It's really difficult for me to sit and write about the Azerbaijani entry because of my own personal bias against the country. The naked ambition the Azerbaijani broadcaster İctimai Television has shown since their debut in 2008 is offputting.
Expect a fire motif from Azerbaijan
Because of their tactical choices (and being from a former Soviet state with a common musical tradition as a number of other Eurovision participating countries) Azerbaijan has been the most successful country at Eurovision, having never failed to make the final since their debut.
Azerbaijan isn't going to fail this year either:
Elnur Hüseynov "Hour of the Wolf"
In a year of ballads (and there are a lot of them), this is one of the strongest entries. Like most years, the Azerbaijani song has been written by a truckload of Swedes (who are know for penning many successful Eurovision songs.) The song is dramatic and generic, which means it's going to do well.
It also doesn't hurt that Hüseynov has done Eurovision before, back in 2008
Elnur and Samir "Day After Day" 2008
Insane and kind of fun, right?
As for my opinion on the "Hour of the Wolf", I'm lukewarm. Although the song is well written and the performance is solid, there's nothing extraordinary about the song that makes me love it. There are no risks taken in "Hour of the Wolf" and it shows.
That said, if Azerbaijan gets the staging right (and trust they will) and Hüseynov doesn't oversing the song (which is more than likely), expect another top 10 result for 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.
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.
