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A Chance to See Azerbaijan
theWay It Is
The Eurovision Song Contest is nowadays the world’s most popular TV project. It enjoys a tremendous popularity and
love not only in Europe but world over viewed by 100-150 million people in over 50 countries.
While the first Eurovision Song Contest broadcast on May 24, 1956 featured representatives of 7 countries only, today
it brings together countries of Europe and Asia.
According to the EBU statistics, live broadcast of the first and second Semifinals of the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in
Baku was tracked by 19.4 and 19.6million viewers respectively, whereas the audience of the Grand Final was 63.9million.
The overall number of TV viewers of all three shows was equal to 102.9 million, i.e. 37 per cent higher than Eurovision
Song Contest 2011.
There was also a tremendous interest to the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in the Internet. Within just a year,17 million
users viewed the show through the contest’s official site
www.eurovision.tv
100 million times. The overall number of
web browses of the video clips presented at the site was around 150 million. This is 80 per cent higher than similar
indices of 2011. The show’s Grand Final was traced through the Internet in 186 countries.
In general, the ESC is not merely a song contest. Rather, this is a project bringing together culture, music and traditions
of various nations. This year provided another great chance for the countries united through the Eurovision family to
get closer and enjoy friendly ties with each other. For the whole year preceding to the Eurovision Song Contest 2012,
Azerbaijan was in the spotlight of media and Eurovision fans. Series of reports were published and aired by Europe’s
leading TV channels, newspapers and magazines featuring Azerbaijan, its culture, traditions, history and capacities in
tourism. Media outlets from the UK, Germany, Russia, France, Serbia and other states were tracing each and every
step in preparation to the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in their publications from Baku.
A number of joint projects were conducted through
www.eurovision.az
, the official national site of the Eurovision
Song Contest 2012, and
www.eurovision.tv
, e.g. TV broadcasts aired in the framework of Weekly Baku project by the
ESC 2012 Core Team were instrumental in promoting the host city throughout Europe. Introducing Azerbaijan video
project provided a nice opportunity to convey a weekly message to the Eurovision audience regarding Azerbaijan’s
history, traditional and modern music, customs and cuisine. Both the contest fans and the broader audience in Europe
got a chance to raise awareness about Azerbaijan and to track all phases of preparation to the contest through photo
sessions and video coverage. Importance of this first project by
www.eurovision.tv
and the official national site of the
host country was emphasized in particular by representatives of the European Broadcasting Union.
The Eurovision Song Contest provided a very opportune chance to present Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijanis to the
world the way they are. A noteworthy detail is that he number of visitors attending the country during the two weeks
of the contest exceeded 103 thousand. In general, the grand event that took one year to hold and prepare opened an
avenue to demonstrate Azerbaijan’s economic potential, rich history, modernity, capacities in tourism, deeply-rooted
values and cultural heritage to the rest of the world.
The visitors and Eurovision fans amazed by the host city of Baku were leaving the country with the cordial wish for
Azerbaijan to win the contest one more time.