Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Azerbaijan's first rehearsal was a disaster matching their preview video so things have been changed quite a bit now. Her illness seems to be gone, too. So, how did it go? She tried her two different outfits; one short number and golden pantsuits for the show, the graphics and backdrops were changed, camera angles and choreography tightened. White and gold for the dancers. Much better in every way but yawn, so boooring. And her vocals are still all over the place really

If Armenia scored with the reviewers and made it all right and had the wow factor, Azerbaijan seems to have let everybody disappointed and let down. Well, if the cue is taken from their video like many others this year one could expect it, right? The video being almost as good as Albania 2004 really. Vocally Samra seems to be a real disaster. Who is surprised raise your hand! Four backing singers/dancers with her doing some rather cliché moves (some sources claim them the best thing so far). All in all a very downscale staging for Azerbaijan. And there's the shower of fire in the end. Yawn. Have they lost the sparkle? The rehearsal is taking a lot of time and no one seems happy. Hmm...  At this point they really need a miracle. And Samra getting better as apparently she's a bit ill. The Meet & Greet started with the presentation of her App. At this point I think I'm going to scream next time I hear "Thank you for your question. It's a very good question...

As expected it's a thingy made in Sweden. Very generic and standard perfect pop song. The real miracle is they didn't bother to make a proper video nor hire a make up artists or stylist for poor Samra, who looks rather worn out and tired. But it's not gonna take a miracle this ending up in top-5 in May. For all the wrong reasons.

Azerbaijan has today confirmed the rumors going round for some time now. 21-year-old Səmra Rəhimli has been internally chosen and will sing Miracle in Stockholm. The song will be unveiled over the weekend. She already tried her luck with national selection Milli Seçim Turu in 2012 and since then has done The Voice both in Turkey and in Azerbaijan. 

Wow, what a surprise. Totally undeserved and re-announced victory. I can only hope now they will bomb big time in Copenhagen 2014. Sorry, but that's what I think. Miracle .The real miracle is they didn't win the televote. Thank you Romanians. The jury instead gave the victory to them with 12 points, followed by 10 to Vizi Imre (thank you!), 8 to Bere Gratis, 7 to Stefan Stan, 6 to Renee Santana, 5 to Anca Florescu, only for to Vaida, 3 to Zuralia, 2 to the dAdA and 1 to Naomy. So the full combined result is: 1. Paula Seling & Ovi – Miracle – 22 2. Vaida – One More Time – 16 3. Vizi Imre – Kind of Girl – 16 4. Anca Florescu – Hearts Collide – 13 5. Ștefan Stan feat. TeddyK – Breathe – 12 6. Renée Santana feat. Mike Diamondz – Letting Go – 10 7. Bere Gratis – Despre mine și ea – 9 8. Șăl – Hardjock – 7 9. The dAdA – Unpredictable – 5 10. Naomy – Dacă tu iubești – 3 11. The Zuralia Orchestra – You Know– 3 12. Silvia Dumitrescu – Fiorul iubirii ...