Over the last seven years "All Kinds Of Everything" has given fans a chance to hear the songs competing for a place on the Eurovision stage, months in advance of the contest. For 2012, we once again look forward to the contest by providing some information on the songs vying for places in the contest in Baku in May. With over forty countries competing in May and few making internal selections, the vast majority of the entrants will be chosen through open national selections of various types. Between now and March, we will be looking at and and listening to the songs in contention for Eurovision 2012.  

To start 2012's Sneak Peeks we are having a bumper double sized edition, looking at potential Eurovision entries from twelve national selections.

	NORWAY "Something Beautiful" - Nora Foss Al-Jabri
Last Saturday night the lengthy Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix selection for Baku began. A total of 24 potential entries will compete in three semi-finals with the Top 3 from each semi making it through to the final. Unlike recent years, there will be no "second chance" round and televoters and juries select the eventual winner in the final, to be staged in Oslo on February 11th. Having been the victim of "the curse of last year's host", Norwegians will be hoping that this year's entry will do better than "Haba Haba", which failed to qualify for the final in Dusseldorf.  Unlike other countries, NRK announces the order in which the semi-finalists were ranked and the winner of the first semi, staged in Ørland was the Disney style ballad "Something Beautiful" sung by Nora Foss Al-Jabri. Nora, who's mother is Norwegian, and father is Iraqi will only passes the Eurovision age qualification of 16 on January 29th, but she has already been a successful child star. Thanks to an online video, she gained local and international recognition and she was featured on Oprah Winfrey's "The World's Most Talented Kids". The song is co-written by A1's Christian Ingebrigtsen. _______________________________________________________________________________________________
	CYPRUS "La La Love" - Ivi Adamou
With three nationals finals already complete, the focus now moves to Cyprus. The 2012 Cypriot Final will be held on next Wednesday (January 25th) at the CyBC Studios in Nicosia and it will be hosted by Christos Grigoriades. Ivi Adamou will sing all three songs and the winner will be chosen by a jury and public televoting. In our first "Sneak Peak", we presented our favourite entry "Call The Police", but if the online polls and YouTube hits are anything to go by, then the most likely song to represent Cyprus in Baku, is the similarly up-tempo and catchy "La La Love". Previously, Cypriot television has been quite rigid and insisted that there should be at least one Cypriot citizen on each potential Eurovision entry, but this year songwriters from all over Europe have been allowed to enter the Cypriot selection. The Greek-Swedish composer Alex Papakonstantinou is the man behind "La La Love" and he will be hoping for "third time lucky" at Eurovision. Papakonstantinou was previously one oof the songwriters of "Always" the third placed Azerbaijani song in 2009 and before that, the Greek entry from 2007, "Yassou Maria", which came 7th in Helsinki. The Cypriot finmal will be streamed live on the net.     _______________________________________________________________________________________________
	MALTA "Pure" - Claudia Faniello
Another Mediterranean island who's national final is around the corner is Malta.  Their final will be held on February 4th at the Malta Fairs & Convention Centre in Ta' Qali and will by hosted this year by Ronald Briffa and Elaine Saliba. The evening before the final, 24 songs will compete for the 16 places in the final. In what is always one of the longest national finals of the year, the Maltese entry for Baku will be chosen by a jury (75% weighting) and televoting (25%). The ballad "Pure" sung Claudia Faniello is the favourite to be this year's Maltese selection and it certainly has a good pedigree. Composer Philip Vella and lyricist Gerard James Borg are looking for their sixth Eurovision entry having previously combined on "Desire" (2000)," Seventh Wonder" (2002) "On Again... Off Again" (2004), "Vertigo" (2007) and "Vodka" (2008). Singer Claudio Faniello has been competing in the Maltese national finals since 2006 and came closest to representing her country at Eurovision in 2008, when her entry "Caravaggio" narrowly missed out on the tickety to Belgrade. Claudia is the younger sister of Fabrizzio Faniello, who represented Malta in 2001 and 2006.  _______________________________________________________________________________________________
	ESTONIA "Kuula" (Listen) - Ott Lepland
We're still a long way from the climax of the 2012 Estonian selection. The final of the Eesti Laul will be held on March 3rd at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn. Before that final there will be two semi-finals will will held at the ERR TV Studios, also in Tallinn, with the top five songs from each semi qualifying for the final. All the songs have now been released on the internet and despite the fact that both Lenna Kuurmaa (the former lead singer of Vanilla Ninja, who represented Switzerland in 2005) and Malcolm Little( who represented Estonia in Oslo in 2010) are in the competition, the clear favourite to go to Baku is the ballad "Kuula" (Listen) written and performed by Ott Lepland. Ott wass born in 1987 and was a child star, releasing four albums of children's songs before he was ten. After completing his education, he re-emerged in 2009, through the television talent show "Eesti Otsib Superstaari", Estonia's version of "Pop Idol". Having won the show, he released two successful albums and a string of singles, becoming one of Estonia's biggest music stats. Ott presented his Eurovision entry in a Christmas television special and since then it has been the favourite to get Estonia's ticket to Baku. _______________________________________________________________________________________________   ITALY "Nella Vasca Da Bagno Del Tempo" - Erica Mou   Italy made a sensational return to the Eurovision Song Contest in 2011, when their entry "Madness Of Love" by Raphael Gualazzi came second in Dusseldorf and clearly won the jury vote. RAI has confirmed that it will be sending an entry to Baku although they have not formally confirmed how the song will be chosen. There are however strong rumours to suggest that once again, the famous Sanremo festival will provide the Italian Eurovision entry. This year the Giovanni (Newcomers) section has been replaced by a "Sanremo Social" section which has given more young artists to compete in the festival, and in early January six entries were chosen to compete in the final of "Sanremo Social" and if 2011 is anything to go by, one of these will get the ticket to Baku. The favourite in this section is 15 year old Alessandro Casillo, who would be too young for Eurovision, so instead we turn our attention to 21 year-old Erica Mou from Puglia and her song "Nella Vasca Da Bagno Del Tempo" (In The Bathtub Of Time) which is already getting a lot of attention. _______________________________________________________________________________________________      ICELAND "Hjartad Brennur" (My Heart Burns) - Regina Osk After two of the three semi-finals are complete, this year's Iclandic selection is shaping up to be one of the most varied and highest quality finals of 2012. We now know four of the six songs that will be competing for Iceland's ticket to Baku. The public will choose the entry on February 11th when the final will be staged at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik. In our first "Sneak Peek" we featured Jonsi, a former Icelandic entrant, trying to return to the Eurovision stage and this week we feature another.   34 year old Regina Osk was one of the lead singers of Euroband, with Fredrik Omar. Their Eurovision entry "This Is My Life", came 14th in Belgrade. Regina has previously competed in the 2003 Icelandic final and she also came 2nd in 2006, being squeezed out by Sylvia Night. Regina sang backing vocals at Eurovision in 2001, 2003 and in2005. Having released three solo albums in the last seven years, Regina is now back in the spotlight as a solo singer, hoping to return to Eurovision with "Hjartad Brennur" (My Heart Burns) a 1960s style pop-soul song. The song which was originally written in Swedish and an should it qualify for Baku, there is an English version already being planned.