AZERBAIJAN 2021

The Azeri song was revealed on March 15th, with the song's premiere on youtube. After the cancellation of the 2020 contest, Efendi was invited back for 2021 with another internally selected song. She will be singing "Mata Hari"”.

The video is rather simplistic, focusing on Efendi,who is dressed in a little black dress and a very high ponytail. The feeling is very soft focus and there is a warm glow to the visuals. She is joined in the shots by some female dancers who are dressed in a similar way. There are motifs of backlit spotlights and differing sizes of glowing lights which give it a Bond-like spy quality. There is a bit of armography that goes along with this but does look quite pedestrian at times.

The song starts with a mass shout of "Mata Hari before the atmospheric Eastern sounds in backing creeps in. Efendi chants over it with the repetitive first verse. Half way through a beat come in to help the song build. Then comes in the pre-chorus with its shameless plug of last year's song "Cleopatra", the repetition on the mystic chanting before hitting the chorus. This art is possibly the most basic with the repetition - in different guises - of the title. The beat peters aout again to repeat the cycle once again. Just before the two minute mark we have a bridge which is basically a descotrucedt chorus with more 'Mata Hari's and drumming rhythms which then leads into a short instrumental that sounds suspiciously like the one from "My Number One" We then have a shortened pre-chorus before a final chorus but the backing track seems to be at double speed and has  rather random electric guitars on it. The song finishes with another chant of "Mata Hari".

Efendi, first name Samira,  is a popular Azeri singer. Like many Eurovision contestants, she is from a reality show/singing competition background having taken part in the Azeri version of Pop Idol in 2009 and The Voice of Azerbaijan in 2016 coming in third place. She also participated in the show Böyük Səhnə which selected their Eurovision competition in 2014, however she did not make it to the final.

This is pretty disappointing. It's like they have tried to stretch the themes and tropes from their 2020 song and tried to fit them into an identikit song without it seeming like a total ripoff. I am not sure if the delegation had this written especially to sound as much like "Cleopatra" as possible OR if this similarity was due to pure laziness or lack of inspiration. I find this massively misses the mark and the last minute is a mess of sound and structure. As much as the song is badly constructed, there is no doubt in anybody's mind as to what the title of the song is ! On a visual point of view the lighting and quick cuts of the camera create almost all the movement and tension on screen.  I am starting to suspect they are trying to cover up Efendi's lack of talent, or  lack of confidence, in dancing. If this is true it will be interesting to see what happens on stage. Most people coming back from last year have changed things up or changed tack completely but this has just stuck fast and it already feels old.

ARTIST - Efendi
SONG - Mata Hari
WRITING CREDITS - Luuk van Beers, Tony Cornelissen, Josh Earl, Amy van der Wel