Photo Credit: EBU
*The opinions made in this article only reflect those of the writer; it is not representative of the views of the entire Phoenix team, the EBU, Eurovision or the Azerbaijani broadcaster Δ°TV
Azerbaijan is one of Eurovision’s youngest countries but they’ve already had a successful record at the contest with one victory and having an impressive seven Top 10 finishes, and thirteen appearances in the final. The idea of Azerbaijan failing to qualify for the Eurovision final was unthinkable back in the 2000s and early/mid 2010s, but alas now in 2025 they have failed to qualify for the final for the third consecutive year.
In this article, we take a brief look at their history, the songs they’ve sent, why Eurovision is taken so seriously in Azerbaijan, why things have gone so wrong for them in recent years, and how they can improve in the future.
A Brief History of Azerbaijan in Eurovision
Azerbaijan first debuted in Eurovision in 2008 and they instantly left an impression! Elnur and Samir were the duo singing the song ‘Day After Day‘ which was a rock song combined with elements of opera, pop and featured traditional Mugham vocals. The concept was a good angel fighting against a dark angel which was explored with their stage performance. It was instantly unique and memorable compared to many of the songs in this line-up, and went on to finish in a respectful 8th place.
Over the years, Azerbaijan has enlisted big stars such as Arash, and have always been determined in their early years to produce great results – hype has always been created with their entries through their excessive promotion and high budget in terms of production. They also often sought out international teams such as Swedish songwriters to help produce catchy songs for them. Throughout their early history Azerbaijan achieved an unprecented six consecutive Top 10 results during their first six years of participation, included a victory on only their 4th attempt with ‘Running Scared.’
After they hosted the contest in 2012, and finishing 2nd in 2013, they began to see more mixed fortunes over the years and missed the final for the first time in 2018. In 2019, they achieved their first Top 10 since 2013, an 8th place result.
| Year | Result |
| 2008 | 8th |
| 2009 | 3rd |
| 2010 | 5th |
| 2011 | 1st |
| 2012 | 4th |
| 2013 | 2nd |
| 2014 | 22nd |
| 2015 | 12th |
| 2016 | 17th |
| 2017 | 14th |
| 2018 | NQ (11th/19 in the Semi Final) |
| 2019 | 8th |
| 2021 | 20th |
| 2022 | 16th |
| 2023 | NQ (14th/15 in the Semi Final) |
| 2024 | NQ (14th/15 in the Semi Final) |
| 2025 | NQ (Last/15 in the Semi Final) |
Many of their early songs were hugely successful and popular amongst fans, some even to this day are fan favourites.
Why Eurovision Is Important to Azerbaijan
By the late 2000s, we were seeing upwards of 40 countries taking part in Eurovision with most of Europe taking part. With the sheer amount of people watching, it can result in huge positives for countries competing. Azerbaijan have always used Eurovision as a way of promoting themselves on the world stage and creating a positive image for the country and many believe success at the contest can mean great relations with the rest of the world promoting their music and culture to a global audience of 170 million. While it is true that many countries feel the same way, Azerbaijan especially sees this as a golden opportunity.
If you mention Europe as a whole to someone, people will think of France, Germany, Italy and not Azerbaijan, so when these countries do well and people don’t know much about them, people begin to think “oh Azerbaijan, they always do well at Eurovision”, or “I only know about Azerbaijan because of Eurovision!” For me personally, whenever I discussed Eurovision with casual fans or my friends now and back when I was at school, so many people without fail would mention Azerbaijan in conversation as they only knew the country existed thanks to Eurovision – proving just how effective their campaigns have been as to how the nation has been viewed on the world stage.
It’s not just things like Eurovision which have helped further this push of Azerbaijan on the global stage, but another notable example is the introduction of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku in Formula 1, another event watched by hundreds of millions of people. Not to mention they have had more recent success at major sporting events such as the Olympics and Paralympics which can result in more positive attention if they have placed well on the medal table.
Voting Controversies
While I have mentioned the strong results that the nation has received in the contest, I have to talk about some of the voting controversies that have affected them. There have been some allegations of vote rigging which has casted a dark cloud over the validity of some of Azerbaijan’s results.
One notable example was in 2013 where Lithuanian media had uncovered evidence of Azerbaijanis giving money to people in exchange for voting for the nation using various sim cards. Azerbaijan went onto finish in 2nd place that year and were not a huge favourite to win the contest in the odds sitting around 10th/11th favourite to win before Eurovision. However in 2014, an investigation by the EBU concluded that there had been an attempt made of cheating but they couldn’t establish a connection between the people and the broadcasters themselves.
It hasn’t gone unnoticed that ever since 2014, their results have not been as consistent which has raised some questions over the legitimacy of their previous results such as their victory in 2011.
The controversies continued in 2022 when Azerbaijan were once again at the centre of a scandal as the EBU had noticed irregular voting patterns in theirβs and 5 other countries’ juries, therefore these results had to be scrapped and substitute aggregated jury results were used instead. In these aggregate jury results, Azerbaijan scored 19 points out the 96 they scored, but even without them, Azerbaijan would have still qualified. What made things worse were that after the grand final, it was revealed they had qualified from the semi-final thanks to the jury alone having scored 0 points with the televote.
Looking Back at Azerbaijan’s NQs and Low Scores
2018
In 2018 Azerbaijan selected Aisel with ‘X My Heart‘, which was a decent song that fans expected to qualify, but Azerbaijan were opening what would be arguably one of the strongest semi finals in Eurovision history – with 19 songs being whittled down to 10, and only 1 or 2 songs were considered as a safe NQ.
In the end Azerbaijan finished 12th with both of the juries and televote scoring 47 points with each and finishing overall in 11th place with 94 points – just missing out. This was Azerbaijan’s first ever NQ in Eurovision history. 2018 was also notable as other Eurovision powerhouses Romania and Russia also had their first NQ in the 2nd semi final.
2022
While this wasn’t a NQ, this is worth mentioning because of its controversial result. While Nadir Rustamli’s ‘Fade To Black‘ was a decent ballad, and Nadir had a great voice, but in a year with plenty of ballads, it was whether this would stand out enough. Like in 2018, most fans expected a qualification coming (and they did) but what was most shocking was how they qualified. As previously discussed, Azerbaijan finished overall in 10th place with 96 points but all 96 of them were from the jury. The televote gave them 0 points and questions were raised on how a song which was clearly ignored completely by the public at home was able to make it to the final. In the end, a similar result happened in the final, but they were able to pick up 3 televote points finishing in 16th overall scoring 106 points.
2023
In 2023, Azerbaijan selected identical twins TuralTuranX with the song ‘Tell Me More‘ which was a complete departure from what we would usually expect from the nation, as this was more of an indie song. While it received some praise for being something different and was performed well, it just wasn’t memorable – therefore the overwhelming majority didn’t think this had a chance of qualification. Performing after the eventual winner ‘Tattoo’ by Loreen and before fan favourites Czechia made things worse for the twins and with no juries to save them, they scored just 4 points from the public.
2024
While other countries were often proud to send songs in their native language, Azerbaijan were reluctant to send songs with lyrics in Azerbaijani. In fact it was last seen by Sofi Marinova for Bulgaria in 2012 where her song ‘Love Unlimited’ featured Azerbaijani lyrics amongst a multitude of other languages. It was enough to make the Duolingo owl proud.
Fast forward to 2024, and we hear ‘ΓzΓΌnlΙ apar‘ – Azerbaijan were determined to showcase their language and culture properly on the world stage, featuring Mugham vocals. Whilst the song ultimately failed to qualify collecting 11 points from 6 countries, personally I loved the song and thought it was a great way showcase their culture and once again show a different side to Azerbaijan. Maybe Europe just wasn’t the right audience for the song, and it wasn’t accessible enough like their prior entries. The song later went onto become more popular in Azerbaijan and Central Asia in places such as Turkmenistan with singer GΓΌlΓ€lek Gulmyradowa covering their entry.
2025
Most recently, Mamagama represented the Caucasus nation with the song βRun With Uβ a disco-funk track with an Azerbaijani twist hoping to reverse their fortunes. This song was met with more of a positive reception amongst Eurofans who praised the catchy nature and the ethnic elements, but they were still 50/50 on whether it would qualify. The frontman’s voice was also very unique which surprised many when the song began. ‘The song itself also felt more catered to casual fans and after it was announced Ace Bowerman would be staging their entry, who has worked with megastars Dua Lipa and BLACKPINK, and with Mamagama being the support act for One Republic’s show in Baku, things were looking promising.
Unfortunately, when it came to the live performance, disaster struck. While the intro played, the singer Asaf Mishiyev faltered on his first notes and never seemed to recover. The overall presentation of the dancers and staging didn’t match the bright and upbeat nature of the song. The performance did end up going viral but for the wrong reasons with TikTok clips of the performance reaching almost 1 million views. Azerbaijan finished in last place scoring 7 points which were all from the San Marino jury. They were last in every country’s televote apart from a 14th place in Switzerland, 13th in Portugal and almost scoring a point with Estonia’s televote finishing 11th.
We’ve explored the negative results of the country looking at the songs and performances but let’s explore some other possible reasons as to why the nation have struggled in Eurovision recently.
Politics?
After Mamagama’s failure to qualify this year, 2024 Azerbaijani contestant Fahree’s expressed his dissatisfaction with the result, posting on his Instagram story translated into English:
“This is no longer a song contest, nor a contest at all! What more could we need to make it to the finals? The stage is beautiful! The performance is beautiful! The dancers had it, and so did the backing vocals!”
He went on to blame politics for having a say in the results, an age old argument casual fans use when their countries’ song doesn’t do as well as expected in the contest.
While it cannot be understated that Azerbaijan’s inclusion in Eurovision is seen as controversial to some Eurovision fans due to the ongoing tensions with neighbouring Armenia and a minority of people may base their opinions on that, many casual fans will have no idea about the geo-politics of Azerbaijan and the surrounding countries.
Just days later, Eurovision Azerbaijan had reported that Eurovision 2011 winner Nikki responded to Fahree’s calls to withdraw and said:
“Calling for a boycott of Eurovision just because you failed to make it to the final β to put it mildly, this behavior does not deserve to be taken seriously. This is the largest music competition in the world, and participation in it is already a great honor. Didn’t make it to the final? We understand… it happens. Instead of calling for a boycott, it is better to think about how to improve the performance next time to make it to the final. Constructive criticism and working on mistakes are much more useful, believe me.”
This is a much more sensible and mature response in general because countries can’t expect to be rewarded with Top 10 results just by showing up, and in a competition there are winners and losers, and some years, your country can finish in last place – as a Eurovision fan from the UK, I’m very well aware of that!
Lack of Voting Allies
Another reason why Azerbaijan have possibly been struggling is many countries who used to give them high points are no longer competing in the contest. Throughout their history countries like Turkey would give them 12 every year without fail, but also Russia, Belarus and Hungary often used to give them a large number of points, especially with the public.
For Azerbaijan’s sake and especially in cases like 2018, a Turkish jury and televote could have easily given them a clear path to make the Top 10 in the final. However, for the integrity of the contest, and everything the contest represents, it is better that these countries are out of the contest.
What Azerbaijan Did Right in 2025
Despite the failure to qualify, many Eurovision songs have charted highly in Azerbaijan’s Apple Music chart with the winner JJ and ‘Wasted Love‘ making it to Number 1 proving that the contest is still very popular and songs from the contest do go on to become successful in Azerbaijan. As for Mamagama, a month after the contest, they had amassed nearly 750,000 monthly listeners on Spotify thanks to their time at Eurovision, ‘Run With U’ has at the time of writing amassed 3.8 million streams on Spotify and charted in various Viral 50 charts across Europe on the platform including the UK. They released their debut EP at the end of May titled ’37’ which while this hasn’t been confirmed by the band to be a nod to them finishing in last or 37th place out of 37 in Eurovision, (if so then it is iconic!) but if not then it’s a spooky coincidence. The length of the EP is 13 minutes and 5 seconds, a possible nod to 13th of the fifth month May, their semi final date. The EP has since went to debut straight in the Top 10 of Azerbaijan’s Apple Music album chart.
What Azerbaijan Can Do To Improve?
As discussed, recently Azerbaijan have sent songs that while they haven’t been terrible, they’ve just not been memorable enough to stand out amongst all the other songs that the rest of Europe have brought us. Azerbaijan aren’t the only country to struggle with this year on year, but if they can produce high quality songs and have great success in the contest before, then they can do it again!
Azerbaijan doesn’t need to just send songs written by Swedish songwriters either to have success like they used to to chase the highs of the top of the scoreboard. I mentioned that in their debut attempt in 2008, all of the composers and songwriters were Azerbaijani and they finished in 8th place so have had some success sending songs on their own.
Their neighbouring nations have also had mixed results with sending songs that represent their culture, as Georgia have often been a country that have been authentically themselves but struggled to make it to the Eurovision final, with 2016 and 2024 being their only qualifications in the last 10 years, with the latter being more of a standard pop song.
Armenia, on the other hand have had success and not just with the mega viral ‘SNAP‘ in 2022! Ladaniva’s song ‘Jako’ in 2024 is a perfect example of having a song that truly represents the folk music of Armenia sang fully in Armenian but was still catchy and upbeat enough to really strike a chord with the jurors and televoters rewarding them to an 8th place finish! Many countries like Moldova have also sent catchy songs sung in their native language which have been rewarded with huge televote scores, so if Azerbaijan want to go down that route in 2026, then there’s no reason why they can’t achieve the same success.
As of now, Azerbaijan use an internal selection to determine their entrants but it usually involves an audition phase behind closed doors with a panel deciding who will go to Eurovision.
Some fans have wondered whether using the show ‘The Voice Of Azerbaijan‘ as a platform to select their Eurovision representative would result in changing fortunes for the nation. Many artists have used The Voice has a platform to start their music career including the Eurovision 2025 winner JJ and the UK entrant Remember Monday both taking part on ‘The Voice UK‘. Taking part on a show like The Voice also gives new artists training from expert coaches and gives them valuable experience performing in front of a live audience and singing on TV to millions of people.
Lastly, while the gender of an artist of course doesn’t guarantee a good or bad result, Azerbaijan have not sent a female artist since 2021, so this may be something to consider moving forward and their track record of sending women has been very good.
Azerbaijan has confirmed their intention to participate in Eurovision 2026 as normal, but they haven’t opened public submissions yet. The broadcaster has also announced that they will be taking part in Junior Eurovision 2025, marking their first appearance since 2021 proving they’re still committed to Eurovision as a whole.
Conclusion
For me personally, Azerbaijan has, and is still now one of my favourite countries in Eurovision and amongst other countries, I credit them as one of the reasons I’m a Eurovision fan as I always loved their songs when I was a child and looked forward to hearing what they sent every year.
But like with any successful Eurovision nation, they need to send songs which are instantly memorable but also accessible enough that people respond to it in huge numbers, and if they can add instrumentation which is Azerbaijani to show off their culture then even better! As well as the song being memorable to stand out in a lineup of so many songs, they also need a vocalist who can really sing well live which can please the juries. Azerbaijan have done this throughout their participations in the contest, so there’s no reason why they can’t do it again.
I think for now the ‘Land Of Fire’ hasn’t burned out just yet but the flame isn’t as bright as it used to be.
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