Countries In Review: Azerbaijan

It has been a couple of weeks since I last updated my journal, and in that time a lot of things have changed--including my residence.  That means that I have finally gotten back around to updating my Eurovision blog and I can continue with the next country in my review posts--Azerbaijan.

Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, is a leader in ambitious buildings like the planned Hotel Crescent

Azerbaijan is the newest country in the Eurovision Song Contest, first sending a song in 2008.  And in those five years, they have been they have been extremely successful, having placed no lower than eighth in the final contest.  It's a track record that most other countries would envy.

Personally, I've never been much of a fan of Azerbaijani entrants.  I've always found them to be more of a part of Azerbaijani international policy that actually being representative of their actual musical culture.

A case in point is the song that won the contest back in 2011:

Ell and Nikki  "Running Scared"  2011

I've made my opinion known in my introductory post to this series of blog posts, and I still consider it to be pretty horrible--which is only compounded by the fact that really only one person involved with the song was actually living in Azerbaijan at the time--Eldar Gasimov, the male singer in the duet.

But it did exactly what the Azerbaijani government wanted it to do.  It won the contest, brought Eurovision to the country, and the government used it to try to propel Azerbaijan onto the world stage and a place where large events could be held.

It still doesn't change the fact that I despise the song and cannot believe it beat out a group of much better songs to win the contest.

But it's not surprising.  They tried the same thing a few years previously and came in third with this song:

Aysel and Arash  "Always"  2009

This time the only Azerbaijani was the lovely Aysel.  Better song too.

Really the only song that doesn't come of completely prepackaged is the first song Azerbaijan sent to Eurovision

.

Elnur and Samir  "Day After Day"  2008

I will be the first to admit the staging is absolutely ridiculous; it's pretty self-evident how cheesy it is.  However, the song was written by two Azerbaijanis and feels more authentic than anything else they've sent afterwords.  So this one gets the vote for best Azerbaijani entry.

So from best to worst:

1.  Elnur and Samir   "Day After Day"  2008

2.  Sabina Babayeva   "When The Music Dies"  2012  The addition of  Alim Qasimov saved this one.

3.  Safura   "Drip Drop"   2010  If a song could try too hard, this would be the song.

4.  Aysel and Arash   "Always"  2009

5.  Ell and Nikki   "Running Scared"   2011

Yeah, I must admit I'm pretty savage on Azerbaijan Eurovision entrants.  But I have hope that now they have won the contest, proven that they are a country on par with the rest of Europe, they will pull back on the hyper-packaged songs and send music that is more reflective of their own musical culture.