears to be more of a question mark over Portugal.

A possible return of Morocco is one of the hottest rumours this summer. The second-ever participation by the African country after its debut in 1980 would, of course, represent one of the most spectacular comebacks in the history of the contest.

Preselections announced – some changes on the way

So far, two dates have been confirmed:

Switzerland is cementing its bid to become the new Albania by holding its national final as early as Saturday, 10 December 2011. Meanwhile, Denmark’s national final will take place on Saturday, 21 January 2012.

Slovenia and Finland are two of the countries to have announced a major change in their preselection process.

Finnish YLE has announced a whole new format to choose their Eurovision entrant for 2012, with “UMK (Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu)” replacing “Eurovision Laulukilpailu”. Exactly what that means in practice remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, the Slovenian EMA is undergoing a big change: The final show will keep its usual name, but its sole aim will be to select the song for the winning artist from the associated casting show “Misija Evrovizija”, which will consist of several shows building up to the selection of the Slovenian artist for Baku. Perhaps a slightly strange move considering the old format just got them their best result in a good decade, but time will tell!

The Netherlands have also announced a new selection format – an open final of sorts – whereas Germany will return to the successful format from 2010 that discovered Lena, resulting in the country’s first victory in 28 years.

First (unconfirmed) entrant known

Ivi Adamou is said to be representing Cyprus at the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan, though official confirmation is still missing. Adamou finished 6th on the second series of Greek X Factor, so that should give her a decent chance of receiving the Greek 12 points.

The rumour factory is currently going really strong, resulting in speculation about potential entrants from David Hasselhoff (denied) to the Spice Girls. (The near-annual rumour about System Of A Down has already been squashed, surprisingly enough.)

Venue

Finally on the news front, the venue. There has been no official announcement yet, but the usually reliable Andy from ESCKaz.com has said that a new arena will be constructed near the Baku waterfront in the vicinity of Dövlət Bayrağı Meydanı (Flag Square), which is home to one of the world’s largest flagpoles. Knowing the amount of money Azerbaijan have available for the ESC project, fans are anticipating a spectacular home for next year’s contest, the preliminary date for which is 26 May 2012 – preceded, of course, by the two semi-finals on 22 and 24 May.

Join the chat

As the summer (if there ever was one) is slowly fading away, we are curious about the new season that will climax in the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku 2012. We have already given our website a new look. And as always, the chat is open for your visit – drop by, say hello, exchange views, opinions and gossip with other fans, experience the season with us, and most importantly remember:

We are a social community of and for Eurovision fans, but that doesn’t mean we always discuss Eurovision 😉