Azerbaijan’s Efendi has taken to the stage inside the Rotterdam Ahoy for her first rehearsal of Eurovision 2021. She has a serpent, flames and a mysterious orb. But does everything fall into place? Let’s see
Azerbaijan’s Efendi “Mata Hari” — Eurovision 2021 first rehearsal
Oliver: Efendi’s outfit is fantastic. It’s another leotard dance costume, but this one’s bejewelled with black crystals. Her dancers are dressed similarly. It looks expensive. The rest of the stage show however is difficult to wrap your head around, with lots of artsy cultural references from all corners of the globe. The backdrop features a large pulsing golden ball with a viper inside. As the song reaches its climax, the ball rises and sets ablaze like a star reaching supernova. Then, for reasons unknown, it transforms into an eye. And there’s no actual pyro, despite the “I start a fire” line — an odd choice! Also, Efendi is heavily relying on backing vocals to carry her through the chorus. It’s not at the same level of elevation that we’ve seen from Azerbaijan in the past. Qualification is probable, but not guaranteed.
Padraig: There’s a lot to take in here. The LED is used to the max. We have golden LED gates, an abundance of pink, and a giant mysterious golden orb. As the show progresses, more ingredients are added to the pot. The orb goes up in flames — an obligatory element for the land of fire. Once the ball is warmed up, it starts to ascend, before exploding into some sort of supernova (or perhaps a black hole, I’m not an expert in astronomy). Once the dust settles, we see a giant eye that looks like one you might find in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt. Efendi has a lot to do. “Mata Hari” is a fast song as it is, and there are also a fair number of moves for her to master. One potential meme-able moment occurs when Efendi says “let’s go”. It jars compared to the rest of the song.
Reaction to Azerbijan’s first rehearsal at Eurovision 2021
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What do you think? Did Efendi live up to your expectations? Let us know in the comments below.
Read more Azerbaijan Eurovision 2021 news here
Photos: EBU / THOMAS HANSES
Definitely, I don’t like it. Girls waddling around in their underwear, proclaiming the name of a poor woman who died shot in terrible circumstances … As a French (and Mata Hari was partly French), that shocks me. Seriously, I think it’s disrespecting the memory of a deceased.
“Ma-Ma-Ma-Mata Hari
Mata Hari
(Ma-ma-ma-ma, ma-ma-ma-ma)
(Ma-ma-ma-ma) Ma-Ma-Ma-Mata Hari
Mata Hari
(Ma-ma-ma-ma, ma-ma-ma-ma)
(Ma-ma-ma-ma, ma-ma-ma-ma)
Mata Hari”
This is literally all you hear in this song and it’s just annoying! Too repetitive, no thank you!
she looks like a high school girl amongst amazonian professional showgirls…so awkward…they should’ve just positioned her as a queen amongst her dancing subjects and not asked her to do what she clearly is not cut out to do–dance
I think Azerbaijan might not qualify this year
It will be about time isnt it!!?? If something isnt good enough it is just NOT good enough!!
Lol they really shouldnt have used tall dancers around Efendi. They did her dirty
I am so confused…Her song and sound reminds me of Anatolia but the staging and the outfits are western style. Also what the heck is she doing on stage….she looks and moves like a cucumber…(no hate just saying)
From watching the whole creative process unfold these last few weeks it’s abundantly clear that the delegation is just as confused as you.
What a mess, the dress is something you’d see on the red light district, vocals clearly didn’t catch the plane to Rotterdam and what’s up with this staging? Talk about mismatch!
If they bring money to their pockets, not only they will ignore this but they will make the juries give 12. I wanna see where Sweden gives 12 this year
Actually i read it today and i believe it to be honest. There were rumours in 2010 as well and other years. Remember how odd was to see Malta and San Marino giving 12pts to Azerbaijan for consecutive years and then Azerbaijan giving back some points as well. Very fishy.
Wasn’t Skeletons written by a Swede?
Italian juries are just so random every single year, it’s not tactical voting. They did gave points to Bulgaria and Portugal. On the other hand, Bulgaria gave 0 points to Portugal, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and Romania (the odds top 6)… now that’s what I call tactical voting
Efendi doesn’t not look confident like other sexy divas we’ve seen on stage (Albina, Elena, Eleni etc). She needs to sell sex and she looks too innocent and lost. I don’t like the outfits, they don’t match the song’s genre. Also, she is not dancing at all and some Beyonce-like movements are so boring and cliche. Azerbaijan might do some tactical voting with allies (San marino, malta, georgia, ukraine) but this isn’t going to do well in the grand final if it qualifies. If it qualifies, then Israel is not qualifying. I think one of them will make it, not… Read more »
Why the hell do you vote people down that share a different opinion than you for God’s sake?
Because there are always those who can’t stand criticism when it comes to their favorite.
I’m gonna get a lot of hate, but… Of all the pop “divas”, she was by far the weakest. On the night itself, she will be blown away by Ukraine.
why would you get hate? It’s actually true that Ukraine is very strong and then Malta so Azerbaijan is borderline for me.
Oh, this was… better than I expected!
Another Q for Azerbaijan, though I’m not a fan of the song
Her dancing is very weak do you think Western juries will vote for this.
With probably 12 points from Ukraine and Russia u can easly qualify with any song
Idk about this, probable qualifier but nothing about it is standing out for me yet. I can’t remember if Ukraine is directly after or before this but they’ve got a LOT going on. We’ll see if Efendi can bring it 🙂
I actually think that the songs without dancing girls in the front line stand out more. Maybe they will steal votes from each other when they deliver almost the same thing.? I like Mata Hari the most of these so far. And Malta will also have dancing girls?
For Malta, it makes sense to have female dancers (”Ladies, listen to me!”), but for Azerbaijan, male dancers would be better suited (”an army of lovers”). Just my 2 cents.
I still can’t say know how much I like it, but it seems the staging separates it a little more from the other pop diva entries, which may become a factor in their favor.
This is fun, but I’m not sure are they fully aware of why it’s fun. 😉
Still, guilty pleasure alert!
Someone said the staging looks like a wok restaurant and now I can’t unsee it
Everything about this is a mess, the song, the outfit and the staging, it’s as if they try to throw everything at it in the hope something will stick. Epic fail.
(Oliver was asking about the significance of the eye, “Mata Hari” means eye of the day ie. the sun, in Malay so perhaps that’s what it’s about)
Efendi dont look good in that dress
They should’ve used shorter backup dancers or ladies with similar body proportions as Efendi because at the moment it looks she is dancing with her elder sisters.
where did you hear the rumor?
Umm she looks like she has no neck in that dress
Oh the plot thickens…
If true the EBU should kick them out, they let them off the hook last time.
Realistic
the EBU did not ban them when they blocked the Armenian lines and questioned those who voted for Armenia. Do you really think they will do it now?
This isnt what I expected when I first heard the song. Her dress and hair need to be changed and she doesn’t seem to be super comfortable with dancing
Efendi is not the most charismatic singer or the best dancer this year, that’s for sure…
based on video Its not bad but she need to change the dress she looks weird. And looks like she did take a dance lesson.
well the dancing lesson did not help then her dancing is average.
Have u watch her music video? how awkward she was compare to this her rehearsal? she did improve but i do prefer she just dont dance that much and just act like she is a queen among them since the dancer are taller than her or she should wear different outfit.
Big yikes xD
I am sorry but this dress looks quite cheap.
It would be so good if she could dance a little bit..
And one thing about rehearsals in general: is every performance looks very much in dark this year or are they saving electricity for actually shows?
Azerbaijan should NQ.
It’s so obviously what they had planned for the “Cleopatra” performance in 2020. Eden do is also vocals weak and also lacks to charisma to make up for being vocally weak.
Efendi **
Damn auto correct
good staging. The thing is, there are just too many dancing divas in this semi-final, and I don’t think all of them will qualify…
Yeah, I also don’t think they’re all gonna make it to the final. Some of them could cancel each other out, like Croatia and Israel. I could see only one of them qualify or neither qualify, but not both.
Azerbaijan just showed that they are not gonna Q, so there is room for both Israel and Croatia. If nothing, both at least can sing.
She will do better than Malta on the televote ! Mark my words !
Destiny is charismatic and can sing and dance.Efendi is not charismatic att all her voice is average her dancing is bad.Azerbaijan is 100% non qualifier
Keep dreaming and downvoting and go see me when Azerbaijan will have at least twice points than Malta on the televote.
she is in the final) congrats)))))))))))))))
Hell no! Not an impressive first look. Neck of her dress makes her height 1 meter. Also that pose and facial expressions, please don’t try to be vamp and be more yourself!
I mean she looks too short with those tall (in comparison to her) dancers and that weird outfit isn’t flattering. Also the staging doesn’t look interesting so i won’t be suprised if this doesn’t qualify
Prefere the bun hair. Unbalanced choreography. Good speech (actually this song has no vocals), nice cabaret concept but writes so bad on camera…the fact that the dancers are taller than Efendi.
In the mortal compat zone with bigger chances to succeed in telev.
It looks so cheap. Watch the bookies, this is a real flop.
Odds mean nothing
more fireworks and this might win.
The performance is grand, but predictable as Hell. Typical Diva-cringe-pop with stupid lyrics and so-called social theme just to get more votes. Things like that can be saved by charismatic performer , like Cyprus this year does, but it won’t work with Efendi. No charm in her. NQ
The dress doesn’t look good on her. Seeing the other performances I see Mata Hari struggling to qualify.
She looks like a turtle with this dress covering her neck.
Am I the only that finds her really boring and lack of charisma and attitude? She physically is gorgeous, but she doesn’t have the sexiness this kind of song and choreo needs… I’m not buying this at all
Looking at this I understand what they were going for. Her LED background looks like something I could encounter at my local Dutch/Indonesian wok restaurant xD
so I guess they tried portraying the roots of mata hari. The outfit did great on that! but casual viewers won’t understand the resemblance at first view of course.
I like the LEDs here but gosh…
What’s that dress Efendi is wearing ?
Seriously you wouldn’t look good covering your neck when you aren’t tall
The lack of charisma of this girl is out of this world, Eleni would elevate this to a next level
Stop comparing everything to Eleni
I just mentioned a good performer. Something that terrorfendi is not
How bout we compare Elana sings better than Eleni?
Not a positive word to say about any performance it seems. Nobody is going to qualify.
Russia Lithuania and Cyprus all got excellent reviews
Oh well nobody qualifies this year. UK finally enters the top 5 again!