Mehriban Aliyeva meets Azerbaijani representative at Eurovision
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijani First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva met on June 7 with Farid Mammadov, who represented Azerbaijan in the Eurovision-2013 Song Contest in May in the Swedish city of Malmo, the website of the First Lady said.
Mehriban Aliyeva congratulated Mammadov over his successful performance in the Finals of the Contest and high-level demonstration of the Azerbaijani culture.
The First Lady underlined that this was the sixth time that Azerbaijan was successfully represented in the Eurovision contest.
Noting that Azerbaijan's high-level participation in this contest has always been supported by the state, Mehriban Aliyeva said Azerbaijan reached these achievements in a short time, and valued them as achievements of a big team.
Mammadov, in turn, thanked the First Lady for the care and attention shown towards him.
Farid delivered a successful performance at the contest, ranking second with the romantic ballad Hold Me, composed by Dimitrios Kontopoulos.
21 year-old Farid, lead singer of the Bulbuller ensemble, studied in the class of Azerbaijani honorary artist Aybeniz Gashimova.
Now, Farid is a student of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts and works at the Baku Jazz Center.
Farid started his professional music career at the age of eight when he sang I Just Called to Say I Love You by Steve Wonder at his very first concert. His performance was a huge hit and since then, as he says, Steve Wonder has made a major influence on his musical development.
Azerbaijan debuted at Eurovision 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).
Eurovision 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.