Azerbaijan: Ictimai confirms Eurovision 2023 participation

Azerbaijan: Ictimai confirms Eurovision 2023 participation
Tuesday, 11 October 2022

  • Azerbaijan's national broadcaster, Icitimai, will be taking part in the 67th Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, United Kingdom. 

    Despite, rumors and reports in the media that the Land of fire might not be present at Eurovision 2023, Icitimai (ITV) eventually confirmed to ESCToday that the country will be participating at the contest in Liverpool marking its 15th appearance in the competition's history.

    In the recent years the broadcaster has opted for internal selections in order to determine their Eurovision hopeful, a scenario that is more likely to be the case for next year's contest also. The last time they held a televised national final was back in 2014. However, we expect ITV to release more details on how they will be selecting their Eurovision 2023 representative over the next weeks. 

     

    Azerbaijan in Eurovision

    The Land of fire debuted in the contest in 2008 and since then they have been present in every single edition of it, counting a totla of 13 participation.  In 2011 The duo Eldar & Nikki gave the country its one and only victory with their entry Running scared, leading the Eurovision event next year in the capital city of Baku. 

    In 2019 Azerbaijan chose Chingiz through an internal selection to represent the country in Tel Aviv with his entry 'Truth', which finished 8th in the Grand final scoreboard.

    While Efendi's Eurovision 2020 journey was interrupted due to the coronavirus outbreak and never had the chance to perform 'Cleopatra' in Rotterdam, iTV decide to stick with the same act this year, giving her the chance to complete her mission in ESC 2021.Efendi flew to Rotterdam where she competed in the first semi final performing 'Mata Hari' and after qualifying to the Grand final she finished 20th with 65 points. 

    For 2022 Nadir Rustemli was internally selected to fly the flag in Turin where he performed the song 'Fade to black', which came 16th in the Grand final receiving a total of 106 points ( 103 from the jury vote and 3 from televoting).

     

    News Source: ESCtoday

    Image: EBU/ Sarah Louise Bennett

     

     

AUTHORS

  • Angelos D.

    Angelos D.

    Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.