Azerbaijan among lucky Eurovision's semi-final winners
By Amina Nazarli
The long-awaited second Semi-Final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Austria’s capital, Vienna on May 21.
The event saw some 10 countries qualify for the Grand Final - to be held on May 23.
Azerbaijani representative, Elnur Huseynov was also among the lucky winners, with his mystical ballad "Hour of the Wolf".
Elnur and his team showed an interesting stage performance. One of the dancers, Lukas even colored his hair for maximum immersion into the wolf image on stage.
“This dance is staged in the style of modern art. It is inspired by wildlife, but in fact it is a story about us - people. We show what it means to be rejected, to be different, to be an outcast without hope of change,” Elnur said earlier. “After all, everyone experienced such thing in life, don't you think?”
The second semi-final saw the performances of 17 countries
including Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Ireland, San Marino, Montenegro,
Malta, Norway, Portugal, Czech, Israel, Latvia, Island, Sweden,
Switzerland, Cyprus, Slovenia, and Poland.
The following countries have qualified for the Grand Final:
Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Norway,
Montenegro, Cyprus, Latvia and Israel.
Following the event, all ten qualifying delegations had a press conference and drew their position to be in either the first or second half of the Grand Final.
Azerbaijan was drawn to perform under the 24th number in the second half of the Grand Final.
Answering questions at a press conference about his feelings about the song Elnur replied, "Honestly speaking I cannot sing a happy and cheerful song at the moment."
Will he sleep tonight, one journalist asked, referring to the song lyrics. "I'll be happy to", Elnur said, smiling.
A day before, Azerbaijani Culture Center in Vienna hosted the Azerbaijani Day, devoted to the Eurovision and European Games to be held for the first time in Baku on June 12-28.
Elnur invited all participants to this unique party and helped bring another bridge in between Vienna and Baku.
The guests enjoyed Elnur’s songs which he performed together with his back vocalists, accompanied by the famous and young Azerbaijani jazzman, pianist and composer, Isfar Sarabsky.
Elnur surprised the audience with his gift to Vienna: he presented Azerbaijan’s national instrument Tar to the city. Tar is used both in solo and accompaniment instrument in national musical art. It is a leading tool in the art of music. This instrument is widely used in the works of Azerbaijani composers.
The contest which is being held for the 60th time in Europe has seen the victory of 46 women participants. The last man contestant to win the contest was Azerbaijani Eldar Gasimov in the music duo Ell & Nikki with Nigar Jamal bringing first place from Germany to Azerbaijan in 2011.
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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
Twitter: @amina_nazarli
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