AZERBAIJAN 2024

The Azerbaijani song was revealed on March 15th - the music video premiere was made on the official youtube channel. A week earlier, ITV (the Azerbaijani broadcaster) announced details about their act and that the song would be released to the public in due course. Their act for Malmö is Fahree featuring Ilkin Dovlatov with the song "Özünlə Apar" (Take Me with You)

Fakhri Ismayilov (aka Fahree) was born in 1995 in Baku. He came from an artistic family; his father being a jazz drummer and his grandfather being an actor. However, he followed a more academic path and gained a Bachelor's and Master's degree in law. Then, during the COVID lockdowns, he devoted more time to msic releasing his first song "Dance" in 2022. Late October 2023, Fahree was revealed as one of the sixteen shortlisted candidates in the 2024 Azerbaijani selection. He will be accompanied on stage by İlkin Dövlətov. He was born in 1990 and has been singing since he was four. His big break came in 2023 when he came second in a special native songs edition of "The Voice of Azerbaijan".  İlkin was also of the other finalists of the country's selection process and is primarily a mughram style singer. 

The song is an ethnic ballad containing English and - for the first time in the adult contest - the Azerbaijani language. We start with a softly spoken intro before a longer verse - and what turns out to be the only verse in the whole song. The pre-chorus is where the song really starts to take shape. The off beat rhythm - which is replicated in many songs this year - comes in but doesn't really effect the song as it says firmly in ballad territory This flow is then maintained in the chorus although the language changes to Azerbaijani. This is followed by a short break accompanied by some mughram singing by both Fahree and İlkin. We then go straight into the pre-chorus but this time the beat kicks in after it has finished and İlkin enjoys the limelight once again. The beat continues under one last version of the chorus before fading out after more of the two guys' vocal gymnastics.

The video is rather basic and one will hope the delegation has something more memorable up their sleeve in May. Fahree is backed by two violinists, an electric guitarist and somebody on a soundboard/laptop type set up. İlkin's sections are filmed separately and spliced into the video. It might be nice to see how they interact on stage or how İlkin's parts are identified during the song. Bright coloured lighting is simplistically used. İlkin is highlighted by being bathed in a warm yellow light. As the song progresses, Fahree's stage goes from a dusky violet to a raspberry reddish-pink. On first listen I was a little underwhelmed: I was hoping the song would get much bigger and create a more dramatic crescendo. However on further listening this is a rather low-key ethnic ballad that has a sound and feel like nothing else this year. The shift from English to Azerbaijani is not clunky at all although I would have liked to have heard more of the melisma at the end of every line of the chorus not just the first line. Staging will absolutely effect how this is judged and being a less 'in-your-face' number means the impact needs to be strong. The song is interesting, but not immediate, and in a semi-final with very few slow ballads, it could unfortunately fall fowl of the 100% televote in the semis.

ARTIST - Fahree featuring Ilkin Dovlatov 

SONG - Özünlə Apar

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Hasan Haydar, Fakhri Ismayilov, Mila Miles, Edgar Ravin, Mado Salikh