AZERBAIJAN

The Azerbaijan entry was announced in March 10th. The artist and the song were selected internally based on a ballot by ITV, music and television industry experts and Eurovision fans. The internally selected singer is Samra and she will be singing “Miracle”.

This is a radio friendly pop song with a ballad inspired verse and anthemic chorus. The verses of the song are quite slow and low whilst the chorus is more upbeat The chorus is full of ear worms and you soon start to get the feeling that you have heard this somewhere before. The song flips well between verse and chorus which keeps the flow going until the end.  The repetition of the chorus near the end is a bit too much and it starts to get a little too repetitive after a while. The ending is very anti climactic and feels quite detached for the end. It would have been better to repeat the first line and end on a high or slow down before the end by omitting a chorus at the end.

Samra Rahimli is from Baku, but spent parts of her childhood in Azerbaijan and Russia,  In 2012 she took the stage for the first time at the national selection for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. She was the youngest contestant in the competition and eventually came 3rd in her heat. In 2015, she reached the quarterfinals in The Voice of Turkey then joined the cast of The Voice Azerbaijan last autumn, eventually finishing 4th.

The video clip shows some interesting ideas, some of which could be brought to the stage. First of all there is the great use of lighting to emphasise the background changes between verse and chorus. There is also the fact that this is a one-take shot from start to end - something not new to Eurovision. Visually, something with these themes could look very professional. Audio wise I notice that the chorus is VERY backing singer heavy, suggesting that she needs a fair bit of help to see it through. I also wonder if she will be able to start the song off sharp enough and with enough confidence to drive it home. I don’t think it’s a bad song but there is nothing particularly special about it. I also feel that some people will find it too earworm-y and too repetitive. This song leaves me wondering who would vote for it. I would suggest this will do OK in the semi – around 7th – but do marginally better in the final – around the 10th place mark. If it didn’t qualify it would not surprise me, if it won it would not surprise me.

  

ARTIST – Samra

SONG – Miracle

MUSIC – Amir Aly Jakob “Jakke” Erixson Henrik Wikström

LYRICS – Amir Aly Jakob “Jakke” Erixson Henrik Wikström