Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan delivered a remarkable performance at the Eurovision song contest held in Belgrade, Serbia on Saturday. The country joining the competition for the first time took the eighth place among 43 contestants.
The Azerbaijani duet performed at the final of the 52nd annual contest which was watched by about 300 million viewers around the world. Singers Elnur Huseynov and Samir Javadzada performed the "Day after day" song which converged rock, opera and national folk music Mugham.
The composition signified the eternal struggle of vice and virtue. The two singers brilliantly protrayed the angel and devil on stage. Russia's Dima Bilan won Eurovision 2008, with his rock ballad "Believe", as it had been predicted by bookmakers. Ukraine came second and Greece third.
As for the voting, Azerbaijan was supported the most by neighboring Turkey, and, surprisingly, by Hungary. The audience in both countries granted the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan was the only country granting 12 points to Turkey.
Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Czech Republic gave Azerbaijan 10 points, while Macedonia - eight points. Seven points were granted by Belgium and Poland.
The event organizers broke several records this year. 43 countries took part in the contest and 18,000 people attended it. For comparison's sake, the figure was 15,000 in 2007.
Russian Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said rumours are criculating that Azerbaijan had spent 7 million Euros on its campaign for the contest. Reports say that large posters of Elnur and Samir were put up all over Belgrade.
Russian pop singer Dima Bilan who was victorious had spent 1 million Euros to make preparations for Eurovision 2008.
Under existing rules, Moscow will host the next year's contest.
Renowned Azerbaijani singer, MP Zeynab Khanlarova has said she was utterly concerned that some countries considering Azerbaijan a friendly state had failed to support Azerbaijani performers.
"It is particularly disappointing that Georgia and Israel that maintain good relations with us gave a lot of points not to Azerbaijan, but the Armenian representative," she told AssA-Irada.
Khanlarova said Israel's voting for Armenia came as a real surprise. "I have been on tours in Israel many times and witnessed their attitude toward Azerbaijanis. Besides, there are many people who have moved there from Azerbaijan. Why should they have given their votes to the Armenian performer?"
She said Georgians too took an unfair stance during the voting. "We should make a conclusion out of this for the future and learn our lesson."
Khanlarova added that she was also discontent with Turkey's giving 10 points to Armenia.