“Cleopatra” was the high octane ethno-pop banger that Efendi would have sung in Rotterdam at Eurovision 2020. And late last month, the Azeri diva gave us a taste of the what might have been as she performed the song for the first time on live TV.
Efendi sings “Cleopatra” on live TV
Efendi, clad in one of her high fashion dresses that feature in the official music video, gave us a sizzling performance and dance routine during İctimai Tv’s late-night talk show Fatehin Divanı.
While scaled-down, this gives us an idea of what the big performance in Eurovision might have looked like: veiled dancers with avant-garde clothing, strong pop choreography, all dipped in the Azerbaijani production we all know and love. With the technology that Rotterdam would have offered, the sass levels of Efendi could have gone through the roof, making a strong case for her qualification.
“Cleopatra” acoustic
While this was the first live performance of the studio version that would have gone to Eurovision, Efendi had already released a live acoustic rendition her Eurovision Home Concert. She pared it back, showing the rich orchestration that the pop banger offered.
While Cleopatra sounds cheeky on the surface, the Azeri singer elaborated on the liberating meaning of the song. “It is truly a song about freedom, a celebration of all cultures and all sexualities and it’s a song that is meant to inspire people to be who they are and to be proud of themselves – just as Cleopatra was. She was a queen who went through love, heartbreak, and betrayal, but she stood up for herself and is now remembered as an icon of strength and femininity,” she says
Efendi has been confirmed to represent Azerbaijan in Eurovision 2021.
What do you think? How would you have envisioned “Cleopatra” live? Let us know in the comments.
Definitely not ‘live’ , and so static . ‘Me tana’ was ten times better than this song .
Still loving Cleo, I could listen to this song all day.
She cannot move her a**. I was expecting an energy 5 times stronger than Fuego and instead I saw a static woman. Pitty.
Is it me or this performance took place months ago? I swear I’ve seen this in Wiwibloggs before. This is old guys.
About the performance… well, I wouldn’t say this is a live performance nor a good performance either not to say the Eurovision performance would have been nothing like this.
This is amazing song, but always knew that her vocals are weak, so I’m not surprised to see her performing acoustic version (NOT) in live haha She should have think about the distance she make when she move away from the mic, ’cause in many moments her mouth is not positioned right, but we STILL hear the voice in the same intensity haha Funny how low intelligence can play against us. Let’s hope her team have SOMEONE smart who won’t let her make some stupid mistakes in her esc performance. I expect amazing ethnic banger from Azeri next year, and… Read more »
Her vocals are weak? Not really.
Would advise you to check out some of her live performances:
https://youtu.be/cR68fdp5DmA
https://youtu.be/ydSRajFaw5Y
https://youtu.be/lks0stosphY
https://youtu.be/jVhpsuwZVmc
She didn’t even move her feet while she was miming!
Why are her backup signers wearing masks and she’s not? Is she an anti-masker?
She is Cleopa -TRA
Love her, love the song, but she can’t mime to save her life 😛
This is definitely not what we would’ve seen!
No one said that! She just performed there and the reason why she didn’t sing live was because of the low technical quality of the show.
She already said that she doesn’t want to show anything from her staging, since there is the possibility that she can incorporate these things in next year’s performance, depending on the genre of the song.
So, no, her outfit and also the choreography wouldn’t have looked this way!!
This song had so much potential. It is one of my biggest disappointments that we won’t get to see it on the Eurovision stage.
Efendi’s music video is vivacious, colourful and flamboyant so this studio performance is shockingly lifeless in comparison. Having no live vocal may have been justified if there was an impressive dance routine. Instead, she lip-synced passionatelessly and twirled on the spot.
Maybe she’d hurt her leg and had a sore throat? Whatever the case, I would have asked those back-up dancers to take those things off of their mouths, but perhaps they didn’t know the words either.
“Aphrodisiac” vol.2
I doubt this is “what could have been”. She’s lip-syncing and just standing idle in the middle.
She’s stunning. Why is she not singing live, though? ?