At the start of April, Eurovision Ireland entered its 10th anniversary year. Now that the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and its aftermath is over, we thought it was about time we got around to celebrating. Some of the current team, along with some of our contributors, have put their thoughts together.

Today, we are looking at our favourite 2012 Eurovision Song Contest memories – the first Contest Eurovision Ireland covered.

John

The Baku contest was very memorable. They set a bar for getting a city involved in the show. The new venue was so new it was still being worked on when the rehearsals started. At the same time, Baku is a gloriously bonkers city, with ancient buildings plonked beside gleaming new constructions selling high end merchandise. I was so glad I went.

Richard

Baku was a real adventure and I was so glad I went. When Azerbaijan won in 2011, I was quite quick to say I’m not going, mainly because of how expensive it was going to be, but my friends soon changed my way of thinking! I won’t lie, I was quite nervous of going, however I never revealed this until I returned home. But the experience I had in Baku is every travellers dream and I would highly recommend a trip there – whether the Eurovision Song Contest is there or not!

Sarah

Loreen from Sweden storming to a convincing victory with Euphoria and Rona Nishliu from Albania singing those very high notes in her song “Suss”. Azerbaijan building a brand new arena, just for the purpose of hosting Eurovision.

Phil (OnEurope)

The fact that I didn’t go.  I swore blind the night after the 2011 song contest that I would not go because “It’s too damn far” – the seemingly constant sun for days on end that my friends kept telling me about made me think my choice had been slightly clouded by the distance.  It was the first time that Video Calling was a thing so I could see what I was missing, which didn’t *really* help!! I spent the contest watching it at my mates house in London, the first time he’d seen me in full on Eurovision mode.

Roy (Eurovision Apocalypse)

I’ve got so many great memories of Baku, from the friendliness of the locals – many of who I’m still in regular contact with today – and the other worldliness of the local architecture, right down to the incredible cake shops and the constant smell of oil. But one moment I think I’ll never forget is spending an unhinged hour in a Baku hotel room in the company of Jedward and Engelbert Humperdinck. Now there’s a sentence I’d never have imagined I’d ever have typed prior to 2012!

Let us know what you think about Eurovision Ireland’s 10th Anniversary – either in the comments below or on our FACEBOOK and TWITTER pages.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovision Ireland