"LIGHT YOUR FIRE!"

Light Your Fire! - This slogan was recognized as the main idea of the forthcoming 57th Eurovision Song Contest. Recently, Baku officially gained status as the capital of this prestigious contest. On 25 January, the Buta Palace concert and entertainment complex hosted a ceremony in which Dirk Elbers, the mayor of Dusseldorf, where last year's contest was held, handed over the symbolic key of Eurovision to the mayor of Baku, Hacibala Abutalibov. The public was also presented with the official logo of the contest - a fiery flower with dancing flames.

To participate in the ceremony, Baku was visited by the executive director of Eurovision, Jan Ola Sand, event supervisor Sietse Bakker, cultural figures and artists, as well as journalists from more than 10 countries. In his welcome speech, the mayor of Baku, Abutalibov, said that the song contest will be held at the highest level in Baku: "Our country is seriously preparing for this prestigious competition. I'm sure it will be a grand musical celebration that will leave an indelible mark on the memory of all the guests of our capital." The guests watched a festive concert called "Magic Azerbaijan", during which folk and classical works were performed to the accompaniment of the Qara Qarayev Azerbaijan State Chamber Orchestra under the direction of the People's Artist Teymur Goycayev. The star of Azerbaijani jazz, pianist Isfar Sarabski, Natiq Sirinov's rhythm group of nagara players, and others also appeared on the stage. The unique voice of Alim Qasimov, who performed the famous folk hit "Sari Galin", caused a standing ovation throughout the hall.

Then, the bronze medallist of Eurovision 2009, Aysel Teymurzada, with her song "Always", the winner of Eurovision 2009, Alexander Rybak, with his fantastic song "Fairytale", a participant in Eurovision 2010, Safura Alizada with "Drip Drop", the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, Lena Meyer-Laundrut, with "Satellite" and, finally, Eldar Qasimov and Nigar Camal, with their winning song of last year's Eurovision "Running Scared" appeared on the stage.

At the ceremony, the draw for the Eurovision semifinals was held. Montenegro, Iceland, Moldova, Cyprus, Romania, Albania, Austria, Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Latvia, San Marino, Switzerland, Finland, Israel, Greece, Ireland and Hungary will participate in the first semifinal to be held in our capital city on 22 May.

The remaining 19 countries - Serbia, Sweden, Georgia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Macedonia, Estonia, Belarus, Turkey, Malta, Slovakia, Croatia, Norway, Ukraine, Armenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina will participate in the second semifinal on 24 May. The final of the Eurovision Song Contest will be held on 26 May. According to the rules of the contest, five countries - Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain, and last year's winner Azerbaijan will take part directly in the final.

The venue for the future song contest has already been made public. Eurovision 2012 will take place in the Baku Crystal Hall, which will be opened in April. By the way, the new concert hall is designed for about 25,000 spectators. For comparison, the stadium in Oslo, where Eurovision 2010 was held, could accommodate 4,000 people, and in D?sseldorf - for 10,000.

On the territory of the Baku Crystal Hall, there will also be a hall for press conferences, Euroclub and Eurovillage. Guests and participants in the contest will move around the city in special shuttle buses. Fifty of these vehicles have already been delivered, and another 100 buses will appear in Baku in late March. According to Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov, the recruitment of professional drivers, who will be required to speak English, has already been announced.

Incidentally, ahead of the contest, the Armenian news agency News.am published a false report alleging that "European countries are hesitant about participating in Eurovision 2012. The Czech Republic, Poland and Iceland have already refused to participate in the European Song Contest, while Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Luxembourg have not made up their minds yet," the agency gleefully reported.

Other Armenian media also engaged in wishful thinking about the intentions of the European countries to "boycott" the Baku contest. Perhaps, this tactic pursued another goal: they thought they could mislead someone with such "disinformation". But they failed. The official website of the contest quoted the European Broadcasting Union as saying that 43 countries - exactly the same number as in Eurovision 2011 in D?sseldorf - have applied to participate in the 57th Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Baku in May. It is clear that the composition of participating countries slightly changes every year. For example, Poland will not participate in Eurovision as its public channel intends to devote a large part of its airtime to the 2012 European Football Championship. The refusal of the Czech Republic is due to the failures that have plagued the country at the contest. With regard to Luxembourg, it has been absent from Eurovision since 1993.

Now that the composition of participating countries is known, most of them are facing the most important stage - selecting their song and singer. It will end by the end of March. And the Azerbaijani participant, who will appear on the Eurovision stage in Baku, will be determined at the end of February. In the meantime, the race for a ticket to the contest continues.