Following the debuts of fellow Caucasian countries Armenia in 2006 and Georgia 2007 at the Eurovision Song Contest, Azerbaijan looks set to participate for the first time in 2008.
AzTV will become an active member of the EBU on the 15th June, the main prerequisite for entering the contest. A spokesperson for AzTV confirmed that AzTV will submit an application for participating in Belgrade, although we shouldnote that this does not necessarily ensure that they will be present as there may be a limit on newcomers this year.
Another Azeri broadcaster, OTV, has been passively broadcasting the contest for the past 2 years, even sending its own commentators to Athens and Helsinki. However, this channel has not applied for EBU membership as yet.
Azerbaijan is a former Soviet country in the Caucasus region, but shares closer ethno-linguistic ties with Turkey than with the rest of the former USSR. The capital city is Baku and the population is about 8,411,000. The national language is Azeri, and the country currently has the highest growing economy in the world.You can find out more about Azerbaijan by clicking here.
