On May 26th Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva and family members watched the grand final of the Eurovision-2012 song contest in Baku.
A lavish firework display marked the opening of the Eurovision-2012 final show at the Baku Crystal Hall.
The grand final broadcast live to 46 European countries.
Twenty-six countries were competing for the title of winner of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest.
Prominent mugham singer Alim Gasimov was first to impress the audience with a mugham piece.
Last year`s winner duo Ell & Nikki opened the show with the Running Scared to the accompaniment of Azerbaijan`s national musical instruments.
Following the opening ceremony, the 26 acts competing in the grand final of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest took the stage of the Baku Crystal Hall.
Then, the voting started to decide the winner of the grand final.
The result was determined by way of a 50/50 split between national expert juries and televoting. The combined scores created the final outcome. Countries awarded their votes in scores from 1 to 7 and then 8, 10 and 12 points with only the latter three being read out by the spokesperson. All 42 participating countries were able to vote.
The televoting was held during the live show once the final performance took place.
The viewers of the 26 competing nations had the opportunity to televote for their favourite song with the numbers being revealed by their respective national broadcaster during the live show. The lines were open for just 15 minutes after the last song was performed.
Famous singer and songwriter Emin Agalarov presented an original and a spectacular show involving a 68-man group of back vocalists and dancers at the interval act of the grand final, definitely making the audience go crazy on the big night.
Sweden was crowned the winner of this year`s Eurovision song contest. Loreen was voted Europe`s favorite, after scoring 372 points with her song Euphoria.
Russia`s Buranovskiye Babushki ranked second, followed by Serbia`s Zeljko Joksimovic.
Azerbaijan`s Sabina Babayeva came 4th scoring 150 points.
Four countries - Ukraine, Malta, Turkey and Lithuania - gave maximum of 12 point votes to Azerbaijan.
The grand final culminated with a press conference of the contest`s winner. Speaking to the press conference, Loreen said: "I loved the people of Azerbaijan, they are very friendly."
She thanked the host Azerbaijan for excellent organization of the contest.

AzerTAc