Azerbaijani Eurovision song hits charts across Europe
By Nigar Orujova
The Azerbaijani Eurovision romantic ballad Hold Me, which captured Europeans' hearts, has become an international hit on the music charts all over Europe, Euromedia reports.
Azerbaijani singer Farid Mammadov delivered a successful performance at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013, ranking second, next only to Denmark's Emmelie de Forest, the winner of Europe`s favorite TV show this year.
The music of this romantic ballad was written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, the author of Eurovision songs for Ani Lorak, Sakis Rouvas, Anastasia Stotsky, as well as more than 25 top hits of Greece's national charts, while John Ballard and Ralph Charlie wrote the lyrics for the song.
After Farid took the second place at Eurovision 2013 in Malmo, Sweden on May 18, the success of his song has been growing. Today, Hold Me is a hit far beyond Azerbaijan, given the huge number of downloads on iTunes across the continent.
The popular song is in the Top-5 of Greek charts, and is rising to the top of the charts in Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Hold Me is also broadcasted in Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and appeared in the charts of Denmark and Finland this week.
Farid is already invited to be a guest at various TV shows and music festivals all over Europe, including the ZDF Fernsehgarten TV show at the leading German television channel ZDF.
Farid himself highly assesses his performance in this year's Eurovision song contest.
Talking to media in Baku on May 21, Farid expressed his gratitude to the Azerbaijani people for their support.
Farid also said he is planning new projects and concerts. He has also received proposals of cooperation from foreign companies.
"I really want the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Baku again. I hope this will come true in the near future because Azerbaijan was among the best throughout the performances," he said.
Farid said he tried to show all the best on the Eurovision stage and this performance was appreciated.
He said there were no problems in Malmo and everything was organized at a high level.
"It is encouraging that our efforts were not in vain," Farid said. "It was very hard, but we tried to succeed. I hope we will win again."
Azerbaijan debuted at the ESC in 2008. The Azerbaijani results at the contest were always remarkable, as the country gained third place in 2009, fifth in 2010, first in 2011, and fourth in 2012. Azerbaijan 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.