Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan
Artist - Ell & Nikki
Song - Running Scared
Draw - Semi-Final 1, Place 18

Eldar Gasimov was born in in 1989, in Baku. He is the grandson of the famous Azerbaijani couple, Abbas Mirza Sharifzadeh and Marziyya Davudova. From 2001, he has attended professional voice training, as well as learning to play the piano. He graduated from Baku Slavic University with a double major in international relations and regional Geography. He speaks fluent Germany.


Nigar Jamal was born in 1980, in Baku. Since 2005, she has been living in the United Kingdom. In 2001, she majored in economics and management at the Khazar University. Her insperation comes from Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys and Craig David.


Between the 15th November 2010 and the 11th February 2011, the Azerbaijani National Selection, Milli Seçim Turu, took place. Eldar and Nigar took part, and worked through the heats to the final. At the final, they were both picked to represent Azerbaijan in May.

"Running Scared" was written by Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman, and was composed by Stefan Örn, Sandra Bjurman and Iain Farguhanson. They are also the writers of "Drip Drop".


Current Betting Odds (William Hill) - 10/1
My Prediction - Pleasant song, will qualify. Placing in the top ten.

                                   Uğur!

Results of the Mediterranean and Former Soviet Polls!!!!

The results of our 4th and 5th Poll are in!! Here are what they look like -

Mediterranean
France - 40%
Israel - 21%
Spain - 20%
Greece - 16%
Turkey - 16%
Malta - 10%
Portugal - 4%
Cyprus - 2%
                               (Overall amount of votes - 83)
So Amaury Vassili from France and Dana International from Israel will proceed to our Big Poll!

Former Soviet
Estonia - 47%
Azerbaijan - 26%
Russia - 19%
Belarus - 15%
Georgia - 9%
Latvia - 9%
Armenia - 6%
Lithuania - 5%
Ukraine - 5%
Moldova - 1%
                                  (Overall amount of votes - 72)
The qualifiers of the Former Soviet Poll are Getter Jaani from Estonia, and Eldar & Nigar from Azerbaijan.

So here is what our Big Poll line-up looks like now -

Azerbaijan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Serbia & Sweden

Our last two polls are "Remaining Eastern Countries" and "Remaining Western Countries". This is the line up for those two polls -

Remaining Eastern - Albania, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia
Remaining Western - Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, The Netherlands and The United Kingdom.

Make sure you vote on our last two polls!!!!

Who are the favourites so far??

After a few weeks of knowing all of the participating songs in this years Eurovision, betting agents and Eurovision websites have been quick to reveal who they think has the winning formula to win this year.

Amaury Vassili, the
French
Representative

        

 
William Hill (A UK bookmaker) favours France to win, with the UK, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Sweden and Germany close behind. They also predict FYR Macedonia, Malta and Portugal being at the bottom. A prediction that I don't think will be far wrong!!

Eurovision fan site, The Eurovision Times, favour Estonia to be the front runner, with Amaury Vassili from France in a close second. Eric Saade of Sweden is in third with the UK in a steady fourth with boyband, Blue. Last years winner Lena, completes the top 5.

Estonian, Getter Jaani, is
one of the favourites on
ESC Nation 

ESC Nation, has a poll running for each country to award points to others, in the traditional Eurovision fashion. Since the poll opened a few weeks ago, the top three have not yet changed, with Kati Wolfe, Eric Saade and Getter Jaani, from Hungary, Sweden and Estonia respectively, changing from positions 1 to 3. The UK are in fourth with Germany and France battling it out for the 5th place.

 


ESC Today have their tradtional "Big Poll". Here is whats predicted by the European public, as to which ten countries will make it through to the final.

Semi-final 1 (participants in alphabetical order)

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Russia & Turkey

Semi-final 2 (participants in alphabetical order)

Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Israel, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden & The Netherlands


So do these predictions match what you think will happen?

Stay tuned for Croatia's profile blog, later today.