Azerbaijan, Baku, May 23 / Trend /
The construction of the Baku Crystal Hall complex where the Eurovision-2012 song contest is being held was completed a few weeks before the first rehearsal. However, the technical equipment was presented for the organizers of the contest to start preparing for the contest, head of the contest Jan Ola Sand said at a press conference in Baku today.
Jan Ola Sand also shared his impressions about the contest.
"We are in Azerbaijan for the first time," he said. "We are pleased to be in Baku, in such a fantastic place."
He also stressed that Eurovision 2012 first semifinal has not been demonstrated in Albania, because the bus accident that claimed the lives of people occurred there.
The participants from Iceland (Greta Salóme & Jónsi with "Never Forget" song), Greece (Eleftheria Eleftheriou with "Aphrodisiac" song), Albania (Rona Nishliu with "Suus" song), Romania (Mandinga with "Zaleilah" song), Russia (Buranovskiye Babushki with "Party for
Everybody" song in English and Udmurt), Cyprus (Ivi Adamou with "La La Love" song), Denmark (Soluna Samay with "Should've Known Better" song), Hungary (Compact Disco with "Sound of our hearts" song), Moldova (Pasha Parfeny with "Lăutar" song) and Ireland (Jedward with "Waterline" song) will perform in the final on May 26 following Eurovision-2012 first semi-final in Baku on Wednesday.
About 18 countries will participate in the second semi-final on May 24.
These are: Serbia, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Malta, Belarus, Portugal, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Sweden, Georgia, Turkey, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway, Bosnia Herzegovina and Lithuania.
The contest is being held at the Baku Crystal Hall, built on the shores of the Caspian Sea specifically for Eurovision 2012. 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 world countries.
The logo for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest is 'Fire Flower', while the motto is Light your fire.
Representatives of 42 countries participate in this 57th contest. Azerbaijan won the right to host the prestigious European song contest after the victory of Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal (Ell / Nikki) at Eurovision 2011 in Dusseldorf, Germany last May.