You were not the only ones surprised that Azerbaijan gave nul points to Russia at Eurovision 2013. The Azerbaijani press reports that even President Ilham Aliyev was in disbelief, so much so that he demanded a recount of his country’s votes. And guess what? According to the new results, Moscow should have received 10 points from Baku!

According to Azerbaijani ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu, as quoted by 1news.az, Azerbaijan awarded plenty of votes to Dina Garipova’s song “What If”, but all the votes disappeared when the results were announced Saturday evening.

“I myself, as a musician and as a man of culture, was surprised: it cannot be that Azerbaijan gives no vote for Russia. Moreover, Russia had an excellent performance, and as a result gained the fifth place,” Ambassador Bulbuloglu said, adding that he was not alone in his surprise – and that many viewers in Azerbaijan protested that their votes for Russia went missing.

“Our president has instructed [the national broadcaster] to deal with this issue. Azerbaijan voted for Russia and there must be a certain number of votes, but the fact is that all of these votes are counted in Germany, and from there, so to speak, they are transmitted as the final result.”

What If...Azerbaijan had given 10 points to Russia?
What If…Azerbaijan had given 10 points to Russia?

Consequently, Azerbaijan recounted the votes and Jamil Gulyev, the chairman of the Azerbaijani national broadcaster, announced this afternoon that Dina Garipova actually got second place in the SMS voting, which means that Russia should get 10 points. According to the same source, the Azerbaijani national jury gave top marks to Russia.

We remind you that, according to the official results, Azerbaijan gave 12 points to Ukraine, 10 points to Georgia, 8 points to Malta, 7 points to Belarus, 6 points to Romania, 5 points to Denmark, 4 points to Greece, 3 points to Lithuania, 2 points to Norway, and 1 point to Moldova. In case the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decides to accept the new results as the official televoting results of Azerbaijan, giving 12 points to Russia, all these countries’ results, except Ukraine, would be affected. By losing its one point, for instance, Moldova would fall from 11th place to 12th, behind Belgium, in the final ranking.

It is unclear yet if the EBU will accept the vote recount. There is no such precedent in the history of Eurovision. We will of course keep you posted in case there is an official statement from the EBU.

Bogdan Honciuc is a Romania-based correspondent for WiwiBloggs.com.

Photo credit: Eurovision.tv

53 Comments
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Sevda
Sevda
10 years ago

Russia and Armenia before Azerbaijan is to blame. To blame because they are barbarians.

nikki
10 years ago

keith i don’t understand you gay gay gay may be you are gay but why you speak about yourself ok but may you don’t speak my name nikki, have you another work and go do your work

keith
keith
10 years ago

that nikki is a right gob on legs where she getting this gay shit from for your information gay people where watching the eurovision while you where still part of russia love so jog on azerbishit should be completely removed from eurovision disgraceful the eurovision used to be so enjoyable before you where let in on yer bike ye dope

Jim Chang
Jim Chang
10 years ago

@moonlightexpert
No, actually, your president announced about his desire to get a recount the next day, the meeting was Lavrov was two days later. Either way, big popa russia and little new kool kid in the block Azerbaijan are the same totalitarians…both of them along with their trashy buddy Belarus need to banned from eurovision…FOREVER

Moonlightexpert
Moonlightexpert
10 years ago

Gert, our president got involved only because Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov demanded explanation (which is not right as this is like intimidation). But Azeri officials took it coolly and promised to investigate. Our votes were stolen by 3rd party if at all. Lavrov is not blaming Azerbaijan, rather the vote counters in Germany! But Ictimai explanation first.

nikki
10 years ago

fira ok bacim men demiremki mene pis soz demisen sadece deyiremki men olkemi mudafiye etmisam men hemise bura gelende ya ferid haqqinda ve ya azderbaycan haqqinda pis serhlerle qarsilasiram ve her defede bu axmaqlarin cavabini veriremki cox qudurmasinlar ancaq men azerbaycani ve butun azerbaycanlilarin oz aile mkimi sevirem.
sene bu commeti yazmaqimin sebebi budurki men pis hecne etmemisem. men seni basa dusurem

fira
10 years ago

@nikki
sen meni sehv bawa duwmusen men tekce yazmiwam burda tekce azeri olan nikki deyil burada coxlu azeriler var ve biz medeniyyetliyiq xahiw edirem menim yazimi bir daha oxu 🙂

nikki
10 years ago

fira men burda azerbaycani pis edecey hec ne yazmamisam sen menim commentlerimi evvelden oxusan gorersenki men onlarla nece nezaketli danismisam ama onlar sadece gobudluqdan anliyirlar men burda gunahgar deyilem.

nikki
10 years ago

Piksey cehennem ol zibil balasi vetenime soz deyenin gelib evinde basini ezewrem zibilcelere bax sen ozuvuz catlamiyin burda gelib azerbaycan haqinida aqziviza geleni deyirsiz mudafie eden olanda manyak olur stupid gooo must be polite jealous

fira
10 years ago

@Jim Chang
how can you say for us this words?Have you ever been in Azerbaijan?Every country has poor people but in Azerbaijan dont have 97 % poor people and Eurovision is song contest not political contest and please watch this 😀
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzL_Qit4sTc and i am happy to be Azerbaijani people 🙂

Jim Chang
Jim Chang
10 years ago

I am truly shocked as to how defensive these people get when someone says something about their country. Fact 1: Azerbaijan is a totalitarian country; Fact 2: Despite its large resources of oil and natural gas, millions of people in Azerbaijan have no proper housing, and live below the poverty line; Fact 3: It is a country dominated by oligarchs who have created a massive gap between the 97% poor and 3% extremely rich; Fact 4: Azerbaijan treats Eurovision as an opportunity to showcase itself to the world since in its short lived history it has not offered anything to… Read more »

Maurice
Maurice
10 years ago

Well, San Marino gave us only 4 points, and they are essentially part of Italy and L’Essenziale is a big success in all Italy and in San Marino, how can somebody explain that? we don’t argue, here in Italy we have bigger problems than being care about the Eurovision results.

fira
10 years ago

@ronnie
there are many Azerbaijani people in WIWIbloggs not only nikki and i from Azerbaijan and we are not barbar,rude or vulgar

ronnie
ronnie
10 years ago

unfortunately, nikki is a true representation of the common Azeris…rude, vulgar and lacking of self pride.

shame on you nikki!!!

fira
10 years ago

I AM FROM AZERBAIJAN AND PROUD THIS SO PEOPLE PLEASE DONT SAY IMPOLITE WORDS FOR AZERBAIJAN

Piksey
Piksey
10 years ago

Someone please do something with the hysterical creature below. She’s just odious as her corrupt bosses in Azerbaijgjan she’s so maniacally defends.

nikki
10 years ago

Jim Chang i’m not barking as you that is as dog it is about azerbaijans new and i can write comment but who are you and where from came her and barking as dog stupid jealous gay go from here and burn burn burn AZERBAIJANS IS A SOO SUPERRRRRRRRR

Jim Chang
Jim Chang
10 years ago

@nikki
Keep barking….

nikki
10 years ago

Jim Chang hey stupid you have no other work, your work is only to write stupid comment under the azeri videos. ok i understand you don’t love azeri people but it is seems so jealous and nobody must not love each other. and be silent and go drink a glass of cold water, your stupid comments don’t change the true, AZERBAIJANS PERFECT PEOPLE

Jim Chang
Jim Chang
10 years ago

I honestly don’t know if there’s a single intelligent person in the Azeri government. Pretty much their whole argument is that because the Russian song was good (whatever that means), and because Azeris and Russian are “brothers” (political attempt to suck Putin’s ba**s), then Azerbaijan should have given Russia at least 10 points. In free countries, it’s if the people vote enough for the song, and if the juries grant it a high mark-then the song will end up getting high points. Apparently, Azerbaijan’s president has nothing better to do. Pathetic!

nikki
10 years ago

ronnie ( PLEASEE EBU, do us all a favor and BAN Azerbaijan from the Eurovision!)
why because somebody has made stupid video, xa xa xa xa in your dream stupid you looks so weak and jealous and Hopeless. but it is make us so happy yeah we are winner second for us is winner

Piksey
Piksey
10 years ago

Something reeeaally bad is going on with Eurovision. Sad.

ronnie
ronnie
10 years ago

The russian song was in English , it was good but so did other English-sung songs, so why is it that a president of a country like Azerbaijan thinks it is strange that the good ole’ neighboring country, Russia, didn’t get any points? it’s not that they sang it in a language, better understood in Azerbaijan, to make the Azeri people understand it and enjoy it better to vote for it… it’s somewhat proving, in a logical common sense, that the voting is not based upon the song or its quality but on maintaining good neighboring relationships, and god forbid… Read more »

nikki
10 years ago

hey i say for own great azeri people, don’t answer this jealous people they are so weak and jealous and stupid and i can say anything about them but we must be calm and enjoy our great farid’s song.
Qoyun catlasinlar ve feride sadece ikinci saq olu deyeki bele itleri deli edib gozel sesi gornusu ve mohtesem sehnesi ile bu insanlarin paxilliqdan catlamasi bizim 2-ci qelebemizdir saq ol ferid bu axmaqlari yandirdiqin ucun. We must say thank you to Farid, that he burned this stupid and jealous enemies, thanks my love FARID

azada
azada
10 years ago

Meant to say “push the buttons “. Sorry for my mistakes, its my cell phone acting up..

azada
azada
10 years ago

Hehe, you do not know us (Azerbaijan). If we need to buy something, we buy it. And we would never buy the second place.why would we if there is the first? If we want to buy the votes for the first place, we would do it, especially taking into consideration that Hold me” was not bad, Farid was handsome, so nobody would be surprised.Video of two people “buying” votes? Bull, and nothing else, in our age of technology there is no need to hire people to push the buffoons.. I can.videotape tens videos like that of people buying votes for… Read more »

Hebbuzz
Hebbuzz
10 years ago

What is this president involving in after all? Ten points extra for russia would not matter in their ranking, so he is just kissing Poetins ass?

UniversalMusicDidIt
10 years ago

Azerbaijan did nothing wrong as far as I can see… They only got NO votes from some Scandinavian countries while they did give points to Denmark. Who’s rigging here? Azerbaijan or Universal Music who has profit bigger than their GDP. Come on now, turn on your brains and stop attacking someone who didn’t even win.

Hebbuzz
Hebbuzz
10 years ago

Let’s see how much the EBU dares to bite the hand that feeds them. Azerbaijan is clearly a rich contributor to EBU as the EBU doesn’t dare to analyze or publicize the very suspisious (televotes) from all small televote population countrues to the same Azerbaijan that is now complaining. If investigated probably Azerbaijan has to be disqualified for the next 5 or 10 years, hence the EBU will lack a lot of money.

nikki
10 years ago

Gert ok but you must watch khojali genocide because it is horrible crimes about azeri peoples

nikki
10 years ago

hey guys you watch this making stupid video and says calumniate azerbaijans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ojSKQamf-E&feature=player_embedded
ok then you must watch this video and you know that armenians how haters us and what they have done our people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTQbOP6YV34
and you can understand why they make such stupid video, they just hate us and jealous for us and this they are weak, understand what Justice and unjustness

Gert
10 years ago

@Nikki: This kind of behaviour is truly unacceptable. You didn’t even read my post! Like your own president, you bring political/cultural conflicts into the discussion. WHY for goodness sake.

nikki
10 years ago

Fikri http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRBnKBxfrU8 watch it and think who must banned

nikki
10 years ago

Fikri in your dram stupid

Gert
10 years ago

@Bahar: That’s exactly the problem. Usually a country’s delegation is informing the EBU about voting irregularities, not the frikkin’ president! Politics should be BANNED from Eurovision, but when president Aliyev himself is putting his head in issues regarding televotes and juryvotes in Eurovision, then you are only enhancing suspicions that Eurovision is a ‘political mess’. And trust me, but the EBU is very very sensitive for these kind of actions. It’s even considered worse than the current suspicions of Azerbaijan still giving 10 points to Russia. I expect EBU scrutineer Jon Ola Sandt to seriously warn president Aliyev to stay… Read more »

Fikri
Fikri
10 years ago

azerbaijan is spoiling the contest! please, ban them!

Bahar
Bahar
10 years ago

this problem is solving by President order…no need to exaggerate….this mistake will be found!

Toma
10 years ago

Come on, people, be real, there is a big money turning in Eurovision, jury votes can be set up easily, and also televotes frauds are not impossible… I wouldn’t be surprised if the winner of ESC 2014 is already known..
I want to believe that everything is regular, but my mind tells me that ESC is being bigger and bigger fraud bt every year…

Diesel Flynn
Diesel Flynn
10 years ago

OK as far as I know from what I read now, Azerbaijan is making a mess out of this. It’s very suspicious and I hope EBU will find out soon what is true of all these stories.
Buying votes, recounting votes afterwards… IF this appears to be true, please leave them out of the contest for some years until they know how to play things straight, because this is embarrassing…

rogesc
rogesc
10 years ago

This is really getting fun now..

Piksey
Piksey
10 years ago

@Bogdan Honciuc Yea, i found it out later.. Great.
ps: btw. the vid i posted is with the English subtitles in it.

Natasha
Natasha
10 years ago

Will you be covering Junior Eurovision this year?

Gert
10 years ago

Yo are right there @Bogdan. Well, let’s use Anke Engelke’s words from last year then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1Jaa_HWcLI 🙂

David Thielen
10 years ago

Ok, this is really weird. According to Thomas Niedermeyer, Azerbaijan is not involved in the vote counting aside from their phone system feeding the calls into the EBU system. So how can they even perform a recount? Either the actual setup is not as Thomas laid out in http://wiwibloggs.com/2013/05/16/voting-fraud-at-eurovision-hell-to-the-no/26753/ which means each country is controlling their vote counting. Or it is and Azerbaijan is making up the recount. It is weird that Azerbaijan awarded no points to Russia. I’ll agree that that is highly unlikely. The Russian song was really good and scored well across the other Slavic countries. On… Read more »

Gert
10 years ago

It happened before in 1996 and 1998. In 1996 the Spanish jury said ‘Holland 6 points’ and not ‘Poland 6 points’. Consequently, Netherlands rose two spots, from 9th place to 7th place. It was corrected by the EBU. In 1998 Spain forgot to mention Germany at all. Germany received 10 points, which the spokeswoman forgot to mention. As a result, the EBU corrected the score afterwards and Germany got 7th place, not 8th place. So a similar thing happens with Azerbaijan. What I don’t like, is the fact that Azerbaijani people immediately come with faulty arguments, that ‘Russia was so… Read more »

Bahar
Bahar
10 years ago

It was mistake which could happen to any of countries!
I guess blaming Denmark for stolen song finished, and now time to start with next one !:-) Next will be Ukraine ? 🙂

Piksey
Piksey
10 years ago

Oh, of course there have been no such precedent in the history of Eurovision! How in God’s name there could be any w/o Azerbaijan? Azerbaijan has changed this contest in something shameful. Since they appeared in 2008 i see only negative stuff wrapped around the word ‘Azerbaijan’ and it is always associated with corruption, cheat, bribe, false, fraud, hatred. Unbelievable!
You would be surprised to find out, that this news above isn’t the only Azerbaijan had in its store this year. Please watch this video below.
Eurovision 2013 Scandal! This is how Azerbaijan gets its votes.
http://youtu.be/7ojSKQamf-E