Azerbaijan will be back in 2015 and a national selection will pick their act for Eurovision.The real question though is whether a national selection can take them back to the Top 10.
Dilara Kazimova finished a relatively embarrassing 22nd place in Copenhagen in May. ‘Start A Fire’ bombed and gave Azerbaijan its’ worst result in seven years at the contest.
Azerbaijan has among the most rigorous national selections of all countries in Eurovision. 2014’s selection lasted over three months and in 2013 the entire process to pick Farid Mammadov to sing in Malmö lasted eight months.
The rigorous approach has borne significant fruit in recent years. Other than 2008 and 2014, Azerbaijan has never finished beyond the Top 5 and secured its first victory at the ultra competitive 2011 contest.
So will a national selection take Azerbaijan back to the Top 10? As far as Team Wiwi is concerned it hinges on the song. If a dull ballad like ‘Start A Fire’ is forced on us Baku might fail to advance beyond the semi-final.
But if they recapture the high drama of ‘Drip Drop’, mesmerising staging of ‘Running Scared’ and ‘Hold Me’ or offer a dizzying dance number like ‘Always’ Baku might threaten for gold again.
Serve up the goods and Team Wiwi will be whooping from the stands Baku!
What do y’all think? Is Azerbaijan dead in the water or will their proven national selection give them a Top 10 result in Vienna next May?
If they do some good song instead of the jazzy sleepy song Dilara has last year I think they do well
“Start a Fire” had some good ingredients to it, but it didn’t all quite come together for me. Dilara’s comprehensibility was a huge issue, but additionally the music had no real sense of dynamics. Loudness was in random places where it didn’t belong, and the most dramatic musical phrases didn’t stand out as they should’ve. The lyrics were great and the melody was wonderful, but as a whole the song really needed more work.
One of my favourite songs this year, Dilara didn’t deliver as the staging was off and her vocals were not very good and her English was hard to comprehend.
I do believe Azerbaijan is constantly overrated. 2011 was not winning material. The only songs that deserved their placings were 2009 and 2012.
It was a real shame, because I really liked Dilara’s voice and was hoping she might release more songs. Look, a lot of countries buy songs and staging direction from other countries, it’s part of the era of globalization. I’d like to hear something more like “Always” again from Azerbaijan, but a song in Azeri would be pretty awesome too!
Dilara Kaz?mova is the Azeri Anna Bergendahl. After the Bergendahl accident, Sweden achieved a third (11), first (12) and one more third (14) – so I expect a high result from Azerbaijan in 2015. But, I guess, it’s time to produce their own culture to the Eurovision stage also; we already know that they do have so much money for talented Swedish singers, designers etc., but every country showed us what they really do have – so, I guess it’s time for a song in Azerbaijani language, written by talented Azeri composers such as Isa Melikov and Zahra Badalbeyli. And…… Read more »
@Leon,yes that’s true Azerbaijan chooses foreign composers and I also don’t want it (Azerbaijan has good pop composers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zARjzu2rLb0 ) but Italy,Spain,Russia etc. also buy songs from foreign countries but they don’t give good performanceto us that means Azerbaijan’s singers are also good..
What David said. And more to the point, I doubt SHE understood a single word she sang. Between the selection of the song and the contest, Ictimai should work on making sure that the artist understands and feels the song to a tee. Start A Fire is a deep, emotional piece that requires solemnity and stoic power from within, as well as clarity in deliverance. Instead, Dilara smiled and mumbled her way through it, ruining a wonderful song.
I don’t think ‘Start a Fire’ is a dull ballad. It’s actually one of my favorite Eurovision ballads from all time. That being said, Dilara did not put out a good show. The staging was way to simple and she wasn’t singing exactly great… But anyway, I think most of the issues here come precisely from such a good streak of results. They got too proud and thought ‘we’ll kill this, again’ But even the country with the best average results can fall… I’m happy to know they’ll be at Vienna next year tho, ’cause the Azeris do know how… Read more »
Baku will never fail as long as they are willing to invest a lot of money on their entry (aka on foreign composers and song writers). And, to be clear, there are countries who would kill to make it to the 22nd place in the final (like San Marino). So, finishing 22nd is not so embarrassing when you compare it to how other countries fare.
You mean, “she did not sing WELL.” Hehehe