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...

Another remixes are coming this way and Azerbaijan's own Samra has released two one, one by Danish Eurovision veteran Thomas N'evergreen, the other by Kamil Moombah. Which one do you prefer?

For the first time the Blogilkar panel has six people reviewing, and quite an international team it is: a Finn, a Brit, an Irish living in Belgium, a Dutch, an Italian living in Sweden and as a cherry on the cake, a German living in the UK! In coming days we will review all the entries with out personal notes.  Four foxy ladies to kick of this year's Eurovision song presentations. Enjoy! ALBANIA - ENEDA TARIFA - FAIRYTALE (Olsa Toqi) This was the first chosen song for this year. When it won the Festivali i Këngës it was in Albanian and titled  Përrallë . It has gone through a major revamp since and unfortunately not succesfully it seems... Blogilkar: Albania in original arrangement and in Albanian was somewhat interesting; a bit mysterious and intriguing. The new mix in English falls flat by the time the chorus kicks in. Even Eneda has lost the sparkle in her voice with it. This can be now saved only by an owesome staging that will take away from the 13-in...

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.