Azerbaijan’s entry 4th at Eurovision semi-final
By Nigar Orujova
Farid Mammadov, Azerbaijan's representative at the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) to be held in Malmo, Sweden May 14-16, will perform fourth in the second semi-final on May 16 after the performers of Latvia, San Marino and Macedonia.
Farid is expected to win all hearts with the romantic ballad Hold Me, composed by Dimitrios Kontopoulos, who previously produced Eurovision songs for Ani Lorak and Sakis Rouvas.
Azerbaijan will be followed by the representatives of Finland, Malta, Bulgaria, Island, Greece, Israel, Armenia, Hungary, Albania, Georgia, Switzerland and Romania, according to the website of the contest.
This year running order was decided by the producers of the shows and approved by EBU Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand and the Reference Group to assure a fair distribution and sufficient availability of tickets.
39 countries are set to take part in this year`s edition of Europe`s favorite TV show.
The First Semi-Final will involve 16 countries in the following order: Austria, Estonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Denmark, Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Montenegro, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Ireland, Cyprus, Belgium, Serbia.
The Second Semi-Final includes 17 countries, which will perform starting from Latvia. The other performers will represent San Marino, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Finland, Malta, Bulgaria, Iceland, Greece, Israel, Armenia, Hungary, Norway, Albania, Georgia, Switzerland; Romania performs last.
The first and second halves of the Grand Final will be drawn at the winner`s press conferences of the Semi-Finals. The final running order will be decided the latest by 3.00 am on May 17.
Recently, two of the most well known bookmaker offices, William Hill and Ladbrokes, announced the favorites of the contest.
Emmeli de Forest with the "Only Teardrops" song is expected to take the ESC 2014 to Denmark. Norwegian Margaret Berger with her "I Feed You My Love" is expected to take the second place, while the Dutch Anouk with the song "Birds" is predicted to be the third.
In the last ten years, bookmakers have predicted 9 of the 10 winners.
Azerbaijan's Farid holds the 12th position in the bookmakers list. However, the results may fully differ, as was the case in 2011, when a strong favorite from France Amaury Vassili finished only 15th.
Azerbaijan debuted at the ESC in 2008 and won the event on its fourth attempt in 2011 with Ell and Nikki's Running Scared song, which brought the contest to Baku in 2012.
Eurovision is an annual competition held among many of the active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).
The ESC is broadcasting every year since its inauguration in 1956 and thus became one of the longest-running television programs in the world. It is also one of the most watched non-sporting events in the world, with some 100 million to 600 million audiences internationally. Since 2000, ESC can be seen online.