AZERBAIJAN

The Azeri song was revealed on March 15th via a sound cloud clip on eurovision.tv followed by the official video première the next day. Going to Vienna is  Elnur Huseynov to with ‘Hour Of The Wolf’.

This year's selection process was a bit of a shambles. Almost until February no news was to be heard from Ictimai about anything to do with their song or artist selection. Then it was announced there would be open auditions for its traditional national selection- Milli Seçim Turu. However three weeks later the broadcaster announced that they would be using an internal selection process to select both song and singer.

This is a very odd song. Firstly the title  does not appear in the song and certainly doesn't seem to be reflected in the video or lyrics. Secondly it sounds nothing like "Day after Day" and shows a very different aspect of his voice from what we heard before. Thirdly the song starts off like another ballad but suddenly goes a bit upbeat and Mumford & Sons in the chorus for half of it then suddenly goes back to being a ballad again. The ending is a little bit weak.

Elnur Huseynov is no stranger to Eurovision having participated in the contest once before. He was part of the duet that provided Azerbaijan's first every entry "Day after day" - Elnur being the angel! Since then he had been relatively quiet on the music scene until his come back at the end of last year when he auditioned for the Turkish version of The Voice. Singing a mixture of contemporary, traditional, English, Turkish and even opera songs, he eventually won the series in February. This win possibly was one reason why Ictimai changed their tact of choosing their entry so quickly.

To be honest we get very few clues as what to expect on stage in Vienna. In some ways this is a very cheap and detached video and doesn't seem to suit the song at all. Azeri entries in the past have almost been famed for their use of tricky and gimmicks but I struggle to see what they could do with this. Part of me hopes that he resists this trend and the song is left to speak for itself. He will need some backing singers for the start of the song and during the choruses and I hope he incorporates these into the show rather than being shoved off to the side.

Part of me is quite disappointed with this entry. I enjoyed "Day after Day" greatly and was hoping and almost expecting something with a bit more or an edge to it but this, compared to a lot of sings in this year's Eurovision, just doesn't stand out. This all said, he has a proven pedigree of being a good singer and performer and I am sure he will give a professional and confident performance. Azerbaijan have a 100% qualification record and I think this will continue the trend but I don't see this troubling the top of the leader board but should give a decent score.

ARTIST - Elnur Huseynov

SONG - Hour Of The Wolf

MUSIC - Sandra Bjurman, Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif, Lina Hansson

LYRICS - Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif, Lina Hansson