Farid Mammadov, the 2013 Azerbaijani representative was in Athens earlier this week where he met up with Fokas Evangelinos.
For Farid Mammadov, Azerbaijan’s entry for Eurovision 2013, 7 April was one of the greatest days of his young life.
The day began with an interview on the very popular ALPHA TV morning show Mes Tin Kali Hara, hosted by Natalia Germanou and Themis Georgantas. During the interview Farid expressed his excitement about his first ever visit to Greece and about his cooperation with Greek composer Dimitris Kontopoulos on entry song Hold me.
The ALPHA TV appearance was considered a real milestone for Farid since this show has such a huge audience. It was also noteworthy because Farid was first and the only Eurovision artist to visit this show in past five years. Even Greek entries to Eurovision have never been given such an opportunity.
Farid was interviewed by various Greek TV channels during his visit to Athens: Star TV, MAD TV, ERT and ANT1 TV.
One of the highlights of Farad’s visit to Greece was when he revelead to the Greek press that Fokas Evangelinos will be the stage director for the 2013 Azerbaijani entry. Fokas, whos enjoys name and fame not only in Greece but overseas too, thanks to his talent and creativity. He is a well known name in Eurovision where he is considered as a living legend: has was the man behind the staging of the 2005 Eurovision Greek winning entry Helena Paparizou , he also worked with Ani Lorak and Dima Bilan in 2008 and Sakis Rouvas in 2009. He was overall stage director of the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest Athens and was the man behind the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the World Special Olympics Games in 2011.
The Greek visit was heaven-sent for Farid since he was able to pursue his secondary interest in athletics by visiting the renovated Panathenaic Stadium in Athens that hosted the first modern Olympic games in 1896. Farid ran into Fokas by coincidence in the stadium, the multi talented Greek stage director was rehearsing for a show about the history of the Olympic games.
Farid Mammadov will represent Azerbaijan at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest with Hold me. He will compete in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest semi-final 2.
Azerbaijan debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 and has won the event once, in 2011 with Ell and Nikki’s Running scared.
Stay tuned to esctoday.com for the latest information on Azerbaijan and the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.
