A TICKET TO EUROVISION

A talented singer with a strong voice, Sabina Babayeva, will represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Baku in May this year. By the way, 32-year-old Sabina has been taking part in the national selection round for several years - this time luck smiled at her.

The final gala concert was held at the Heydar Aliyev Palace. The beginning of the concert pleasantly surprised the viewers: the long-time presenters, Leyla Quliyeva, Husniyya Maharramova and Kamran Quliyev, performed an exciting mix dance, thus entertaining the audience. The guests especially liked the dance number with elements of Michael Jackson's famous "moonwalk".

But the participants in the national selection round for Eurovision-2012 were to surprise everyone not with dances, but strong voices. In any case, the voices of some of them left much to be desired.

Each of the five participants performed three songs in Azerbaijani and foreign languages. Orxan Karimli - an absolute favourite of the vote both among the audience and the jury in the penultimate selection round - has a beautiful voice, of course. But the guy did not have the "spark" that can "lighten" and lead the fans.

The 17-year-old student from Barnaul, Elton Ibrahimov, conquered the audience with the pleasant tone of his voice, good choice of the repertoire and rock and roll.

Faqan Safarov, who once took second place in the popular TV show Azeri Star, was also up to the mark.

But 17-year-old Arzu Ismayilova clearly failed. Her boring performance and inability to stand on the stage made the young singer an outsider in the final.

Sabina Babayeva, who has totally changed over the past few months, looked confident and relaxed. Her long-term experience of performing on various stages of the world came in handy... The singer conquered the audience and the jury with her strong voice. Sabina had participated in all national selection rounds for four years. She is the winner of the first prize in the nomination for the best foreign song in the contest "The Wave" in 1999, the winner of the Golden Hit-99 international contest of young singers, as well as several other contests.

The competent jury, which consisted of the director general of Public TV, Ismayil Omarov; the people's artists Faiq Sucaddinov, Rafiq Babayev, Zulfiya Xanbabayeva; the honoured artist Tunzala Agayeva; the musicologist and professor Zumrud Dadaszada and a representative of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Manzar Nuraliyeva, made their choice in favour of the audience's favourite Sabina Babayeva.

The final gala concert at the Heydar Aliyev Palace was also attended by the representatives of Turkey and Malta in Eurovision-2012, Can Bonomo and Kurt Calleja, participants in the past contests Safura Alizada, Nigar Camalzada and Eldar Qasimov. Bakuvians and visitors to the city can also listen to the excellent performance of the distinguished artists and singers, Anar Susali, Tayyar Bayramov, Aynur Isgandarli and Arzu Aliyeva.

The date for the commencement of ticket sales for the semifinals and the final to be held in May this year, as well as their cost will be announced in the coming days. The cost of the tickets will be determined by Public Television and the organizations responsible for selling and distributing the tickets. Since the song contest is a mass event, the price will be calculated not only for high-income people, but also for people with an average budget.

Montenegro, Iceland, Moldova, Cyprus, Romania, Albania, Austria, Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Latvia, San Marino, Switzerland, Finland, Israel, Greece, Ireland and Hungary will take part in the first semifinal to be held in our capital city on 22 May.

The remaining 19 countries - Serbia, Sweden, Georgia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Macedonia, Estonia, Belarus, Turkey, Malta, Slovakia, Croatia, Norway, Ukraine, Armenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina - will perform in the second semifinal on 24 May. The final of Eurovision will be held on 26 May. According to the rules of the contest, five countries - Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Spain - and last year's winner Azerbaijan will take part directly in the final.

The venue for the future festival has already been made public. Eurovision 2012 will take place at the Baku Crystal Hall, which will be commissioned in April. By the way, the new concert hall is designed for about 25,000 spectators. For comparison, the stadium in Oslo, where the Eurovision 2010 Song Contest was held, could seat 4,000 people, and the one in D?sseldorf - 10,000. On the territory of the Baku Crystal Hall, there will also be a hall for press conferences, Euroclub and Eurovillage. Guests and participants will travel in the city in special shuttle buses. Fifty of these vehicles have already been delivered, and an additional 100 buses will appear in Baku in late March. According to the Minister of Youth and Sports Azad Rahimov, the recruitment of professional drivers, who are required to speak English, has already been announced.

Eurovision headquarters have been opened at the Baku Business Centre. We already know that at the time of the show, a museum dedicated to the song contest and a press centre, which will work throughout the contest, will open here. The business centre also has special rooms for press conferences.

As previously reported, another partner of Eurovision-2012 in Baku is the German company Brainpool GmbH, which will deal with production issues related to the contest. According to the executive producer of Eurovision-2012, Adil Karimli, the choice was made in favour of this company because it demonstrated exemplary work at last year's contest in Germany.