Cross my heart and hope to die! Only yesterday we learned that “X My Heart” would be the name of the song Aisel would sing for Azerbaijan at Eurovision 2018. And as the clock struck midnight in Baku, the song became available for the world to enjoy. Stepping away from her jazz roots, Aisel delivers radio-friendly, Spotify pop. So let’s hit play and see what it’s about…
Going radio-friendly doesn’t mean deleting Aisel’s beautiful voice. Her smoky, jazz quality remains on fine display, helping to elevate pop to something greater.
Back in February, we discovered that “The Dream Team” – Russian music extraordinaire Philipp Kirkorov and Greek composer Dimitris Kontopoulos were behind the Azeri entry for 2018. Since then, Aisel had been travelling all over Europe recording multiple demos in both Azerbaijani and English across piano-led jazz songs and mainstream pop music, and it’s clear that in “X My Heart” they went for the pop route.
The song is written by Sandra Bjurman of “Running Scared” (Azerbaijan, 2011) and Dimitris Kontopoulous of “You Are The Only One” (Russia, 2016). It was recorded in London and arranged by Tim Bran of “City Lights” (Belgium, 2017), and the stage design will be looked after by Fokas Evangelinos of “This Is Love” (Greece, 2017). So yes: You can expect great things.
“X My Heart” was decided upon by Aisel herself, as well as the team behind Aisel conducting a focus group including 300 people from 31 countries that didn’t know the purpose of the song and what it was being used for. It was met with an 87% approval rating, and there’s no doubt that the Azerbaijan delegation will be seeking a similar approval rating from the juries and voters come May.
What do you think of “X My Heart”? Are we heading back to Baku in 2019? Sound off in the comments below!
There is absolutely nothing Azerbaijani in this entry except for Aisel. Pathetic.
All the people involved in producing this , and the lyrics are like something from a school play
Boring, bad sweden pop… BAD !
So BAD ! next azeri ! LOl
This will do well if it is performed and staged well because this year most songs suck
Reminds me of Mel C
say thanks for this to Kirkorov
He was rather a deal maker here, he’s fully responsible for Moldova song though.
But yes, the bombing is even more in azeri division of eastern forums. They treat it like a forgery.
This song became a disappointment for me, especially compared to last year’s entry, which was in my top 3. And I still hope that Azerbaijan will one day stop buying Swedish / Russian / Greek leftovers and start developing its own talents.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up too high… Azerbaijani here.
It is so so. It certainly tries too hard with the lyrics and it all becomes a mess of lyrical confusion. Musically okay, but predictable.
2 points for lyrics
6 points for music
7 points for production
6 points for vocals
Not going to lie, I expected better from Azerbaijan. They usually bring something unique and different. This is interesting and catchy, but the odd lyrics that sometimes don’t make any sense just brings it down again. It’s distracting. Pity!
Still until now , Spain is the only one what is so beatiful and diferent , is like Portugal last year , soooo diferent , and beatiful,
That’s why Spain is not original, it’s a pathetic attempt of copying last year’s winner. I find France, Italy, Greece and Hungary more original than Spain.
U wrong, portugal song was timeless.. both are different style, but just both are ballads… i woukd be happy if spain wins esc2018. Like sweden and denmark 2012-2013 neighborns victory
This is reallt good! I already like this! Nice melody, beautiful voice, I love the chorus. I can already see this on stage. It’s not a winner, but it can do really wel..
Good job Azerbaijan!
This is definitely qualifying!
P.S.: Can someone tell me what she means by saying “luna moon me up”? It doesn’t sound right.
Luna actually means moon, or it can instead be the name of a person. “Moon me up” uses the word “moon” as a verb. So the lyric is a “double entendre”, symbolically linking the words “luna” and “moon”.
“Moon me up” might refer to generally improving one’s mood, or to a particular dance move. It can also be when someone lowers their trousers in front of you, but that would be out of place here.
Overall I think it just means “Luna (or moon) raise me up.” Or, it’s a dance move instruction.
Anyone else have any better ideas?
I think they just tried to find a way to include “moon” into the lyrics to make it more personal to Aisel, whose name means “path to the moon”.
it ain’t that deep sis
Then answer the question.
What does “luna moon me up” mean?
I needed to listen to this to appreciate Armenia’s usual and Georgia’s this year’s approach to this contest. I would call that approach “This is what we are”! As for Azerbaijan 2018 I’d say it is next but worst not Azerbaijanian song representing Azerbaijan. Good luck them.
First of all, how do you even know what Georgia is doing this this year?Secondly, if you think that eliminating all the good songs on purpose, and sending a dull and boring song, which may be totally Armenian,into Eurovision is a perfectly suitable way of showing yourself, then I really think you are right;I hope Georgia will also send a pop song because I think it this is what Europe wants to see.Further,Azerbaijan already show its efforts in the first steps , so it’s just an ordinary song contest for Azerbaijan.Azerbaijan doesn’t see this contest as an an opportunity for… Read more »
I know what Georgia is going to do so I say what Georgia is doing! Every participant in this contest is here just to enjoy. They enjoy this contest different way though. Some of them spend millions, buy songs from Swedes, Greeks just to say “Look we are cool – we won with a foreign song’’ or “Watch this Swedish song and imagine how cool our music scene is”. Also there are countries that don’t care that much about results and what others think so they send songs produced inside country by local talents. These are different approaches, different visions… Read more »
LMAO man, you take this contest too serious it seems. It’s just a song contest, all three countries you mentioned have sent songs with their national instruments before, they don’t need to do it every year, it gets boring. What matters here is the final product, either you like it or not, that’s it. No need to attack other nations because they don’t send something you expect. 😀
Well, we’ve already won the contest once, so now our aim is just have fun participating in the contest. Additionally, X my heart is a kind of song that really always succeeds and appeals to everyone. I personally love this song, it’s not a winning song, but it’s great. Eurovision isn’t always about being “new”, “unique”, it’s about having fun and this song is uplifting and this year we have a lot of weak songs/ballads.
A song by Sandra Bjurman won in Eurovision.
It really doesn’t matter who composed the song, who wrote the lyrics. You know there’s a famous sentence in Azerbaijani saying “bacarirsan sen de ele” which actually means “if you also can do it, then do it”. Nobody’s preventing you from doing that.
lol. Please don’t feed the troll. He’s just a hater, even if we sent a song fully in Azerbaijani with our native music elements he would still write something negative here. These are all excuses.
haha… typical armenian, they are always this fun. 😀
Very good song from Azerbaijan, not sure if it is a winner, maybe ….but it is a sure qualifier and a top 10 position. Kind of song tailored for the likes of stars such as Pink. Very current, very 2018, very nice indeed. Well done dream team! Would be nice to go back to Baku, very close to me. 🙂
Surely not a winner song. It’s not even catchy, but to be honest it’s not that bad. It sounds like a song I’d enjoy to listen to while doing something else. Personally I’d put it somewhere between 10-15th places. Anyway, it’s still much better than Dihaj last year, I didn’t understand the last year’s hype about Skeletons. Good luck.
Well thankfully we won’t be going back to dreadful Baku (and I don’t mean that just coz was mugged twice there,!)…. very weak entry , in fairness… they’ve had good tunes before… this most CERTAINLY is not one of them
I had high expectations from Azerbaijan. I do have every year and it never disappoints me until now. This is not bad but not even close to previous entries. I think this year Azerbaijn might not go further than Semi Finals.
I’m changing my mind. The polished production elevates this song higher than its content. It’s a grower upon more listens. Better than I first thought.
Now, I listened the song for couple of times since this morning. It’s very amazing how I forget about everything about the song the second I hit the pause. It’s not a good sign.
I think we all knew when the “dream team” were first mentioned to expect something somewhat generic and that’s exactly what we’ve got. There was so much potential here to make a catchy and yet unique song but what they’ve given us is just disappointing.
Why not? Both songs are based on sequences of three chords. If you’re offended by legitimate musical comparisons, there’s not much we can do about it. They will still be made.
I agree with you. They are very similar, musically, both nothing special. P!nk only tries to give it some depth through the lyrics. My issue with “X My Heart” is the machinery behind it and this includes the “journalists” reporting about it. All this name-dropping, all this hype… if you were buying into that, you’d have to expect the next global smash-hit. It’s an average pop tune and its machinery is what automatically makes me like Azerbaijan less.
10/10 best song till now
This is not as good as our previous entries. But it’s still good with this year’s standarts. I’m sure she’s going to open the semifinal.
Well actually it’s 10 times better than your 2014-2015-2016 entries. And 5 times better than last year.
Dunno… I had high expectations for this so I’m kinnda dissapionted… The song is just OK. Her voice deserves a much better one.
This reminds me of “What About Us”, though that song is miles better. “X My Heart” isn’t bad, is enjoyable, but for me sounds a bit cheap. I was expecting more judging by the selection process. If this song was the best, I don’t want to think about the others. However, I think is a good “generic pop” contribution to this year’s ESC, we need some of these. (6.25/10)
We’re talking about Azerbaijan so qualification is almost guaranteed, but I don’t see “X My Heart” placing above 15th place
Generic, dull and cheesy. Just NO!
Catchy pop song. Good Azeri entry.
Oh wow is this disappoint. Super generic, bland – I cant remember the chorus and I dont want to. I think this feeling is exaggerated by the hype they created. This is easily my least favourite of Kirkirov’s songs by 10000 miles. This will probably scrape into the final by virtue of the amount of money they will throw at the stage show but finish somewhere low down on the right side of the scoreboard (where it unfortunately belongs)
Ok, they will either revamp the song, or they will change it entirely.
*I guess.
I like it more than “monsters” , both are very well produced pop songs but “x my heart” has a better chorus.
I like it more that “fuego” because its better produced and her voice sounds much nicer.
So overall this is one of my favourite tracks this year.
this is a good pop song, much better than “Heroes” that won esc 2 years ago.
Does it lack originality? of course it does as all pop songs in the world.
I think it will do very well.
Ah, well, according to Infe Azerbaijan, the music video will be revealed next week and there’ll be some changes…
This just a generic boring pop song with random lyrics that just fit to the beat of the song…stronger than cannonballs…really? Extremely let down by this entry.
My top 12 for Melodifesivalen final!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOEKstaG30I
To be honest, I find this rather dull, and it feels like I’ve heard this type of song this many times. Especially since Dihaj’s dark and boldly unique ‘Skeletons’ was in my Top 5 last year. Sorry if I offend anyone; maybe it’ll grow on me if I listen to it a couple more times, but so far I’m rather disappointed
too many time*
Wait, that’s wrong again: too many times*
I never got the Dihaj hype. Her song is not far from an Alessia Cara wannabe.
Our official music video needed uploaded by now, but it is not… And I’ve noticed the other uploaded videos of X my heart are gone.. What’s happening?
I needed this in esc. Thank you Azerbaijan 🙂 Will it win? Hell no, but i love it.
I finally had a chance to listen to the full song and this isn’t as bad as people say it is. It is definitely not what people (including me) expected, but this song is actually really nice and still manages to stand out among all the other songs. Aisel is a very good singer and she will deliver live.
All the effort for this result? This will be so easily beaten by a true singer/song writer like Waylon. Like Salvador said last year. music is about emotion not fireworks?
Only a few more songs to go and we will have a contest with lot of diversity but very little quality songs?
I think we can all agree that this is not the most original song ever. However, just like the Finnish song, this one gives me a positive vibe: it makes you feel like everything is possible. And when music can accomplish that, it’s fantastic.
When I listened the name Kirkorov I thought “another dated entry” but this is actually a cool song.Very well produced with good lyrics that feet the melody.
8/10
It’s nice to listen to, but In missing some personal essence in this entry. This is the type of diva material Im personally tired of. It reminds me os Mirela from the Spanish preselection last year, I don’t know why. But will do quite well because because it is Azerbajan.
9/10
Very good production.
Strong memorable melody
Lyrics with a hook
Great voice
Prediction : 3 to 9
The lyrics are vapid to say the least, but it’s Azerbaijan, so it’ll do well no matter what.
The positive thing for Azerbaijan is that there is no one that says that the song is bad, because it isn’t.
Personally I enjoy listening it.
It’s a nice song.
It’s a bad song. Bad, bad BAD!
12 poins from Poland!
Kirkorov should stop writing eurovision songs. It is so generic though much better than Moldova. Azerbaijan might not even qualify
I’ve listened to this song 3 times now just to be sure of what my reaction is….great production( never a great sign when this springs to mind first), musically enjoyable and uplifting and vocally fantastic…
However, the ultimate quality of the song?…..meh!
Nowhere near as interesting as the Azeri 2017 song……
I hate the term “fast food music” as if that has no value but it does sum this entry up…….I like this entry but don’t love it…7/10
This is really dissapointig, one of worst Azerbaijan songs. I usually like Azerbaijan alott. Final is clear but maybe 20 place pr low.
Well, I actually liked the song, I don’t quite understand the hate lol. It’s always this kind of songs that succeed. As for Dihaj, last year Dihaj was in Top 10 everywhere, but it ended up in the 14th postion and no one thought Moldova would do well, but Hey Mamma ended up in the 3rd postion lol. I don’t trust eurofans since then.