Azerbaijan was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "Running Scared", written by Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman, and Iain James Farquharson, and performed by Ell and Nikki. The Azerbaijani participating broadcaster, (İTV), selected its representative through and, subsequently, the song internally. Following seven heats, a semi-final and a final on 11 February 2011, a seven-member jury selected Nigar Jamal and Eldar Gasimov as the winner. The song "Running Scared" was internally selected and presented to the public on 14 March.
Azerbaijan was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2011. Performing during the show in position 18, "Running Scared" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed second out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 122 points. In the final, Azerbaijan performed in position 19 and placed first out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 221 points. This was Azerbaijan's first win in the Eurovision Song Contest since its first entry in 2008.
Background
Prior to the 2011 contest, (İTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Azerbaijan three times since its first entry . Since its debut, it has had a string of successful results, qualifying to the final and placing in the top ten each year, including a third-place result with the song "Always" performed by AySel and Arash. In , "Drip Drop" performed by Safura placed fifth.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, İTV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2011 contest on 31 May 2010. İTV had used various methods to select its entry in the past, including internal selections as well as national finals to select both the artist and song. For its 2011 entry, the broadcaster opted to organize a new national final titled , which featured a similar process to the Land of Fire national final used in 2008 and 2010 where the selection of a winning performer would subsequently be given an internally selected song to perform at Eurovision.
Before Eurovision
was the national final organised by İTV that selected its representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The competition consisted of nine shows that commenced on 15 November 2010 and concluded with a winning artist on 11 February 2011. All shows were broadcast on İTV and streamed online via the broadcaster's website itv.az. The final was also streamed online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv and broadcast in Turkey on TRT Avaz as well as in Georgia on the GPB First Channel.
Format The national final consisted of two stages. The first stage involved interested artists attending auditions after submitting applications between 5 and 15 October 2010. Eligible artists were those that were citizens of Azerbaijan or part of the Azerbaijani diaspora. 77 artists selected from 120 applicants advanced to the second stage, the televised shows. Nine shows including seven heats between 15 November 2010 and 31 December 2011 selected one artist from each show that would advance to the semi-final in January 2011.Eurovision 2011 "Champions' League" to Take Off in Azerbaijan. Day.az. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010. In the semi-final, five artists were selected to advance to the final on 11 February 2011. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining five artists.
The results of the heats and semi-final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from public televoting and a seven-member jury panel. Each heat and semi-final took place across five days where the artists each performed cover versions of various songs in order to showcase their voice, dance ability and stage presence: world hits on Monday, Eurovision hits on Tuesday, Azerbaijani songs on Wednesday and a song of their choice on Thursday. The results were announced on Friday. For each of the eight shows, the public was able to cast their votes through telephone or SMS over the five days. In the final, the jury selected the Azerbaijani Eurovision contestant.
The members of the jury were:
Ismail Omarov – General Director of İTV Lala Kazimova – President of the National Music Committee of Azerbaijan Rauf Babayev – singer Faiq Suceddinov – singer Zulfiyya Khanbabayeva – singer Zahra Badalbayli – musician and poet Manzar Nuraliyeva – representative of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan
Shows
Heats The seven heats took place between 15 November 2010 and 31 December 2010 at the İTV studios in Baku, hosted by Husniyya Maharramova and Leyla Aliyeva. The 77 artists each performed cover versions of various songs over five days and one artist was selected from each heat to advance to the semi-final based on the results of a public televote and a jury. Tarik Yigit only participated in the first day of the first heat and therefore was disqualified from the competition. Eldar Gasimov and Nigar Jamal were awarded wildcards by the jury from the non-qualifying acts to advance to the semi-final.Azerbaijan: Ilgara Ibrahimova to the final, Eldar Gasimov - wildcard. Nicola Barclay was also awarded a jury wildcard, however she withdrew on 11 January 2011 due to illness and changes in the competition format. + Heat 115–19 November 2010 Artist Place Result 1 Khana Hasanova 7 2 Aygun Ismayilova 5 3 Adil Bakhishli 2 4 6 5 Chingiz Mustafayev 1 Qualified 6 Tarik Yigit — Disqualified 7 Ulviyya Abbasova 8 8 Gulchohra Babayeva 9 9 Next 3 10 Zulfunaz Rajabova 4
+ Heat 222–26 November 2010 Artist Place Result 1 East Groove 3 2 Fizza Nadirova 7 3 Sitara Nasirova 6 4 Emin Hasan 9 5 Nazrin Zarbaliyeva 8 6 Ulvi Rashidov 2 7 Gunay Alakbarova 4 8 Yegana Aghayeva 11 9 Shola Safaraliyeva 5 10 Ulviyya Talishinskaya 10 11 Nurlan Novrasli 1 Qualified
+ Heat 329 November–3 December 2010 Artist PlaceResult 1 Dilshan Ibadova 8 2 Günay Ibrahimli 1 Qualified 3 Khayyam Nisanov 3 4 Sevinj Aghashirinova 6 5 Kanan Gadimov 5 6 Nigar Babayeva 9 7 Orkhan Aghayev 4 8 Farid Mammadov 10 9 Nazir Aghayev 11 10 Nicola Barclay 2 Withdrew 11 Rinat Alimov 7 + Heat 46–10 December 2010 Artist Place Result 1 Said Ismayilzadeh 10 2 Aydan Rustamova 2 3 Arzum Khalilova 1 Qualified 4 Emilia Yagubova 8 5 Ramin Guliyev 7 6 Chinara Nazarli 6 7 Milan Mammadov 9 8 Sabina Babayeva 3 9 Rahima Hasanalizadeh 5 10 Leyla Dadashova 11 11 Javanshir Hajiyev 4 + Heat 513–17 December 2010 Artist Place Result 1 Empathy 8 2 Elmar Asgarov 9 3 Altun Zeynalov 6 4 Emin Nasirli 2 5 Janana Zeynalova 10 6 Rovshan Jivishov 4 7 Jamila Hashimova 3 8 Aynishan Quliyeva 1 Qualified 9 Gulnar Nabi-Chingiz 7 10 Dinara Jafarova 11 11 Orkhan Israfilov 5 + Heat 620–24 December 2010 Artist Place Result 1 Ilgara Ibrahimova 1 Qualified 2 Eldar Gasimov 2 Wildcard 3 Seyran Ismayilkhanov 5 4 Leyla Idrisova 7 5 Rustam Allazov 6 6 Sultan Mashadiyev 8 7 Elyana Ahmadova 3 8 Fuad Mustafazadeh 10 9 Sarkhan Mammadov 9 10 Diana Hajiyeva 4 + Heat 724–31 December 2010 Artist Place Result 1 Orkhan Nasibov 12 2 Sabina Mammadova 6 3 Habil Ahmadov 11 4 Sadikh Aghamaliyev 9 5 Nigar Dargahzadeh 5 6 Ilhama Gasimova 1 Qualified 7 Davud Asgarli 8 8 Lala Aliyeva 7 9 Tahir Guliyev 10 10 Gunay Ahmadova 4 11 Azad Shabanov 3 12 Nigar Jamal 2 Wildcard
Semi-final The semi-final took place between 10 and 14 January 2011 at the İTV studios in Baku, hosted by Husniyya Maharramova and Leyla Aliyeva. The remaining nine artists each performed cover versions of various songs over five days and the top five artists were selected to advance to the final based on the results of a public televote and a jury.Date for Next Azerbaijan Eurovision 2011 Battle Determined. Day.az. 4 January 2011. + Semi-final10–14 January 2011 Artist Televote ResultVotesRank 1 Chingiz Mustafayev 4,0307 2 Nurlan Novrasli 18,7503 3 Gunay Ibrahimli 1,0338 4 Arzum Khalilova 11,7445 5 Aynishan Quliyeva 17,2024 Qualified 6 Ilgara Ibrahimova 30,1472 Qualified 7 Eldar Gasimov 8,5566 Qualified 8 Ilhama Gasimova 31,4531 Qualified 9 Nigar Jamal 7319 Qualified
Final The final took place on 11 February 2011 at the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Baku, hosted by Leyla Aliyeva. The remaining five artists each performed four cover versions of various songs: a world hit, an Azerbaijani song, a Eurovision hit from songs performed during the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 and a song of their choice. Nigar Jamal and Eldar Gasimov were selected by the jury as the winners. In addition to the performances of the artists, David Vendetta, Safura (who represented Azerbaijan in 2010), Sofia Nizharadze (who represented ), Senit (who represented ), and Anna Rossinelli (who represented ), performed during the show as guests. + Final11 February 2011 Artist Song 1 (World hit)Song 2 (Azerbaijani song)Song 3 (Eurovision hit)Song 4 (Artist's choice) Nigar Jamal 1 "Cry Me a River" 6 "Azərbaycan" 11 "It's My Time" 16 "Pretty Girls Adore Diamonds" Aynishan Quliyeva 2 "Sway" 7 "Sevgi bu" 12 "Carry Me in Your Dreams" 17 "Esq Dəlisi" Ilgara Ibrahimova 3 "Thank You" 8 "Nigaranam" 13 "Mamo" 18 "In Your Eyes" Eldar Gasimov 4 "Je t'aime" 9 "Gəl Ey Səhər" 14 "Believe Again" 19 "When You Believe" Ilhama Gasimova 5 "The Game of Love" 10 "Sevənlər" 15 "Je ne sais quoi" 20 "Out of Reach"
Song selection On 11 January 2011, the broadcaster called for interested songwriters to submit their entries by 10 February 2011. Songwriters could be of any nationality. On 13 March 2011, İTV announced that Ell and Nikki would be performing the song "Running Scared". The selection of the song was based on the decision of İTV and the seven-member jury panel of Milli Seçim Turu 2011 from five potential songs shortlisted among 70 submissions from local and international songwriters.Azerbaijan to Perform in Semifinal 1 . I.Asad. Echo. 25 January 2011. "Running Scared" was written by Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman and Iain James Farquharson, and was presented on the same day via the release of the official music video.
Promotion Ell and Nikki made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Running Scared" as the Azerbaijani Eurovision entry. Between 15 and 16 April, Ell and Nikki took part in promotional activities in Malta by appearing during the TVM talk show programmes Il-Lejla and Xarabank. On 17 April, Ell and Nikki performed "Running Scared" as the opening act for De-Phazz's concert which was held at the Glavclub venue in Saint Petersburg, Russia. On 18 April, Ell and Nikki appeared during the ETV morning show programme Terevisioon in Estonia. On 20 April, Ell and Nikki performed "Running Scared" at a live concert which was held in Kyiv, Ukraine.
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 17 January 2011, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Azerbaijan was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2011, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 15 March 2011 and Azerbaijan was set to perform in position 18, following the entry from and before the entry from .