Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 � the brightest debut in the last several years, according to international press.
Azerbaijan’s bright debut at Eurosong generated a phenomenal public resonance in the country. The Land of Fire became one of two debutants of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest and the only newcomer to reach the final and end up in the top ten.
The Eurovision craze in the most eastern country of the contest began long before the “big night” in Belgrade. In fact, the Azerbaijani national final for the ESC, a fabulous television show titled “Land of Fire”, took place on 2 February and gathered a large amount of international Eurovision media to Baku. This spectacular 2-hour gala featuring several former Eurovision winners as well as 3 Azerbaijani finalists was broadcast live in a number of European countries and online on the official Eurovision website. “This was probably the most impressive national final that I have ever seen." – said Bjoern Erichsen, director of the EBU television department, who was an honorary guest at the event, – "Nobody can say when one or the other country will win, but it definitely looks like Baku would already be ready to host Eurovision today.”
The national final winners’ promotional tour took them to 12 European countries and culminated in two big open-air concerts in Istanbul and Belgrade itself at the walls of the ancient Kalemegdan fortress.
The Belgrade concert “Legends and Sensations of Eurovision” was a magnificent welcome and presentation party of the contest debutant Azerbaijan and brought together Eurovision stars Marija Serifovic, Zeljko Joksimovic, Ruslana, Dana International and the rising Eurovision sensation Elnur & Samir. It gathered more than 25000 viewers under the open sky of Belgrade and is believed to be the biggest-ever Eurovision week promotional event done by any country delegation. The show was broadcast by the Eurovision host broadcaster of this year, Serbian RTS as well as by television channels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and other European countries.
“We indeed invested a lot of effort and resources in the promotion of our contestants." – said Ismail Omarov, director of the Azerbaijani public broadcaster ITV, – "The debut of Azerbaijan in Eurovision is very important for us, therefore we did our best to represent our country in the best way possible. We are more than happy with the result. Elnur and Samir broke through to the final and their performance was spectacular, professional and will certainly be remembered by the European audience.”
“Of course, the place we got is not ideal." – Head of Azerbaijani delegation Adil Kerimli says – "One always has to strive to be the first. However, we don’t regret a single second of these difficult 6 months. This was a fantastic experience and a very bright time of our lives. We are sure that our country and Public TV channel as a contest broadcaster & participant will make good use of this experience.”
First Azerbaijani Eurovision entry that took the country to the final was a complex and engaging act “Day after Day”. Elnur demonstrated a very interesting vocal manner close to opera singing. Samir was increadibly artistic and finished the act by singing a part of Mugham, an ancient Azerbaijani vocal culture protected by UNESCO. The visual part of the act included a perfectly choreographed performance with the demon on the throne pouring wine on the dancers and, of course, the inevitable victory of angels in white in the end and a stunning pyrotechnical coda. Eurovision journalists called the act one of the brightest performances of this year’s Eurovision.
