Mandinga’s Zaleilah composed by Costi Ionita garnered 71 points. Romania got the maximum score from Moldova (12 points) and was second in Spain’s votes (10 points), but it was not among the first three for any other country. Romania got seven points from Italy and Greece, six from Israel and Azerbaijan, five from Ireland and four from Portugal and Turkey. The Romanian audience gave 12 points to Moldova, ten to Sweden and eight to Greece.
Sweden’s Loreen and her song Euphoria won the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest with 372 points. Russia’s folk group Buranovskiye Babushki (Buranovo Grannies) came in second, securing 259 points with its song Party for Everybody, while Serbia’s Zeljko Joksimovic came in third, securing 214 points with his song Nije Ljubav Stvar (Love is not a Thing).
The contest, which has been running since 1956, is the most widely viewed annual non-sports television event in the world, drawing about 125 million people worldwide each year.
The 2012 competition was held in the Azeri capital on May 22-26 after Azerbaijan’s Ell & Nikki duet won the contest last year. Next year’s Eurovision will take place in Loreen’s country, Sweden.