News - Ten years of Eurovision parties in London | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

One of London's regular Eurovision parties celebrated its 10th anniversary in January. The Douze points parties are held at Retro Bar in central London every second Thursday of each month. Every year the club also hosts big preview parties, which start this week. The preview videos of the songs from the first semi-final in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow will be shown on a big screen tomorrow Thursday 9 April. There will be a vote among the crowd and results will be revealed on an electronic scoreboard in true Eurovision style.

Ten songs will qualify for the Douze points final, which will be held on 7 May. The second semi-final songs will be decided on 23 April. The preview events are ticketed and the £3 tickets must be bought in advance from the Retro bar, with proceeds going to charity. The Retro bar is at 2 George Court, off the Strand in WC2. Regular nights are free of charge.

The first Douze points was held ten years ago on 14 January 1999. London scene magazine QX reported of the opening: “Starting tomorrow at The Retro Bar:  Douze points – a monthly nite os Eurovision euphoria and nostalgia hits this Charing Cross hostelry, hosted by Peter & Paul (two REAL Eurovision fanatics) with BarMadam Wendy (As Katie Boyle). This new nite will ensure that the bar rocks gently to the various 'musical' offerings from Belgium to Bosnia (sure to be a powderkeg of fun!) the track that made it... and most definitely didn't The evening kicks off at 8.30pm with videos, competitions and prizes for grabs. “Douze points” will feature every month at the Retro on the 2nd Thursday, building up for the actual contest at the end of May, when who knows, the sun may be shining again”

All this is still true for one of Europe's longest running Eurovision parties. It might be mentioned that the crowd at Retro are notoriously bad at predicting success at Eurovision and have so far always failed to pick a winner in the annual voting; on the contrary winning at Retro has been often labeled as a “kiss of death” for Eurovision success, as F.L.Y. From Latvia or DJ Bobo from Switzerland (both previous winners) can vouch. Esctoday will report the results of the previews this year after each night.

Douze points official website here