Ictimai, the national broadcaster of Azerbaijan, has informed esctoday.com that Sabina Babayeva, the 2012 Azerbaijani representative will be attending the 2013 Azerbaijani national final tonight.

Sabina Babayeva represented Azerbaijan at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku with her entry When the music dies, achieving a 4th place. Eldar Gasimov (Azerbaijan 2011- Eurovision winner) will also be gracing the occasion. Sabina released a brand new song  Esq alovu few days back.

Sabina Babayeva– Esq alovu

The 2013 Azerbaijani national final (Milli Seçim Turu 2013) will be held tonight at the Buta Palace in Baku,  to select the 2013 Azerbaijani representative. You can watch a live stream of the show on esctoday.com at 18:00 CET.

Leyla Aliyeva and Tural Asadov will have the honour of hosting the 2013 Milli Seçim Turu Final at the Buta Palace in Baku.  Azerbaijani singers will grace the occassion and perform during the show:  National Music Group in a remix with Boro-Borosong (Arash‘s song),  Eldar Gasimov (Ell winner of ESC 2011),  Tunzala Agayeva, Sabina Babayeva (Azerbaijan2012) Chingiz Mustafayev. The show is expected to be 2 hours long.

Sabina Babayeva– When the music dies (Eurovision Song Contest)

A total of 10 acts will be competing tonight. Who will follow into Sabina Babayeva’s footsteps? Vugar Muradov, Ravana Aliyeva, Farah Hadiyeva, Leyla Aliyeva, Leyla Gafari, Farid Mammadov, Nigar Huseynova, Vlada Akhundova Valeriya Huseynzadeh and Aysel Babayeva will battle for the golden ticket to Malmö. One of them will become the 6th Azerbaijani Eurovision representative.

The organisers are currently working round the clock in order to showcase a dazzling and entertaining show. Azerbaijan played host to last year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The country has enjoyed much success in the event, achieving a top 10 placing every year since their debut in 2008.

The 2013 Azerbaijani Eurovision national selection kicked off on 17 December and will be concluding tonight.

A total of 8 groups have been competing  in the Azerbaijani 2013 national selection this year,  hence a total of  10 acts have qualified directly to compete in the final. The heats concluded last week when the 8th heat finished, they have been running every week from Monday to Friday since 17 December. The results have been  announced on Fridays. Throughout the week  the competing artists have been having the chance to showcase their talent and vocal skills.

The Azerbaijani jury  shorlisted 80 candidates from the 128 applicants who  applied to compete  in  Azerbaijani 2013 Eurovision national selection.  Among the candidates there were many Azerbaijanis who  reside overseas, in Germany, Denmark, Canada and Russia.  A total of  80 artists will compete in the live shows, they have been divided in several groups.