Azernews.Az

The most romantic duet at Eurovision 2009 held early Sunday in Moscow - Aysel and Arash representing Azerbaijan - delivered an inspiring performance with the smashing hit "Always", ranking third in a vote at the final of the incredibly-popular European song contest.
The participants from the Land of Fire had heard a wave of praise even prior to the finals -- from wishes of success by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to words of admiration from such Russian entertainment industry heavyweights as Philip Kirkorov and Nikolay Baskov.
Dressed in a flashy white gown, 19-year old Aysel Teymurzada, resembling a swan, and the elegant and energetic Arash, an Iranian-born ethnic Azerbaijani singer and songwriter, claimed a much-deserved third place after thrilling viewers with flashes of fire on stage, inspiring dancing, and all combined with the tunes of tar (national instrument).
A total of 42 European countries had joined the contest, but only 25 of them qualified to perform on Sunday, having succeeded in the Eurovision semi-final, which was held on May 12 and 14. The finals were hosted by well-known singer Alsu and popular show host Ivan Urgant.
The winner of this year`s Eurovision was a 23-year-old ethnic Belarusian from Norway. Alexander Ryback scored a record 387 points with his song, "Fairytale", leaving all of his opponents behind by half-way through the voting. 14 out of the 42 voting countries gave the maximum 12 points to Ryback. As winner, Norway will host next year`s Eurovision.
The most breathtaking event was the breakdown of the rankings below Norway in the chart, and the winning country actually influenced it. Before its vote was announced, Azerbaijan was third in the chart. The Norwegians, who awarded 10 points to Azerbaijan, which displaced Iceland, lastly gave 12 points to their neighbor, propelling it to the second rating, with 218 points, just a ranking ahead of the South Caucasus republic, which won 207.
A total of 34 countries voted for Azerbaijan. Aysel and Arash received the top 12 points from Turkey, while 10 points came from Ukraine, Belarus, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Croatia, Moldova, Hungary, and Norway. 8 points were awarded by Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Cyprus, and Bulgaria. Azerbaijan received 7 points from Russia and Estonia, 6 from Israel, Montenegro and Poland, 5 from Lithuania, 4 each from Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, and Albania, 3 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Britain, and Belgium, 2 from Finland, and one each from France, Malta, Slovenia, and Armenia.
As for the Azerbaijanis` vote, they awarded 12 points to Turkey, 10 points to Ukraine, and 8 points to Norway.
President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated the Azerbaijani duet in a phone conversation on Sunday. He commended on their outstanding achievement and wished them further success in their creative activity.
Azerbaijan took part in the contest for the second time. At the 2008 contest held in Serbia, Elnur Huseynov and Samir Javadzada, who represented the country, ranked eighth with their "Day After Day" song, marking Azerbaijan`s first success.

Provocative actions
Armenia, which has long occupied a part of Azerbaijan`s internationally-recognized territory, despite having unexpectedly awarded one point to Aysel and Arash for unknown reasons, managed to use the contest for its political aims. Thus, a monument located in the occupied Upper Garabagh region of Azerbaijan had been displayed in the video footage on Armenia during the Eurovision semifinal. Following a complaint filed by Baku, the organizing committee removed the image of that monument from the clip.
Armenians came up with another provocation during the vote calls at the finals. While announcing the votes, Sirusho, who represented Armenia at the 2008 contest, purposefully raised a notebook she was holding in her hand several times, showing the image of the monument in the back.
The provocative actions did not end there. Following the Eurovision contest, Armenia`s public television network filed a complaint against Azerbaijan to the event organizers, Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported. A group of Internet users claimed that, during live broadcasts of the contest, the SMS numbers required to vote for Armenia were not seen on the screens of TV viewers in Baku, which allegedly deprived Azerbaijani spectators of "the chance" to vote for Armenia`s Inga and Anush.
Tahir Mammadov, the spokesman for Azerbaijan`s Public TV channel, labeled the allegations as baseless, saying 43 votes were, in fact, cast from Azerbaijan for the Armenian performers.

"I am not the best"
Alexander Ryback made a modest statement after the Eurovision victory, saying he "was not the best."
"I don`t think I am some kind of an idol and still believe that I was not the best singer at the contest. I just had a story I wanted to tell, and my violin helped me a lot to do that," Ryback told a press conference held hot on the heels of his being announced as the victor.
The Norwegian singer entered the conference hall with his dance group to a round of applause by journalists, and once again performed his victorious composition, skillfully playing his violin.
Ryback admitted that, in his opinion, the best song was delivered by Ukraine, while the best performer was Iceland`s. "It is surprising that so many people favored the simplest song. I don`t even understand, myself, what happened," he said.
Ryback confessed that his song had been written by mere accident: the enamored musician once began playing an uncertain melody, reminiscing about his beloved one; and that`s how Fairytale was created.