Europe falls in love with Azerbaijan

AySel & Arash become a fashionable discovery of Eurovision 2009


Azerbaijan, the easternmost and youngest Eurovision country, has become a true discovery and quite a sensation of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. AySel & Arash, the ambitious Azerbaijani duet, came 3rd among the 42 participants. AySel & Arash confidently and easily outscored the French diva Patricia Kaas, the Greek celebrity Eurovision veteran Sakis Rouvas, the Turkish favourite Hadise, and the famous British singer Jade Ewen, who was promoted by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber himself.

It is a sensational success for the Land of Fire, which only joined the Contest last year. The whole Europe voted for Azerbaijan, from Israel to Finland, from Malta to UK. 34 out 41 countries of the Contest, Azerbaijan excluded, gave points to AySel & Arash.

This includes the 10 points from the unchallenged Eurovision 2009 winner Norway as well as the Netherlands, Cyprus and Ukraine, 12 points from Turkey, 8 points from Denmark and Sweden. AySel & Arash cast their winning net wide harvesting votes from such countries as Israel (6 points), UK (3 points), Malta (1 point) and many others.

Alexander Rybak’s victory had been virtually a done deal long before the Contest final. So the main intrigue for the Eurovision media and fans was who will take the prestigious second and third places. Azerbaijan became the catchword for commentators of the entire Europe and powerfully grabbed attention of the 200-million-strong audience of the Contest. After a fierce battle for votes, the Norwegian 12 points for Iceland threw this Nordic country on top of Azerbaijan with just an 11-point lead in the last seconds of the vote.

The Azerbaijani song Always has became a true Eurovision hit of this year. AySel & Arash were predicted among the top five acts long before the Contest final. On 13 May, the esctoday.com’s Big Poll, based on more than 110,000 votes, predicted Azerbaijan as one of three guaranteed qualifiers from SF 2, while the Croatian website eurosong.hr forecasted the duet’s victory in the last days before the Contest final. So Azerbaijan’s second place in the semifinal – after the absolute favourite Norway – was a logical outcome. Apart from Norway, Azerbaijan was the highest-scoring qualifier from both semifinals, overtaking even Iceland.

After the show, AySel, the “goddess of Eurovision” according to Filip Kirkorov, a famous Russian Eurovision producer, commented:

“Now that the Contest is over and we think about the months of hard work of dozens, even hundreds of people who made these fabulous moments in the final happen, our head start to spin. We believed in our song, we believed in our romantic story called Always, we believed in the wonderful team around us – and we did it! Now the whole Europe will sing Always – from Israel to Norway. I’d also like to add: Congratulations from the bottom of our hearts, Sasha – you also believed in your Fairytale – and you won! And finally – all those who supported us all along the way – I can’t even express our gratitude and love to you!!! Without your support there would never have been AySel & Arash and their Eurovision success story!!! Thank you so much!!!”

The success of the Azerbaijani entry was the result of combined efforts of leading professionals from several European countries. The international team behind AySel & Arash included experts from Sweden, Ukraine, Russia, UK and, of course, Azerbaijan itself. After placing sensationally on the third place, Arash commented:

“It’s a great victory! Eurovision is very special because here everyone goes for his own victories. To be selected to represent a country – it’s a victory. To reach the Contest final – it’s a victory. To overcome yourself and adapt to the grueling schedule of Eurovision – it’s another personal victory, a daily victory of everybody on the team.

So it is a victory for AySel and me, but first and foremost, it’s a victory for the entire Azerbaijan and the fantastic international team that worked with us during this Eurovision. We have gathered excellent specialists from Azerbaijan, Sweden, Ukraine, Russia. Our participation in Eurovision became a great and memorable event for millions of TV viewers across Europe – this is the real victory for us and Azerbaijan.”