Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Azerbaijan participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song “Truth” performed by Chingiz.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Azerbaijan
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	8 March 2019
Selected entrant	Chingiz
Selected song	"Truth"
Selected songwriter(s)	Borislav Milanov Trey Campbell Bo J Pablo Dinero Hostess Chingiz Mustafayev
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (5th, 224 points)
Final result	8th, 302 points
Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Background

Main article: Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Azerbaijan had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eleven times since its first entry in 2008.[1] Azerbaijan had won the contest on one occasion in 2011 with the song "Running Scared" performed by Ell/Nikki. Since their debut in 2008, Azerbaijan has had a string of successful results, qualifying to the final and placing in the top ten each year until 2014, including a third-place result in 2009 with the song "Always" performed by AySel and Arash and a second-place result in 2013 with the song "Hold Me" performed by Farid Mammadov. However, in 2018, Azerbaijan placed eleventh in the semi-final with the song "X My Heart" performed by Aisel, making it the first occasion that Azerbaijan did not participate in a Eurovision final since their debut in 2008.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 20 November 2018, İTV organised an internal audition round in order to select the Azerbaijani representative for 2019.[2] As of February 7, over 350 songs were received and 4 artists qualified to the final selection: Tofig Hajiyev, Chingiz Mustafayev, Leman Dadashova and Samira Efendi. iTV also announced that the selected entrant would be announced on 8 March, after the final decision of the national jury.[3]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Azerbaijan was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[4]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Azerbaijan was set to perform in position 18, following the entry from North Macedonia, closing the semi-final.[5]

Semi-final

Azerbaijan performed last in the second semi-final, following the entry from North Macedonia. At the end of the show, Azerbaijan was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed fifth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 224 points: 121 points from the televoting and 103 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[6]

Points awarded to Azerbaijan

Points awarded to Azerbaijan (Semi-final 2)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Russia	Romania	Moldova  Sweden	Albania  Austria  Denmark  Lithuania  Netherlands  United Kingdom	Latvia  Norway
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Croatia  North Macedonia	Germany  Italy  Malta   Switzerland	Ireland
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
	Albania  Malta	Lithuania  North Macedonia	Croatia  Malta  Romania  United Kingdom	Austria  Italy  Moldova  Norway
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Ireland	Russia	Germany		Denmark  Netherlands  Sweden

Points awarded to Azerbaijan (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Russia	Moldova		Czech Republic  Georgia	Belarus  Romania
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Denmark  Lithuania	Latvia  Netherlands  San Marino	Albania  Israel  Montenegro  Norway  Sweden  United Kingdom	Hungary  Malta  Poland	Australia  Austria  Estonia  Italy  North Macedonia  Spain
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Russia	Georgia  Lithuania  Romania  Slovenia	Albania  Greece  Malta  Portugal	Ireland  Israel  Italy  Spain  United Kingdom	Cyprus  France  Latvia  Moldova
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Belarus  Czech Republic  Estonia  Hungary  Norway  Sweden	Austria  Denmark  Iceland  North Macedonia  San Marino	Serbia	Australia  Finland  Poland

Points awarded by Azerbaijan

Semi-final 2 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Russia  Russia 10 points   Switzerland  North Macedonia 8 points  Netherlands  Romania 7 points  North Macedonia  Albania 6 points  Malta  Malta 5 points  Norway  Latvia 4 points  Albania  Netherlands 3 points  Sweden  Moldova 2 points  Lithuania   Switzerland 1 point  Croatia  Lithuania

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Russia  Russia 10 points  San Marino  Malta 8 points   Switzerland  North Macedonia 7 points  Netherlands  Albania 6 points  Italy  Greece 5 points  Belarus  Italy 4 points  Malta  Slovenia 3 points  North Macedonia  Cyprus 2 points  Spain  Australia 1 point  Norway  Belarus

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Azerbaijani jury:[6]

• Rashad Hashimov – Chairperson – composer
• Emir Useynov – choreographer
• Tunzale Agayeva – author, composer, singer
• Ulviyya Karimova – film director
• Yalchin Jabbarov – producer

Split voting results from Azerbaijan (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		E. Useynov	T. Agayeva	U. Karimova	Y. Jabbarov	R. Hashimov	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	17	17	17	17	17	17		17
02	Ireland	15	13	13	10	15	16		14
03	Moldova	3	15	6	15	10	8	3	11
04	Switzerland	9	6	8	8	9	9	2	2	10
05	Latvia	12	11	3	12	3	6	5	15
06	Romania	5	3	15	4	4	3	8	12
07	Denmark	14	12	12	9	14	14		13
08	Sweden	6	9	5	16	16	12		8	3
09	Austria	10	4	9	13	11	11		16
10	Croatia	11	5	11	14	12	13		10	1
11	Malta	7	2	14	6	5	5	6	5	6
12	Lithuania	16	14	16	2	7	10	1	9	2
13	Russia	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	1	12
14	Albania	4	8	4	5	8	4	7	7	4
15	Norway	13	16	10	11	13	15		6	5
16	Netherlands	8	10	7	7	6	7	4	3	8
17	North Macedonia	2	7	2	3	2	2	10	4	7
18	Azerbaijan

Split voting results from Azerbaijan (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		E. Useynov	T. Agayeva	U. Karimova	Y. Jabbarov	R. Hashimov	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	6	2	9	4	6	2	10	7	4
02	Albania	4	9	5	6	9	4	7	16
03	Czech Republic	19	21	22	2	17	14		18
04	Germany	25	23	21	18	16	22		23
05	Russia	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	1	12
06	Denmark	14	18	16	17	20	19		19
07	San Marino	7	17	10	13	7	13		2	10
08	North Macedonia	5	11	4	5	5	3	8	8	3
09	Sweden	13	10	6	19	18	15		20
10	Slovenia	2	22	2	25	15	7	4	13
11	Cyprus	10	12	7	10	3	8	3	17
12	Netherlands	11	14	13	11	10	16		4	7
13	Greece	12	3	14	3	8	5	6	25
14	Israel	23	15	25	16	21	21		15
15	Norway	16	16	15	14	19	18		10	1
16	United Kingdom	22	25	20	21	24	25		24
17	Iceland	3	5	24	24	14	11		12
18	Estonia	17	24	18	20	23	23		21
19	Belarus	15	13	8	7	4	10	1	6	5
20	Azerbaijan
21	France	24	19	17	22	25	24		14
22	Italy	8	7	11	9	2	6	5	5	6
23	Serbia	18	20	23	15	13	20		22
24	Switzerland	9	6	12	12	11	12		3	8
25	Australia	20	4	3	23	12	9	2	11
26	Spain	21	8	19	8	22	17		9	2

References

1. "Azerbaijan Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
2. Granger, Anthony (27 December 2018). "Azerbaijan: 15 Artists Took Part in Auditions for Eurovision 2019". Eurovoix.com. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
3. https://www.facebook.com/EurovisionCoverage/posts/10156179175876305
4. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
5. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
6. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.