The Azerbaijani national final for the ESC 2010 was held on March 2 in Buta Palace in Baku. Before the final there was a semi-final of which three acts went on to the final. The singers performed different songs from the ones they sang in the semi-final. The winning singer was chosen by an "expert" jury, while the winning song was not announced until March 18. Safura Alizadeh was chosen to represent Azerbaijan with the song Drip Drop. At the ESC Safura came 5th.
Safura Alizadeh (September 20, 1992, Baku) is an Azerbaijani singer and saxophonist. Safura began singing when she was very young and made her first stage appearance at age 6. In the course of her career, she sang in children's bands Sharg Ulduzlari and Bulbullar. Alizadeh took up violin lessons at the Baku Musical School No 2 but later also learned to play the piano and the saxophone. She became the winner of the national contest Yeni Ulduz. Since the eighth grade Safura has been studying at the school no. 23 in Baku.
Safura has signed a five-year contract with the Swedish record company Euteria. Her first album, It's My War, was released in June 2010 and had a success around Europe. Drip Drop was the first single released from It's My War.
Marianne Krupicka, better known by her stage name Marianne Mendt (September 29 1945 Vienna) is an Austrian jazz singer and actress.
Marianne started singing in jazz clubs and played bass with the group the Internationals. In 1970 she was noticed by talent-spotter Gerhard Bronner who also wrote her first hit Wie A Glock'n, which was used as the theme tune for a television drama. Marianne published several Austrian versions of well-known jazz and pop songs like Mercy Mercy Mercy, Spinning Wheel and Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.
In 1971, Marianne was chosen by broadcaster ORF to represent Austria with the song Musik at the 16th Eurovision Song Contest, held in Dublin. It marked Austria's return to the ESC following a two-year absence. Musik is the only song performed at the ESC to date in the Viennese German dialect. The song Musik came 16th out of the 18 entries after a somewhat nervous and hesitant performance from Marianne.
Marianne combined her singing career with acting in productions at the large Vienna theaters. In the 1990s, Marianne's acting career came to the fore, notably in the role of Gitti Schimek in TV drama Kaisermühlen Blues which ran from 1992 until 2000.
Marianne Mendt remains an active performer, regularly appearing at concerts and jazz festivals in Austria.
Marcos Gómez Llunas (born September 19, 1971, Madrid) is a Spanish singer-songwriter who has been very successful in southern Europe and Latin America.
Marcos, son of Spanish musician Dyango, released his self-titled first album in 1993. He recorded several successful singles and in 1995, in Paraguay, he won the OTI Song Festival for Spain with the song Eres Mi Debilidad.
In 1997, Marcos Llunas was chosen internally by broadcaster TVE as the Spanish representative for the 42nd Eurovision Song Contest with his song Sin Rencor. At the contest, held in Dublin, Sin Rencor finished in 6th place of the 25 entries.
In the years following his Eurovision appearance, Marcos recorded in Portuguese and Catalan in addition to Spanish, and became particularly successful in Latin America. His most recent album, a career retrospective, was released in 2004 and he has been inactive as a recording artist since, although he has appeared as a judge on Spanish television talent shows.
Feminnem is a girl group from Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina and consists of Neda Parmać, Pamela Ramljak and Nika Antolos. In 2007 Nika joined the Feminnem to replace Ivana Marić who left the group to start a solo career.
Ivana and Pamela are from Bosnia & Herzegovima while Neda and Nika are Croatian.
The group formed in 2004, following the appearance of the three original members, on Hrvatski Idol. Their first single, Volim Te Mrzim Te, was a big hit in the Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia and Macedonia.
In 2005 Feminnem took part in the Bosnian national final for the ESC. In the Bosnian pre-selection there was a tie at the end of the voting, the "expert" jury vote took precedence so Feminnem won with the song Zovi. At the ESC they sang the English version, Call Me, which finished 14th.
In 2007 Feminnem tried to represent Croatia at the ESC in Helsinki with the song Navika. They came only 9th in the Croatian national final, Dora.
In 2009 they tried again to represent Croatia at the ESC but they came 3rd with the song Poljupci U Boji.
Feminnem took part at the Croatian national final for the third time in 2010, hoping to represent the country at the ESC in Oslo with their song Lako Je Sve. They finished only fourth in the semi-final, but they went on to win the final, receiving maximum points from both the jury and the telephone voters. At the ESC they stranded very unexpectedly in the semi-finals.
In 2009, the national final was allready planned to be held by the Azerbaijani broadcaster ITV. However, after the quality of the entries was deemed poor, ITV decided to organize an internal selection.
On January 17 it was revealed that Aysel Teymurzadeh, a 19 year old R&B singer, was selected to represent Azerbaijan at the ESC 2009 in Moscow. She was selected by a 7-member jury appointed by ITV. A few days later it was announced that the same jury unanimously chose the song Always written by and performed as a duet with Iranian/Swedish singer Arash.
As part of their promo tour, Aysel and Arash visited Slovenia, Romania and Sweden. At the ESC they came 3rd.
Aysel Teymurzadeh (April 25, 1989, Baku) is an Azerbaijani pop and R&B singer. Aysel started to sing at the age of 4 and the piano became her passion since childhood. Aysel graduated from the Intellect Lyceum and attended Texas High School in 2005-2006. Within days after her arrival in the USA, she signed up for the local choir. In 2005 Aysel participated in the talent show Yeni Ulduz.
After the ESC Aysel toured Europe with Arash and together they released an album.
Arash Labaf (April 23, 1977, Tehran)is an Iranian/Swedish singer, dancer, entertainer and producer. At the age of 10 Arah and his family moved to Sweden where he became interested in music. His debut album in 2005 was very popular in Azerbaijan, Turkey,Sweden, Russia, Slovenia, Greece and Poland. Arash had many hits all over Europe and colloborated with many famous artists. Since 2005 he released 3 succesful albums and many hit singles.
After the German victory in 2010, I posted an item about every German participation at the ESC. This year I'll do the same about every Azerbaijani contribution at the ESC, starting with 2008.
The first ever Azebaijani pre-selection for the ESC was held at the Heydar Aliyev Palace in Baku. The winner was chosen by an "expert" jury. Elnur Hüseynov and Samir Javadzadeh were chosen by the jury to represent Azerbaijan at the ESC with the song Day After Day, which came 8th in the Grand Final
Samir Javadzadeh (April 16, 1980, Baku) is an Azerbaijani pop singer. He graduated from university with a degree in business in 2002. After serving in the army for a year, he became a member of the pop band Sheron for the next three years and eventually started pursuing a solo career. In 2008 he was chosen to sing the Azerbaijani entry at the ESC together with Elnur.
Originally, Samir Javadzadeh was not named among those who competed to represent Azerbaijan at the ESC. The jury chose Elnur Hüseynov and it was then revealed that the song Day After Day would be performed as a duet by Elnur and Samir. In an interview following the decision, one of the coordinators of the contest (and author of the lyrics of Day After Day) Zahra Badalbeyli stated that it was not contrary to the contest rules for Elnur Hüseynov to invite another performer or more to sing with him, and that it was his and Samir's mutual agreement to perform Day After Day in a duet.
Elnur Hüseynov (March 3, 1987, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan) is an Azerbaijani pop singer.
At age 5, Elnur was admitted to a music school for gifted children where he was trained as a piano player. In 1999, the family moved to Baku, Azerbaijan, where Elnur studied at a medical school and graduated with a degree in dentistry. In 2004 he graduated from the Asaf Zeynally College of Music and took up some hairstylist courses. He worked shortly at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and with the choir group of the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Society, in addition to singing in a church choir.
In 2003, he received first prize in the musical competition Sing Your Song aired on Azerbaijan's Lider TV. In 2008, he was selected to represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Following the contest, the duo split. In December 2009, Elnur Hüseynov announced his intention to move permanently to Ukraine to further pursue his musical career.In June 2010, Elnur performed the part of Phoebus in the musical Notre-Dame de Paris, which was staged in Heydar Aliyev Palace. In October 2010, he submitted an application to represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 but did not compete in the semifinals, with the exception of making a cameo appearance in one of the performances of the semifinalist Diana Hajiyeva.
Fabrizio Faniello (April 27, 1981) is a Maltese pop singer.
Fabrizio discovered his passion for music at an early age. His teacher advised him to take music lessons but Fabrizio, at that time, was interested in playing soccer. In 1997 he played for one year in Turin. When he was 16, Fabrizio chose to have a career in music and returned to Malta. In the meantime he released 3 successful album and several singles which were very successful in Malta. Fabrizio also had a couple of hits in Sweden an Germany. Fabrizio is mainly known for light Europop music, but his willingness to experiment outside of conventional song structures, including forays into harsh noise, have been met with critical acclaim.
In 2001 Fabrizio represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Another Summer Night which came 9th and in 2006 he represented Malta once again at the ESC but this time he came only 24th with the song I Do.
Fabrizio participated many times in the Maltese pre-selections for the ESC:
1998: More Than Just A Game, 2nd
1999: Thankful For Your Love, 8th
2000: Change Of Heart, 2nd
2001: Another Summer Night, 1st
2004: Did I Ever Tell You,3rd
2005: Don't Tell It, 12th
2006: I Do, 1st
2011: No Surrender, 4th
The Azerbaijani national final for the ESC 2010 was held on March 2 in Buta Palace in Baku. Before the final there was a semi-final of which three acts went on to the final. The singers performed different songs from the ones they sang in the semi-final. The winning singer was chosen by an "expert" jury, while the winning song was not announced until March 18. Safura Alizadeh was chosen to represent Azerbaijan with the song Drip Drop. At the ESC Safura came 5th.
