AZERBAIJAN

The Azeri entry was released on March 11th in the form of the official video. Back in November it was announced that Dihaj (Diana Hajiyeva) had been internally selected and that her song would be unveiled at a later date. 
Her song is called “Skeletons”.

The video is very dark and mysterious and at some points feels quite detached from the song. Dihaj is sat in a café/bar and is then driven through the woods to a dark, undisclosed location. On the way, she keeps looking at her hand which at lines become like x-rays and you can see her bones. Once in the woods she is confronted by flashing TV screen which show videos of her in a Big Brother-esque way. Also by the end she looks quite dark and menacing in her slicked hair, goth make up and long bac trench coat. I could imagine the images of x-rays being a good motif for a stage show but very confusing nonetheless.

The song starts off with a nervy industrial, synthy and blocky backing track. The verses have a very clear tune and Dihaj can reach the notes and sing the song with good diction on the recording. When the song reaches the chorus is gets far too messy. Her diction is caught out a bit and you cannot always pick out her voice from the track, especially as the backing singers are singing something slightly different and Dihaj gets washed out. That said the lyrics of the chorus is much more interesting than the verses. The chorus comes into its own at the end of the song when different parts of the song are sung at different times at different pitches and the whole thing feels really atmospheric, although the actual end is very weak and limp.

I like this song and I also like the feeling and story the song brings but I think there needs to be a lot of work to make it Eurovision ready. First, they need to sort out the levels of the singers on the track. If the singers are going to be singing different things, especially in the first renditions of the chorus, they need to give Dihaj more prominence or minimise what the backing singers sing. Secondly they need to have a clear visual. I quite like the menacing goth look she has near the end of the song – giving her a clear ‘character’ would really make her stand out. Azerbaijan have never failed to qualify since they joined the contest and looking at the first half of semi 1 this song is quite individual but they have a lot of songs to compete against in the second half. Would the ‘indie’ vote prefer this or Latvia I wonder...? Although I think this should qualify, I have a feeling that like the last couple of Azeri qualifiers this will be right on the bubble.

ARTIST - Dihaj

SONG - Skeletons

MUSIC - Isa Melikov, Sandra Bjurman

LYRICS - Isa Melikov, Sandra Bjurman