escwebs - The Latest Eurovision News

The Land Of Fire hosts the Eurovision Song Contest this year in Baku. Azerbaijan entered the contest only four years ago, in 2008 and gained the victory in its fourth participation. Read more about Azerbaijan in ESC below.

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Azerbaijani national television company AzTV was willing to participate the contest already in 2007 but EBU denied broadcaster's membership because AzTV wasn't seperate enough from the Azeri state. This was a step backwards for Azerbaijan's debut. However, another Azeri broadcaster İctimai TV joined EBU in July 2007 which meant that the country could make their debut in Belgrade 2008.

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And it happened.

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2008 - Elnur & Samir - Day After Day (6th in the semifinal, 8th in the final)

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The first ever representative was chosen through an open selection. Everyone who wanted to participate could apply. A jury, named by the broadcaster, invited the best ones to the next round which was held behind closed doors. In January 2008, the jury had made their decision and the three finalists were Elnur Gusseinov, Aynur Iskenderli and Unformal. National final was held in Baku on February 2nd. Every candidate had two songs and Elnur won the contest.

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But it wasn't that simple. After Elnur won the national final, he stated that he wants to sing it with Samir, who is his close friend. "I sing with Samir or I don't sing at all", Elnur told the local press. Afterall iTV accepted Elnur's wish and decided to send both, Samir and Elnur to Belgrade with "Day After Day".

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2009 - Aysel & Arash - Always (2nd in the semifinal, 3rd in the final)

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After their succesful debut, Azerbaijan wanted to do even better in the contest. iTV opened an open selection but decided to choose their representative internally because of the poor quality of the songs. Only 19 years old AySel was selected to represent Azerbaijan in Moscow. Song for her was penned by Arash, an Iran-born singer and songwriter living in Sweden. He also joined AySel on stage in Moscow.

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As was the case in 2008, also this year an extensive promo tour was launched. Azerbaijan came second in the semifinal, right after Norway. In the final the country received 207 points finishind third.

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2010 - Safura - Drip Drop (2nd in the semifinal, 5th in the final)

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Couple of weeks after Moscow's Eurovision Song Contest, iTV already opened a call for songs and artists who would like to represent the country in Oslo 2010. 30 artists attended and the broadcaster invited six of them to the televised semifinal. Three of them qualified to the final where the winner was chosen by a jury. In the final, every artist had the same three songs, composed by Swedes. A seven-member-jury choosed Safura to Baku but her entry was still unclear. After many serious discussions, Ictimai TV decided that Safura will sing "Drip Drop" in Oslo.

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Azerbaijan was, once again, one of the hot favorites to win the contest in 2010. However they had to settle for fifth place in the final.

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2011 - Ell & Nikki - Running Scared (2nd in the semifinal, 1st in the final)

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Without a doubt, Azerbaijan was going to participate the 2011 contest as well. Another open selection was held but the format was changed a bit from 2010. Broadcaster received 120 submissions and 77 of them made it to the first round of the selection. Selected artists had to have a beautiful voice, dance ability and stage culture. The 77 selected were divided into seven heats and the winner of each week qualified to the semifinal. A jury picked two more to the semifinal from those who didn't make it. Five qualified to the national final where only the artist for Eurovision 2011 was chosen. Originally, Eldar won the final but Nigar was invited to sing a duet with him.

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In January, the organisers of the national selection called for songs. 15 submissions were received and "Running Scared" was chosen for Ell and Nikki. They received a total of 221 points and only three 12 points. 14 countries gave Azerbaijan nill points. Ell and Nikki won the televoting and were second in the jury votes.

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2012 - Sabina Babayeva - When The Music Dies

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This year Sabina Babayeva is succeeding Ell and Nikki in the Eurovision Song Contest. 2011's selection format was succesful and therefore the same method was used this year. 32-year-old singer Sabina Babayeva won the national final and her entry "When The Music Dies" was chosen internally by the broadcaster.

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Azerbaijan hosts the 57th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest on May 22nd-26th in Baku.

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