Five songs faced the votes of five regional juries and a public televote, ultimately resulting in the selection of "Waterline" performed by Jedward as the Irish Eurovision entry.

Ireland holds the record for being the only country to win the contest three times in a row (in 1992, 1993 and 1994), as well as having the only three-time winner (Johnny Logan, who won in 1980 as a singer, 1987 as a singer-songwriter, and again in 1992 as a songwriter).

The Irish entry in 2011, "Lipstick" performed by Jedward, managed to qualify to the final and placed eighth, achieving Ireland's highest position in the contest since 2000.

From 2008 to 2011, RTÉ had set up the national final Eurosong to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ireland, with both the public and regional jury groups involved in the selection.

[2][3] Jedward themselves revealed they will "be doing Eurovision [Song Contest in] 2012" and that "it's gonna be even bigger and better because [we're] in all these teen magazines, and we go all over Europe".

[4] Louis Walsh, the manager of Jedward, expressed his wish for the duo to compete in 2012 almost immediately after they returned to Dublin following Eurovision 2011.

[2] Eurosong 2012 was the national final format developed by RTÉ in order to select Ireland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

[6] On 3 November 2011, RTÉ revealed the five music industry professionals that were invited to each select and mentor an entry for the competition: producer and former Popstars and You're a Star judge Bill Hughes, singer-songwriter Edele Lynch, music producer, songwriter and member of The Brilliant Things Greg French, agent and choreographer Julian Benson, and singer and former contest winner Linda Martin.

[10] Following the 50/50 combination of votes from five regional juries and public televoting, "Waterline" performed by Jedward was selected as the winner.

[14] The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 20 March 2012 and as one of the five wildcard countries, Ireland chose to perform last in position 18, following the entry from Moldova.

The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.