It is your chance to vote in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. It is time to make your choice of the 26 countries that have made it to the final of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in Baku.

Will the favourites Sweden win? Or will neighbours Norway pip them to it? Can Jedward do it for Ireland or will Italy win bragging rights? Will the Russia grannies show they can do it like the youngsters? (That is enough name dropping – Ed.)

So you know the deal! Pick your top ten award them points 12, 10, and 8-1.

So vote here 

See the results here

See the animated scoreboard here

Related articles

• EBU Press Conference (escireland.com)
• Jedward through to Eurovision Finals (newstalk.ie)
• First Semi-Final concludes, we have ten finalists! (eurovision.tv)

Source: Elke Roels, Thomas Hanses (EBU) First Semi-Final Winners Press Conference

Tonight saw the first Semi-Final of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest take place in Baku. In what was an agonising wait for Ireland fans we clinched the “Golden Ticket” and the last spot in the final. The other qualifiers were Romania, Moldova, Iceland, Hungary, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Greece and Russia.

We made it folks, straight to the final on Saturday. Well done to Jedward for doing us proud with “Waterline”

Come on Boys!!!

According to the Independent today Jedward have the second most downloaded song from this years Eurovision, second only to the glorious Loreen from Sweden – Yay!!!

JEDWARD’s Eurovision hopes have received a major boost after song Waterline charted in several European countries’ charts – well over a month before the competition.

It is highly unusual for a Eurovision entry to achieve international chart success before the competition, yet the Lucan twins have managed to achieve the feat.

 

The song has made it into the download charts in Sweden at 17, Latvia at 5 and even gone to number 1 in the Estonian download charts.

 

The achievement comes as a huge boost to the twin’s Eurovision efforts, proving the European fan base they gained last year has remained loyal since the competition.

 

There is only one other competing song to achieve more international chart success than the boys – Sweden’s entry ‘Euphoria’ by singer Loreen.

 

The Swedish entry has topped the charts in Norway and Finland, and has even charted as far away as Spain and Greece. The Swedish dance track is currently bookies favourite to take the prize in Baku.

 

As well as proving the bookies’ favourite, Sweden has proved the favourite with the public across Europe – over a quarter of this year’s Eurovision songs are Swedish penned, including Jedward’s.

Delighted for Ireland – same as last year. The UK got a bum draw, Italy is about similar to last year though. Might be harder for Serbia to get through to the final now – but not impossible.

Draw of Semi-Final 1

In each half of every respective Semi-Final, one country received a wildcard to choose its starting position. The remaining positions were drawn afterwards.

The draw for the first Semi-Final:

1. Montenegro
2. Iceland
3. Greece
4. Latvia
5. Albania
6. Romania
7. Switzerland
8. Belgium
9. Finland (wildcard)
10. Israel
11. San Marino
12. Cyprus
13. Denmark
14. Russia
15. Hungary
16. Austria
17. Moldova
18. Ireland (wildcard)

Draw of Semi-Final 2

The draw for the second Semi-Final brought the following result:

1. Serbia
2. FYR Macedonia
3. The Netherlands
4. Malta
5. Belarus
6. Portugal
7. Ukraine (wildcard)
8. Bulgaria
9. Slovenia
10. Croatia
11. Sweden
12. Georgia
13. Turkey
14. Estonia
15. Slovakia
16. Norway
17. Bosnia & Herzegovina
18. Lithuania (wildcard)

Preliminary draw for the Final

For the Grand Final, the starting positions of the Big 5 countries (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and The United Kingdom) plus the host, Azerbaijan, were also drawn, with one of them, again, getting a wildcard to freely choose their starting position:

• 01. United Kingdom
• 09. France
• 10. Italy
• 13. Azerbaijan
• 19. Spain (wildcard)
• 20. Germany

Jedward ran the LA marathon today, wel done to them We all know that they have a lot of energy lol

Jedward have been chosen to represent Ireland in Baku, after having secured first place at the Irish Eurosong Final.

Friday, February 24, 2012 – 07:35 AM

Jedward are pinning their hopes on the Irish vote tonight, as they sets their sights on a Eurovision entry.
The public will choose who to represent us at Eurovision, with the Dublin duo hoping to win a ticket to Azerbaijan.

The twins will perform fifth tonight on the Late Late Show and are favourites in the competition.

John and Edward are confident in the song and say “all the juries across Europe will vote for it”.

From the Irishexaminer.com

Eurosong is douze points for Late Late

VIEWERSHIP OF the Late Late Show tends to spike over the course of a programme whenever Irish guests get their Tubridy-time, meaning RTÉ will be all too happy to devote tomorrow’s show to that most Irish of traditions, Eurovision.

Excluding December’s record-breaking Toy Show audience, the most-watched edition of the Late Late last year was February 11th, when the Lipstick -singing Jedward were chosen as Ireland’s representatives – an average of 886,100 viewers tuned in to see this peroxide-tinged conclusion.

So what to expect of Eurosong 2012? With crushing inevitability, Jedward are back, this time with Waterline , described by music blog Popjustice as “a Backstreet [Boys] vs Busted banger of Eurovision-winning proportions”.

Oh dear. Deserving second-favourite, and reassuringly less likely to romp home in Azerbaijan, is Donna McCaul’s track Mercy – as fitting a Eurovision title as you can get. Alarmingly, both acts have called in the writing and/or production talents of pop’s peerless professionals: the Swedish.

From the IrishTImes.com