Today in Baku, the highlight of the Head of Delegations meeting took place: the official draw for the 2012 Eurovision Running Order.  Even though the nations had been divided into their Semifinals back in January, today brought some more clarity to what we’ll see in May, as well as triggering the usual flood of punditry about who benefits from performing when.  Let’s take a look at how things turned out today:

Semifinal One: May 22

1. Montenegro: Rambo Amadeus – “Euro Neuro”
2. Iceland: Gréta Salóme & Jónsi – “Never Forget”
3. Greece: Eleftheria Eleftheriou – “Aphrodisiac”
4. Latvia: Anmary – “Beautiful Song”
5. Albania: Rona Nishliu – “Suus”
6. Romania: Mandinga – “Zaleilah”
7. Switzerland: Sinplus – “Unbreakable”
8. Belgium: Iris – “Would You?”
9. Finland (Wild card): Pernilla Karlsson – “När jag blundar”
10. Israel: Izabo – “Time”
11. San Marino: TBA
12. Cyprus: Ivi Adamou – “La La Love”
13. Denmark: Soluna Samay – “Should’ve Known Better”
14. Russia: Buranovskiye Babushki – “Party for Everybody”
15. Hungary: Compact Disco – “Sound of Our Hearts”
16. Austria: Trackshittaz – “Woki mit deim Popo”
17. Moldova: Pasha Parfeny – “Lăutar”
18. Ireland (Wild card): Jedward – “Waterline”

Semifinal Two: May 24

1. Serbia: Željko Joksimović – “Nije ljubav stvar”
2. (FYR) Macedonia: Kaliopi – “Crno i belo”
3. Netherlands: Joan Franka – “You and Me”
4. Malta: Kurt Calleja – “This is the Night”
5. Belarus: Litesound – “We are the Heroes”
6. Portugal: Filipa Sousa – “Vida Minha”
7. Ukraine (Wild card): Gaitana – “Be My Guest”
8. Bulgaria: Sofi Marinova – “Love Unlimited”
9. Slovenia: Eva Boto – “Verjamem”
10. Croatia: Nina Badrić – Nebo”
11. Sweden: Loreen – “Euphoria”
12. Georgia: Anri Jokhadze – “I’m a Joker”
13. Turkey: Can Bonomo – “Love Me Back”
14. Estonia: Ott Lepland – “Kuula”
15. Slovakia: Max Jason Mai – “Don’t Close Your Eyes”
16. Norway: Tooji – “Stay”
17. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Maya Sar – “Korake ti znam”
18. Lithuania (Wild card): Donny Montell – “Love is Blind”

Even though we don’t know who exactly we’ll see in the Final on May 26, we do know the running order of the Big Five and hosts Azerbaijan for that night.

• 1. United Kingdom: Engelburt Humperdinck – “Love Will Set You Free”
• 9. France: Anggun – “Echo (You and I)”
• 10. Italy: Nina Zilli – “L’amore è femmina”
• 13. Azerbaijan: Sabina Babayeva – “When the Music Dies”
• 19. Spain: Pastora Soler – “Quédate Conmigo”
• 20. Germany: Roman Lob – “Standing Still”

As a fan and a pundit, a few things jumped out at me once I noticed the running order:

• For the third time in three participations, Montenegro will be opening up the First Semifinal.  This didn’t turn into success for their entries for 2008 or 2009, as both failed to move on to the Final…will Rambo Amadeus change that?
• For the second year in a row, Jedward will be closing their Semifinal.
• With the possible exception of Finland following Belgium in Semifinal One, and Slovenia and Croatia in Semifinal Two, the ballads tend to be separated from one another.  This might even the playing field a bit.
• Despite the general critical acclaim of Engelbert Humperdinck’s entry for the United Kingdom, no song running in the opening spot has won since 1984’s “Diggi-Loo Diggi-Ley“.  Only nineteen songs took part that year, as opposed to twenty-six in this year’s Final, so The Hump’s got even more competition.

What stands out to you?  Join the conversation!