Eurovision votes for first ten countries

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Russia’s ‘Buranovskiye Babushki’ draws the greatest interest during the semi-final of the Eurovision 2012 song contest with the song ‘Party for Everybody.’ AFP photo

Ten countries have qualified for the final round of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in Baku after emerging victorious from the competition’s first semifinal May 22 at the Azerbaijani capital’s Crystal Hall.

Romania, Moldova, Iceland, Hungary, Denmark, Albania, Cyprus, Greece, Russia and Ireland beat out eight other competitors to qualify for the final stage of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on May 26.

Russian nannies draw greatest interest

Russian folk group Buranovskiye Babushki (Buranovo Grannies), which competed in the contest with the song “Party for Everybody,” drew the greatest interest at the event. The colorful grannies, some of whom are over 70 years of age, do not speak English and perform either their own songs or covers of many international music hits. They mostly sing in Russian and Udmurt. The Buranovskiye Babushki sextet comes from the village of Buranovo in the Urals republic of Udmurtia. The oldest member of the band is 86.

The group had previously participated in a contest to select Russia’s Eurovision song in 2010 with the song “Dlinnaja-Dlinnaja Beresta I Kak Sdelat Iz Nee Aishon” (Very long birch bark and how to turn it into a turban), finishing third. They were lucky for a second time in the Russian qualifying round this year, receiving 38.51 points to finish ahead of former Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan, who also entered the contest together with t.A.T.u. member Julia Volkova, performing the song “Back to Her Future” and finishing second.

The second semifinal of the event will be held tonight, with 10 groups from Turkey, Serbia, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Malta, Belarus, Portugal, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Sweden, Georgia, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Lithuania looking to advance. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy have automatic berths in the final.

Can Bonomo, who is representing Turkey, will be the 13th performer to take the stage.

Azerbaijan won the right to host the European song contest after Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal (Ell / Nikki) won at Eurovision 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany.