Running Scared is such a bizarre winner. I have never heard of it being anyone's favourite out of the winning category. I don't really remember 2011 but I can't imagine there not being better options
rumors of Azerbaijan simply buying votes aside, 2011 was just pretty mid and VERY open. out of 25 countries in the Grand Final, 20 received at least one set of 12 points.
I remember thinking it was the lamest song that year. Never understood the hype. To this day, whenever I hear it, it makes me smile. Very sentimental songs that take themselves too seriously always do, whether I like them or not.
Well, that was the worst Azerbaijani entry ever! Even till now. 2011 was not a really strong year but of course there were better options. It's quite important though to note that there probably was no entry with the proper winner shine. There were some very good songs and some very good stage shows. But never combined in one entry :p So, I guess Azerbaijan didn't need too much oil for the bribing.
Well, maybe Denmark and Romania in 2010 were, let's say, inspired by Azerbaijani duet's success from 2009, Aysel and Arash with the song "Always", which came second in the televote and third overall. Also, Azerbaijan debuted in Eurovision with a (male) duo in 2008, so maybe other countries were taking notes from them. 😄
Azerbaijan for many years had been buying from the top shelf of Eurovision professional for songwriting and choreography-staging, often from Sweden and Greece. Those professionals were the ones to make the decisions described in this video, that was what they were hired for. Matt, where is the blue shirt? Thank you guys for keeping providing interesting content 🙏
0:55 I would probably count John Ballard as British-Swedish (or Scottish-Swedish) since he's a Scot who has been living in Sweden for 50 years. He competed in Melodifestivalen in 1983 and 1984 btw, with songs in Swedish, with not that much of an English accent.
Didn't Azerbaijan also famously get caught buying televotes in 2013? The streak suspiciously ended at the same time as there was a rule change which made it much easier to ban countries for vote buying.
I’m going to need more deep dives on these creative directors/stage designers. I feel like everyone talks about Sacha. Thanks for highlighting someone else- Fokas. It connected some dots for me!
Personally, I always interpreted the staging of "Hold me" (my alltime favorite Azerbaijanian entry) as subtly homoerotic, with all the longing stares and the close interactions of beefcake singer Farid with his mirror image, a man in box (read: closet) who could not come out (of said box). The very lately added Woman in Red, looking a bit like the monster from the movie Alien, came in as an intruder really, trying to seperate Farid from his real self and lure him back to the path of heterosexuality. In a way this was similar to AZs winning entry the year before, where the very uncomfortably looking Ell was in some sort of arranged marriage with Nikki, very obviously against their will. No wonder they were "Running scared"! For me, "Hold me"'s staging tells the story of a closeted gay man struggling with the sad reality of Azerbaijan's homophobic societal norms, as underlined in the song's lyrics line: "Hold me, if it's only / For a moment in time", knowing about the fragility of forced-to-be-secret, dangerous same-sex relationships in the Land of Fire that can only exist for a brief, hushed moment, if at all. Which was, together with the almost OTT dramatic singing and the immaculate key change, the reason why I love "Hold me" whilst I hate "Running scared" with all of my life.
well azerbaijan already sent a duet in 2009 and it is already seen that duets work well in eurovision way before 2010. no more comment about staging gimmicks. It was not invented by loreen.
Well, I'm from Azerbaijan and I liked your analysis and respect it.😊 And yeah, we need to think outside of the box (I got it btw:))) and doing something magical, hope this year we will do it!
I think part of what made it great was my dialogue cleanup and mastering during Matt's dialogue. That was probably some of the best work I've done this year.
@@rainboworbit cheating ? 😂😂 You think eurovision is purely fair contest ? In fact there's no other contest in the world that you know who is gonna win it and even what countries will be in top 5 a few months before the contest begins. Does this ring a bell for you ?
I like Start a fire almost as much as I didn't care for Running scared or Drip drop. I hardly remember When the music dies. I'm a terrible trend predictor.
Sweden doesn't need to buy the juries, they only need to be Sweden, they could send a song made entierly with farts and they still would get 12 points from the jury
I find it funny that in 2012, their neighbours Iran told them that hosting Eurovision was an ‘insult to the sanctity of Islam.’ They even withdrew their ambassador over it.
To that point, most Arab countries are actually eligible to compete! I wonder if they would if it weren’t for Israel being in it, or they just wouldn’t find it culturally appropriate anyway
@@kaitlins2934Lebanon would have competed, had even a(nice!) song, but their constitution(?) forbids showing Israelis while the EBU doesn't allow cutting them out of the show. So they chose not to compete. Morocco of course did compete that one time, but their king found the low score an insult. I think they were just a bit too early & would get higher scores today.
Armenia?Armenia invaded 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized sovereign territory.Made people leave their house,killed thousands of people. Search then talk dumb
Really?! How about the fact that Armenia is one of the few countries that committed genocide in the 21st century, and it happened against the Azerbaijanis in Khojaly in 1992.
Azerbaijan should not be allowed to compete. They are preparing for invasion after committing ethnic cleansing and they are using things like Eurovision to present themselves in a better light. In a world of 2024, a country that commits ethnic cleansing should not be allowed to compete.
@@nightfurry4332, Armenia now has a democratic government and a European orientation, Azerbaijan has a dictatorship that restricts LGBTQA+ rights and threatens to invade mainland Armenia. Yes, the history is not pretty, but we as nations should strive for coexistence, not incite fear and hatred.
I will be honest (although I will try to stay respectful). I quite dislike Azerbaijan in "Eurovision". Firstly, they are the only country that never sent a song in their native language. I don't think we should have language quotas, but most participants attempt to represent their culture. Azerbaijan doesn't. Secondly, most Azeri entries are incredibly dull. They are boring for the same reason Swedish songs on ESC tend to be, but the Swedes are at least masters of their craft and once in a while they send a contestant that fits the narrow confinements of Scandi-pop in a genuinely creative way. Unfortunately, Azerbaijan can't brag about the same thing. Last but not the least: I know that "Eurovision" was always political and there's nothing necessarily wrong with politics, but there's something deeply insidious in the way deeply militarised societies send some of the most accessible and widely-appealing entries. My Ukrainian bias may be talking here, but isn't that just "Russia and peace ballads" shtick?
I honestly don’t know where you get this idea of Azerbaijan. Its been occupied for 30 years, of course in some extent its militarized, but its nothing crazy. More or less as much as other countries with internal conflicts are, it’s not felt in 99% of instances. Sometimes when I read what westerners write about Azerbaijan it feels like its actually about North Korea. Its really funny to me and other people from post soviet countries, but the ease of misrepresenting anything is scary.
@@Baghirov. Firstly, I'm Eastern European. I explicitly mention that I'm Ukrainian in my original comment. Secondly, you don't have to be North Korean to be more than questionable. Belarus isn't North Korea and yet people run like Hell from there and EBU banned them for a reason. Russia isn't North Korea and yet, it's all the same. I don't know if you're Azeri or not, but if you are, you are living in a military dictatorship. As someone who met citizens from such countries, I don't exactly trust your judgement on that matter. Unlike the Westerners you mention, I am aware of how deep the denial of one's shitty government can go in all military dictatorships.
@@zhenia2511 Zhenia, it isn’t really a matter of judgement, it’s more that a lot of things written in media is funnily stupid or stretched. Especially considering that the opposition media in Azerbaijan is represented by people, whom will say any bs to get money. Honestly in Azerbaijan itself no one takes them seriously because for people seeing the country in first person, many many many of their articles and statements just dont reflect the reality. If even the obvious things they report on are not honest, any of their more serious statements are just not taken seriously. They are like Kiselev(russian propaganda reporter- you probably know him) in a way. Its just that some people blindly believe anything Kiselev says and think all west is doomed, while other people blindly believe anything what ‘opposition media’ says and think that, in this case, Azerbaijan is something like Iran, Turkmenistan or North Korea. In reality, of course, neither are correct. Life here is pretty much similar to any other post soviet country, i would assure you, not far from pre 2022 Ukraine too. Of course, not identical, but not far at all. Thats why its not difficult for our people to live in both countries. I know many Ukrainians here, as well as many Azerbaijanis there(pre 2022 though unfortunately, many have moved). Have a good day!
@@Baghirov. Oh, I don't think you're North Korea or Turkmenistan. Turkey though? Belarus? Poland when the Catholic government was at its pique? Something like that. And "life in Ukraine before 2022" is hardly a metric. Most ordinary Russians were not affected by Transnistria and Georgia either. The same could not be said for those who suffered from their actions. Nor I believe in "internal conflicts" , especially, in your region. For some inexplicable reason, internal conflicts tend to happen around certain countries a lot. Internal conflicts don't mean anything to me as a figure of speech because those don't tend to reflect on the government well either. The facts are fairly simple: your leadership hasn't changed for a very long time and your opposition is incredibly weak. That's an autocracy. Not all autocracies are equally bad , of course, but there are no good ones.
I usually skip songs from other countries till the event. But "learned from Loreen" triggered me. Please no! Loreen's last win was one of the worst badly copied songs ever and the first winner that made me truly angry on how it happened. It was exspected that she would get good results by the public because of euphoria 2.0. (Even though she is the first winner who not was first place in any country). But the Jury who should have rewarded the objective better songs did embarrased themselve by making her the winner.
This video is about how Euphoria's success influenced Azerbaijan's staging in 2013, it has nothing to do with Tattoo. Maybe watch the video or at least read the description before getting angry.
@@Izumi250 As said can't as i not spoiler myself. Even in Top list i just skip to look where germany landed. I try to be as blind as possible for the real ESC. So unterstand my fear if i hear Loreen even beeing mentioned^^
