Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijani duo Nuray and Ahmad won the 1st edition of the ‘Bala Turkvizyon’ Song Contest held in Istanbul, Turkey on December 15.

Azerbaijan was one of thirteen countries competing in the first contest of children. After performing the song "Childhood", five-year-old Nuray Rahman and fourteen-year-old Ahmad Amirli scored 115 points, the highest results from judges.

The duet was selected to represent Azerbaijan in the contest after both topping the sms voting in the Azerbaijani selection - "Azerbaycanın sesi Bala".

Along with representatives of the Turkic-speaking countries, young talents from Albania, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Iran, Georgia and Macedonia also performed at the event.

Belarus was represented by 12-year-old Azerbaijani Fateh Hussein. Another Azerbaijani Shaban Mammadov represented Georgia. Contestants from Iran - Attila, Roza, Daria, Aylin & Tala performed Azerbaijani compositions.

This is the second time that Azerbaijan has won an inaugural Turkvizyon event, as earlier the country won the first edition of the Turkvizyon Song Contest in 2013

Turkvizyon is an annual song contest which was created by TURKSOY in cooperation with the Turkish music channel TMB TV. Based on the similar format of the Eurovision Song Contest, Turkvizyon focuses primarily on participating Turkic countries and regions.

In 2013, the competition was held in Turkey and a year later in Russia (Kazan). This year's song contest expanded age range and “Bala Turkvision” was held for the first time.

The participating countries and regions have to take part in the Semi Final. A juror from each nation awards between 1 and 10 points for every entry, except their own. An amount of 12 to 15 nations qualify for the Grand Final where the jury determines the winner.

TURKSOY has stated that televoting is going to be introduced in the future. Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest in which the winning country proceeds to host the following year's event, hosting of the Song Contest takes place in the country or region that is also hosting the Turkish Capital of Culture.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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