Loreen (Lorine Zineb Noka Talhaoui) (1983- ), the winner of the 20012 ESC, although Loreen was born in Sweden, both of Loreen’s parents are from Morocco, and Loreen is of Berber descent
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At the end of voting, from 42 countries, Sweden’s Loreen (Lorine Zineb Noka Talhaoui) won the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku. Russia’s Buranovskiye Babushki came in second place. Loreen garnered 372 points, only 15 points off the absolute record established by Alexander Rybak in the 2009 ESC of 387 points. Eighteen countries gave Loreen twelve points, the highest score possible:
| Austria |
| Belgium |
| Denmark |
| Estonia |
| Finland |
| France |
| Germany |
| Hungary |
| Iceland |
| Ireland |
| Israel |
| Latvia |
| the Netherlands |
| Norway |
| Russia |
| Slovakia |
| Spain |
| UK |
The following countries gave Loreen ten points:
| Cyprus |
| Lithuania |
| Romania |
| Serbia |
| Slovenia |
| Sweden |
The following countries gave Loreen eight points:
| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Bulgaria |
| Georgia |
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Russia placed second in a bitter struggle for the most points with a singer from Serbia. The Buranovskiye Babushki scored 259 points. The only European country not to give them a single point was Switzerland. The other countries scored them as follows:
| COUNTRY | POINTS SCORED |
| Belarus | 12 |
| Azerbaijan | 10 |
| Italy | 10 |
| Latvia | 10 |
| San Marino | 10 |
| Belgium | 8 |
| Denmark | 8 |
| Estonia | 8 |
| Finland | 8 |
| Norway | 8 |
| Portugal | 8 |
| Slovenia | 8 |
| Spain | 8 |
| the Ukraine | 8 |
| Germany | 7 |
| Iceland | 7 |
| Serbia | 7 |
| Sweden | 7 |
| Turkey | 7 |
| Bulgaria | 6 |
| Croatia | 6 |
| Lithuania | 6 |
| Moldova | 6 |
| Austria | 5 |
| Cyprus | 5 |
| Georgia | 5 |
| France | 4 |
| Greece | 4 |
| Macedonia | 4 |
| Montenegro | 4 |
| the Netherlands | 4 |
| Romania | 4 |
| Albania | 3 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 3 |
| Malta | 3 |
| Slovakia | 3 |
| UK | 3 |
The following 26 countries ended in the finals of the competition after the two semi-finals:
| Albania |
| Azerbaijan |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
| Cyprus |
| Denmark |
| Estonia |
| Macedonia |
| France |
| Germany |
| Greece |
| Hungary |
| Iceland |
| Ireland |
| Italy |
| Lithuania |
| Malta |
| Moldova |
| Norway |
| Romania |
| Russia |
| Serbia |
| Spain |
| Sweden |
| Turkey |
| the Ukraine |
| United Kingdom |
The Buranovskiye Babushki took the stage sixth, after the participants from the UK, Hungary, Albania, Lithuania, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The audience greeted their performance with applause and cheers, which didn’t abate as they sung their song. People got up and danced due to the influence of the Babushki’s song. During their performance, the Babushki had a Russian-style stove in which they baked Udmurt pies. The Baba’s singing captivated the ESC audience. After the semi-finals, the bookies laid odds that the Babushki would “place” (take second place), and, in fact, that’s what happened, as most pundits predicted that the Swedish singer would be the most likely winner long before the semi-finals.
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Željko Joksimović from Serbia also performed according to the bookies’ predictions; he took the “show” position (third place). Russians were mildly optimistic about our entry in the contest. According to VTsIOM, more than half of Russians didn’t doubt that the Buranovskiye Babushki would be amongst the “top ten”, 14 percent thought that they’d be amongst the “top three”, and 13 percent though that they would win. The Babas won the right to represent Russia at the ESC by winning a national selection. They performed their song Party For Everybody and outran 24 other competitors. The votes of a jury comprising eminent pop music figures and the votes of television viewers, each taken in equal proportion, were the basis of choosing the winner. Baku hosted the ESC 2012 after Azerbaijani duet Ell and Nikki (Eldar Gasimov and Nigyar Dzhamal) won the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf performing the song Running Scared, by winning 221 points.
This was the second time that the Babas took part in the national final. In 2010, they were among the leaders, but could not overcome the internet votes for Pyotr Nalich. This year, they finally met with success; the audience in the national selection gave the performance of the “golden age” artists a hearty and joyful reception. Their artistic director, Olga Tuktaryova, remembered the audience’s reaction to their performance, saying, “There was such a roar that we were moved to tears… we couldn’t sing, we could only cry. That was true for me, at least, it seemed, because I felt such energy from the audience. Moreover, these are youngsters, and we’re grandmas. The intensity was just so very strong. Was this for the Babushki… oh, yes, it was!”
NB:
Click here for the official Eurovision 2012 site
26 May 2012
Svetlana Maksimenko
Voice of Russia World Service
Voices from Russia 
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