Report Card: Azerbaijan at Eurovision in the 2020s

aussievision
3 minutes ago
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With five Eurovision Song Contests completed this decade, how is each nation faring?

In an ongoing series, the Aussievision team will rate the performance of each Eurovision nation in alphabetical order.

We’ll look back at their results from 2021 to 2025, their qualification record, give our team’s rating, and see how they stack up against other countries.

Azerbaijan's Eurovision results of the 2020s

2021: Efendi – Mata Hari : 20th in the Grand Final
2022: Nadir Rustamli – Fade to Black : 16th in the Grand Final
2023: TuralTuranX – Tell Me More : 14th in Semi-Final 1 (Did not qualify)
2024: Fahree feat. Ilkin Dovlatov – Özünlə apar : 14th in Semi-Final 1 (Did not qualify)
2025: Mamagama – Run With U : 15th in Semi-Final 1 (Did not qualify)

Top 10s: 0%
Qualifications: 40%

Team rating of Azerbaijan: 32.5%

We asked the Aussievision team to rate Azerbaijan's Eurovision 2020s entries on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 10 (highest).

This gave us an average overall score from the 12 contributors who voted. We then converted that into a percentage.

Azerbaijan's score was: 32.5%

The scores ranged from 2/10 to 7/10, with five team members scoring 3/10.

Team comments

Since 2022 they've insisted on sending the exact same, bland entry in different shades of beige. Try something new Azerbaijan because it's clearly not working. ~ Liv

The one thing that stops me giving Azerbaijan a 1 is that I will give them credit for pivoting towards trying to use local Azeri artists with their own material rather than just hiring foreign songwriters each year. Unfortunately, the results speak for themselves. Indeed, Azerbaijan's results perhaps show why so many countries with relatively small music industries do reach for foreign songwriters so much. Even when I have enjoyed Azeri songs this decade (as was the case for the twins in 2023 or Mamagama this year), they feel aggressively uncompetitive and are often staged horribly to boot. There's clearly a talent pool to pull from - but there appears to be no consideration of what would work in a Eurovosion setting. Really disappointing. ~ Craig

I gave that rating because three consecutive non-qualifications is not a good look for a country that was once perfect from their debut until the mid-2010s. I thought 2018 was a one-off because of the closeness of the vote at that time, but the mid-2020s proved that it needed a complete overhaul of the artist selection and the song selection. If they can't improve on that, chances are that Azerbaijan might withdraw five to ten years from now. ~ John Christian

You would expect a country of over 10 million people to perform better at Eurovision than Azerbaijan (for context, Sweden’s population is a similar size). Efendi’s Mata Hari was the bright spot in a run of otherwise very dull, forgettable entries. And when a song that came 20th in the final is the highlight of the decade (yes one did better but that had zero televote points) and the country in question doesn’t have the limited amount of talent or resources to justify it, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Some other countries have had a similar fall from grace - remember Greece’s run of poor results in the 2010s? Azerbaijan needs to remember what has brought them fantastic results in the past and try to bring something to Eurovision that’s memorable for the right reasons. ~ Laura

No surprises that I’ve given Azerbaijan a decent vote. Three of these songs I really love so how could I not. Since they’ve steered away from the manufactured pop, they’ve tried a bit of everything to get their mojo back but nothing seems to be working for them! ~ Hayley

Azerbaijan seems to be going through an identity crisis at Eurovision in the 2020’s. It seems to have lost its way with the high energy numbers that made it distinctive in the previous decade. There are some decent songs amongst this decade that seem to be lost with complex, obscure staging. I think to summarise the land of fire which was once ablaze has begun to be extinguished. ~ Tim

I greatly appreciate Azerbaijan, even when they flop. In a sea of Eurovision entries where you can see the calculated moves designed to manufacture mass appeal, Azerbaijan stands apart relentlessly offering us songs squarely in their country’s own taste parameters. I adore Özünlə apar - it’s a shame it didn’t quite translate from studio to stage. But what a tune. And Mata Hari’s 20th placing in 2021 was criminal. Run With U? I don’t know her. ~ Troy

Despite two qualifications (one with zero public points, might I add), Azerbaijan deserves my low score. This one-time powerhouse of Eurovision, who only missed qualifying once until 2023, has had quite the fall from grace. They haven't just missed qualifying three times in a row; they have done terribly in the semi-finals. Mid songs that lack impact in a competition, terrible execution of staging for the disaster they have become. They have the resources and know-how to turn it around, and I hope they find a way. When I get sad about Australia's record in the 2020s, I just think of Azerbaijan and feel a little better. ~ Dale

Updated rankings:

Here’s how the leaderboard looks so far in our 2020s Report Card series:

1st: Austria - 71.4%

2nd: Armenia - 70.8%

3rd: Albania - 67.5%

4th: Australia - 45.4%

5th: Azerbaijan - 32.5%

We'll see how they rank against other nations in the coming days and weeks.

For continued updates on all Eurovision Song Contest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Threads, Bluesky and Instagram. All the links can be found at: https://linktr.ee/aussievisionnet

How would you rate Azerbaijan at Eurovision in the 2020s?