Azerbaijan participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 and selected their singer in the national final Milli Seçim Turu, which was organised by the public broadcasters İTV. Farid Mammadov represented Azerbaijan with the song "Hold Me", which finished in 2nd place scoring 234 points in the grand final.
Milli Seçim Turu 2013 was the national final organised by İTV that selected the Azerbaijani contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The competition consisted of nine shows that commenced on 17 December 2012 and concluded with a winning artist and song on 14 March 2013. All shows were broadcast on İTV and streamed online via the broadcaster's website itv.az.[1]
Format[]
The competition consisted of nine televised shows including eight heats, each held across five days between 17 December 2012 and 8 March 2013. During the heats, each artist performed five cover versions of various songs: a foreign song on Monday, an Azerbaijani song on Tuesday, a former Eurovision song on Wednesday, a song with special focus on performance on Thursday, and a song of their choice on Friday. Ten artists in total as determined by the 50/50 combination of public voting via SMS and the votes of a jury panel advanced to the final on 14 March 2013. In the final, the remaining artists each performed a candidate Eurovision song and the winner was selected by the jury.
Competing artists[]
On 15 October 2012, İTV called for interested artists to apply for the competition by 25 October 2012. Eligible artists were those that were citizens of Azerbaijan or part of the Azerbaijani diaspora.[2] 128 applications were received and 80 artists were selected by the broadcaster for the competition.[3]
Heats[]
Eight heats took place between December 2012 and Narch 2013 at the İTV studios in Baku, hosted by Leyla Aliyeva and Konul Arifkizi. In each heat the top act(s) were selected to advance to the final based on the combination of a public and jury vote.
Farid Mammadov at the second semi-final dress rehearsal in Malmö.
Azerbaijan was allocated to compete in the second semi-final on 16 May for a place in the final on 18 May.[5] In the second semifinal, the producers of the show decided that Azerbaijan would perform 4th, following Macedonia and preceding Finland.[6]
Azerbaijan qualified from the second semi-final.[7][8] At the second semi-final winners' press conference, Azerbaijan was allocated to perform in the second half of the final.[9] In the final, the producers of the show decided that Azerbaijan would perform 20th, following Iceland and preceding Greece.[10][11]
The Azerbaijani entry was awarded one of the three Marcel Bezençon Awards, which honour the best of the competing entries for the 2013 Contest in different areas of achievement. Azerbaijan received the Artists Award, which was voted for by the international broadcasting commentators.[12]