Azerbaijan was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Start a Fire" written by Stefan Örn, Johan Kronlund and Alessandra Günthardt. The song was performed by Dilara Kazimova. The Azerbaijani Eurovision entrant for the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark was selected through Böyük Səhnə, a talent show organised by the Azerbaijani broadcaster İctimai Television (İTV). Following three elimination shows and a final on 2 March 2014, a five-member jury selected Dilara Kazimova as the winner. The song "Start a Fire" was internally selected and presented to the public on 16 March.
Azerbaijan was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 6 May 2014. Performing during the show in position 8, "Start a Fire" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 10 May. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed ninth out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 57 points. In the final, Azerbaijan performed in position 3 and placed twenty-second out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 33 points. This marked the first time that Azerbaijan did not place in the top ten of the Eurovision Song Contest since its first entry in 2008.
Background
Prior to the 2014 contest, Azerbaijan had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times since its first entry in 2008. Azerbaijan had won the contest on one occasion in 2011 with the song "Running Scared" performed by Ell and Nikki. Since their debut in 2008, Azerbaijan has had a string of successful results, qualifying to the final and placing in the top ten each year, including a third-place result in 2009 with the song "Always" performed by AySel and Arash and a second-place result in 2013 with the song "Hold Me" performed by Farid Mammadov.
The Azerbaijani national broadcaster, İctimai Television (İTV), broadcasts the event within Azerbaijan and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. İTV confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest on 4 September 2013. Azerbaijan had used various methods to select the Azerbaijani entry in the past, including internal selections as well as national finals to select both the artist and song. Between 2011 and 2013, Azerbaijan organized a national final titled Milli Seçim Turu to select the performer, song or both for Eurovision. For their 2014 entry, the broadcaster opted to utilise an existing talent show format titled Böyük Səhnə, which would result in the selection of a winning performer that would subsequently be given an internally selected song to perform at the contest. The competition was initially developed in 2013 by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ukrainian production company Euromedia and aired as a talent casting on Azad Azerbaijan TV until it moved to İTV for its second season for the purpose of selecting their 2014 entry.
Before Eurovision
Böyük Səhnə Böyük Səhnə (Big Stage) a talent show organised by İTV that selected the Azerbaijani contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The competition consisted of four shows that commenced on 9 February 2014 and concluded with a winning artist on 2 March 2014. All shows took place at the NTU studios in Kyiv, Ukraine, hosted by Husniyya Maharramova and Tural Asadov and broadcast on İTV as well as streamed online via the broadcaster's website itv.az.
Format The national final consisted of two stages. The first stage was the supercasting which involved interested artists attending auditions. 80 artists were shortlisted, fourteen of them which were selected to advance to the second stage, the televised shows. An introductory show was broadcast on 2 February 2014 where the fourteen contestants were presented along with a recap. Four shows including three elimination shows between 9, 16 and 23 February 2014 selected the three contestants (who each performed cover versions of various songs) that would advance to the final on 2 March 2014. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining three artists who each performed three songs.
The results of the elimination shows and the final were determined by the votes of a five-member jury panel whose members varied in composition in each show. During the elimination shows, each jury member assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest score) to 10 (highest score) to each contestant and those receiving a total score of over 45 automatically advanced in the competition. The remaining contestants faced an additional jury deliberation which determined those that be eliminated from the competition. In the final, each jury member evaluated each contestant by assigning scores from 1 to 10 for all three performances and the contestant with the highest total score was selected as the Azerbaijani Eurovision contestant.
Supercasting On 26 December 2013, İTV called for interested artists to submit their applications to the broadcaster by attend a casting round held in the following eight cities across Azerbaijan between 9 and 16 January 2014: 9 January 2014 – Sumqayit and Ganja 10 January 2014 – Lankaran and Yevlakh 11 January 2014 – Shirvan and Shaki 12–13 January 2014 – Quba and Baku 15–16 January 2014 – Baku 250 applicants attended the castings in front of a five-member jury panel consisting of Gulchohra Shafieva (film director), Sevda Alekbarzadeh (singer), Ilhama Gasimova (singer), Tunzala Gahraman (singer) and Saleh Bagirov (television presenter). Each jury member assigned scores ranging from 1 to 10 to each artist based on voice as well as dance and acting abilities, of which 80 were shortlisted after receiving a total score of over 40. Five shows covering the supercasting later aired between 27 and 31 January 2014, hosted by Husniya Maharramova. On 31 January 2014, the fourteen selected contestants were announced.
Shows
Elimination shows The three elimination shows took place on 9, 16 and 23 February 2014 where the fourteen contestants performed cover versions of various songs. The contestants that received a total score of over 45 automatically advanced in the competition, while the jury eliminated four of the artists in the first two shows and three artists in the third show.
The members of the jury that voted during the elimination shows were: Eldar Gasimov (singer and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011; first and second show), Tunzale Agayeva (singer and composer; first and second show), Zumrud Dadashzadeh (professor at the Baku Music Academy; first and second show), Mubariz Taghiyev (singer; first show), Murad Arif (songwriter and television host; first show), Sabina Babayeva (singer, 2012 Azerbaijani Eurovision entrant; second show), Faiq Suceddinov (singer; second show), Tunzala Gahraman (singer; third show), Zahra Badalbeyli (musician and poet; third show), Dimitris Kontopoulos (Greek composer; third show), Murad Dadashov (producer; third show) and Fuad Aliyev (director; third show).
+ Show 1 – 9 February 2014 Artist Song (original artists) Total Result 1 Lala Sultan "Aphrodisiac" (Eleftheria Eleftheriou) 7 7 8 8 7 37 2 Aydin Eyvazzadeh "Pumped Up Kicks" (Foster the People) 9 10 10 9 8 46 Advanced 3 Khulya Ibadova "You Are So Beautiful" (Joe Cocker) 10 8 8 9 10 45 Advanced 4 Samira Efendiyeva "All by Myself" (Eric Carmen) 8 8 10 9 8 43 Advanced 5 Elton Ibrahimov "Superstition" (Stevie Wonder) 10 10 10 10 9 49 Advanced 6 Aishabeyim Naghiyeva "Still Loving You" (Scorpions) 7 7 8 7 8 37 7 Wave "Sarı Gelin" (Azerbaijani folk song) 6 7 7 7 7 34 8 Fuad Asadov "Every Time (I See Your Smile)" (Tomas N'evergreen) 8 10 10 9 9 46 Advanced 9 Khana Hasanova "Hero" (Mariah Carey) 9 8 8 9 10 44 Advanced 10 Erkin Osmanli "Girls, Girls, Girls" (original song) 10 10 10 9 10 49 Advanced 11 Dilara Kazimova "Mercy" (Duffy) 10 10 10 10 10 50 Advanced 12 Safa Eldar "Troublemaker" (Olly Murs feat. Flo Rida) 7 7 7 8 7 36 13 Valeria Huseynzadeh "Glorious" (Cascada) 9 7 6 7 8 37 Advanced 14 Azad Shabanov "Fall Again" (Glenn Lewis) 10 10 8 10 10 48 Advanced
+ Show 2 – 16 February 2014 Artist Song (original artists) Total Result 1 Khulya Ibadova "GoldenEye" (Tina Turner) 9 8 9 9 8 43 2 Erkin Osmanli "Lovelight" (Robbie Williams) 10 10 10 10 9 49 Advanced 3 Valeria Huseynzadeh "Drip Drop" (Safura) 8 9 8 8 9 42 4 Azad Shabanov "Señorita" (Justin Timberlake) 10 10 9 10 10 49 Advanced 5 Samira Efendiyeva "It's All About You" (Juliana Pasha) 10 10 10 9 9 48 Advanced 6 Aydin Eyvazzadeh "Pompeii" (Bastille) 9 8 7 8 7 39 7 Khana Hasanova "Dance Again" (Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull) 9 10 8 9 10 46 Advanced 8 Fuad Asadov "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" (Elton John) 9 8 7 8 7 39 9 Dilara Kazimova "History Repeating" (Propellerheads feat. Shirley Bassey) 9 9 10 10 10 48 Advanced 10 Elton Ibrahimov "Creative" (Leon Jackson) 9 10 8 9 9 45 Advanced
+ Heat 3 – 23 February 2014 Artist Song (original artists) Total Result 1 Khana Hasanova "At Last" (Etta James) 10 10 10 9 8 47 Advanced 2 Elton Ibrahimov "Ready for Love" (India Arie) 9 8 8 7 7 39 3 Samira Efendiyeva "I Have Nothing" (Whitney Houston) 9 9 9 8 9 44 4 Azad Shabanov "Whatever Happens" (Michael Jackson) 9 9 9 8 10 45 5 Dilara Kazimova "Hometown Glory" (Adele) 10 10 10 10 9 49 Advanced 6 Erkin Osmanli "If You Were a Sailboat" (Katie Melua) 9 9 9 8 9 44 Advanced
Final The final aired on 2 March 2014 where the remaining three artists each performed three songs, including one of the songs performed during the elimination shows and an original song. The show was filmed on 28 February 2014. Dilara Kazimova was selected by the jury as the winner. The members of the jury were Eldar Gasimov (singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011), Tunzala Agayeva (composer and singer), Murad Arif (songwriter and television host), Stefan Örn (Swedish composer) and Jamil Guliyev (General Director of İTV).
+ Final – 2 March 2014 Artist Song (original artists) Total Place 1 Erkin Osmanli "Girls, Girls, Girls" (original song) 8 8 8 6 8 122 3 "Love Me Again" (John Newman) 9 10 8 8 9 "Letter to Brooke" (original song) 7 7 10 8 8 2 Dilara Kazimova "History Repeating" (Propellerheads feat. Shirley Bassey) 8 8 9 7 8 136 1 "Happy" (Pharrell Williams) 9 9 10 9 9 "Alone" (original song) 10 10 10 10 10 3 Khana Hasanova "Dance Again" (Jennifer Lopez feat. Pitbull) 9 9 7 7 9 129 2 "Run" (Snow Patrol) 10 9 9 9 9 "My Life" (original song) 9 9 8 8 8
Song selection On 16 March 2014, İTV announced that Dilara Kazimova would be performing the song "Start a Fire". The selection of the song was based on the decision of İTV and a national jury panel. "Start a Fire" was written by Stefan Örn, Johan Kronlund and Alessandra Günthardt, and features the traditional Azeri musical instrument balaban (as shown in the official music video which was presented on the same day).Dilara Kazimova - Start A Fire (Eurovision 2014 Azerbaijan) / Mid.az. 16.03.2014. In regards to the song, Kazimova stated: "'Start a Fire' is the best choice for me. The melody is kind of hypnotising and the story is deep and touching. It's a bit tragic but with hope. I'm very much into the song and want to make my audiences feel its deep meaning." Azerbaijani and Turkish versions of "Start a Fire", titled "Bir qığılcım" and "Alev Gibi", were later released respectively on 17 April and 1 May 2014.Feliks Wiszniewiecki. Azeri Version of Start a Fire Presented. 1news.az. 17 April 2014. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
Promotion