Azernews.Az

Safura Alizada, who represented Azerbaijan at this year’s Eurovision in Oslo, returned to Baku on Monday after taking the fifth place at the annual song contest. Though Alizada did not claim the first place, she was widely considered as the winner at home and received a warm welcome from the crowd.
Thrilled by cheering fans, the singer told reporters that she was welcomed in Norway as the one who deserved victory.
"I wish you were there," she says. "Despite the German singer’s claiming victory, the audience at the Telenor Arena treated me as the winner. Upon completion of the contest, everyone was asking about me. As if I had won the first place!"
Safura said there were no singers who matched her performance at Eurovision 2010.
"Everything depends on voting. And, since despite creativity, there are political points involved here, I somewhat resign to not having taken the first place. True, there were quite a few great performers, but I didn’t see anyone stronger than me!" She added: "I was fond of ManGa, and it came second."
Germany’s Lena won the contest, held last Saturday, with 246 points. Turkey followed with 170 points, while Romania ranked third, with 162 points, and Denmark came fourth, with 149 points. Azerbaijan’s Safura, 17, who performed the "Drip drop" song, was fifth, claiming 145 points.
Britain ranked last among a total of 25 performers that proceeded to the Eurovision finals.
Azerbaijan gained points from 21 out of the 39 countries participating in the contest. Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Malta granted the country the top 12 points, while Cyprus awarded 10 points to the Azerbaijani performer, and Poland, Russia and Georgia granted eight points each. The remaining 13 countries voted for "Drip drop" with one to seven points.
Ogtay Aliyev, a well-known Azerbaijani producer and one of the organizers of the Yeni Ulduz contest, won by Safura, has told the popular day.az website that he considers Azerbaijan’s performance at Eurovision successful.
"This is at least because she ranked first among the former Soviet states. Let’s not forget that Safura is only 17. At this age, what more did you expect from her?"
Aliyev believes that the fifth place is quite a good result for Azerbaijan. "This is life. We came eighth two years ago and third last year. And now, we are the fifth. The main point is that we have been steadily performing well and surpassed the Armenians this time again."
Azerbaijan’s performance at Eurovision 2010 was brought to parliament’s agenda on Monday. MP Aydin Mirzazada congratulated everyone with a successful performance.
"This was a successful promotion of Azerbaijani culture in Europe. Besides being a victory for Ms. Safura, this was a victory of the Azerbaijani state and culture."
Mirzazada also termed Turkey’s claming second place as great success, and welcomed the fact that voters in Azerbaijan and Turkey granted each other’s countries the top 12 points.
Azerbaijan has participated at Eurovision for only three years.
Eurovision 2011 will be hosted by Germany, the winner of this year’s contest, which has participated in it for 55 years. The Eurovision finals will be held in Berlin or Hamburg on May 21.*