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Ell and Nikki's Road to Victory Written by on May 19, 2011 | 4 Comments

Just like that, we close the book on Dusseldorf and grab a fresh new Moleskine from the shelf to start the story of Azerbaijan 2012. And like any good story, it starts with a prologue. Two singers, taking to the stage in Germany, and with some help from Shirley’s Angels in the background, go and win Eurovision 2011. But how did Ell and Nikki get to that stage in the first place?

Let’s have a quick look back at Azerbaijani’s adventures in the Eurovision Song Contest, and how we arrived at Baku for next year.

Following on from their first appearance at Eurovision in 2008, Azerbaijan understood the technical stuff about attending a Eurovision, and the next year would send what, in my opinion, is the best of their four songs – Always, by Aysel & Arash.

It’s unlikely that anyone could have beaten Alexander Rybak’s 387 points that night, but Azerbaijan (207) and Iceland (218) did their best. Now the delegation knew not only how the Contest worked, but what was needed to achieve victory.

Aysel and Arash

Aysel and Arash

2009 saw Safura selected by a 100% jury vote to take “Drip Drop” to Oslo. Finishing narrowly behind Turkey in the semi-final, it would come down to the draw for the Grand Final. With the dreaded second place already occupied by Spain, Safura drew out pole position. Opening the contest is a prestigious slot, but Like many before her, the draw doomed Safura to a high finish (fifth) but denied her the victory.

So to Germany, and the 2011 selection process. Milli Secim Turu was looking for a solo singer to represent their country. With seven heats, all the singers were placed through multiple nights of singing, including some wonderfully over the top interpretations of Eurovision classics along with modern pop hits and traditional music. At the end of each week, a mix of public and jury voting decided the single qualifier from each heat.

The PR bug never quite left the Azerbaijani team though, as the Scottish singer Nicola Barclay, who failed to win her semi-final, was given a wild card place in the Final, guaranteeing more press and interest from both the Eurovision sites around the Internet, but mainstream recognition around the continent.

With seven singers through to the Final of the Azerbaijani selection, it was time for more wild-card entries to be announced, and two more singers were handed a ticket to the closing stages. While Nicola Barclay announced her withdrawal, London based Nigar Jamal (who had finished heat seven in a tie break with Ilhama Gasimova) and Eldar Gasimova (second place in heat six) were handed a place in, err, the quickly announced semi-final.

Nine singers were whittled down to five, and this would be the line-up for the final, which would be a 100% jury vote (unlike the heats, where the public could also have their say in a 50/50 vote split).

One of the interesting tweaks that happened as the final of Milli Secim Turu 2011 came to a close was the decision to pair up the two top singers in the contest – namely Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal. The song was not yet chosen, and Azerbaijani TV opened up the process for submissions. Fifteen were eventually submitted formally, with notable foreign entries from Spain, Greece and Australia.

In the end the Swedish song-writing team of Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman and Iain Farguhanson would take the credits as “Running Scared” became the Azerbaijani entry. The same team also composed Safura’s song for the 2010 contest, “Drip Drop”, and Azerbaijan had their winning team together.

Safura

Safura

Lessons would be learned from previous years, and while marketing and promotion was done, it was noticeable that there was a lot less on show in the Press Centre and around Dusseldorf. Neither was there a significant presence online (last year it was impossible to look at a Google AdSense box on a Eurovision site without Drip Drop being promoted in said space). Azerbaijan.

But the biggest impact on the Azerbaijani vote was nothing to do with the delegation. The loss of Turkey (and to a certain extent Armenia) from the first semi-final meant that a huge number of diaspora votes were looking to be cast for someone. When the breakdown comes out, we’ll likely see that these votes boosted Azerbaijan up from low scoring 2’s and 3’s into the 6’s, 7’s and 8’s. In a year full of great songs and a wide spread of 12’s (twenty countries picked up a douze, compared to sixteen in 2010 and fourteen in 2009), that consistent scoring allowed them to creep into the lead.

That’s right, the sound engineers in the first semi-final sealed their victory.

As we say here, it’s just three minutes, live, and anything can happen. By whatever path, Azerbaijan have achieved what they wanted – to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to the coast of the Caspian Sea, and we’re all in for An Exciting Adventure in Baku.

Yes there are lots of issues, there’s many political and ideological issues in hosting Eurovision in a strongly Muslim country, and everyone wondering why we’re there when it’s not geographically in Europe. But for now, they topped the score table, the history books have them down as the winners in 2011, so congratulations.

About The Author: Ewan Spence

British Academy (BAFTA) nominated broadcaster and writer Ewan Spence is the voice behind The Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast and one of the driving forces behind ESC Insight. Having had an online presence since 1994, he is a noted commentator around the intersection of the media, internet, technology, mobility and how it affects us all. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, his work has appeared on the BBC, The Stage, STV, and The Times. You can follow Ewan on Twitter (@ewan) and Facebook (facebook.com/ewanspence).

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Have Your Say

4 responses to “Ell and Nikki's Road to Victory”

  1. Seán says:

    This really was an extra Swedish entry performing under the pseudonym “Azerbaijan”.

    By no means my favorite of the night, I still thought it was well performed and looked the best of all the songs.

  2. Zolan says:

    I suspect that it was a one-off for their debut, but “Day After Day” remains my favourite Azerbaijani entry to date.
    Hopefully, with a win behind them, they will put away the playbook and enter more interesting songs again.

  3. Mike says:

    This was a really weak year, and Azerbaijan (my choice to win) managed to stand out from the field. I don’t think it would have beaten many recent winners) paired head to head), though. Certainly not 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009, or 2010. Probably 2005 (another weak year, with, until this year, the lowest scoring winner ever), and possibly 2008 (only under 50/50 jury/televote scoring – but Ukraine would have won in 2008 under those rules instead of Russia, anyway).

    The 2012 season should be really interesting (off the stage). I see a larger than usual number of controversies in the coming year.

  4. Ewan Spence says:

    For me it’s the other way around. Mike. It was a strong year, and I’ve a lot more “faves” in my playlist from 2011 than I had at the end of 2010. With so many good songs, there was no clear inner to mass votes around, which left the field very compressed. A strong 3rd/4th song could easily sneak through, which IMO is the Azerbaijan win.

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