THE VICTORY OF THE ANGEL AND THE DEVIL

Wings and tails, dancing angels and devils, silver rain and glowing fire, the eternal fight between Good and Evil - Day After Day. We wonder who will sing better. The guy in white or the guy in black? People wait for the verdict with bated breath. The sealed envelope is finally opened - this unusual duo managed to beat all its rivals and come first. According to the law of the genre, the musical struggle is won by talent and charisma. A few days ago, the Land of Fire announced the names of the singers who will represent it at Eurovision 2008 in Belgrade at the end of May. The finalists of the national qualifying contest are Elnur Huseynov and Samir Cavadzada.

Packed audience and exultation

The fuss surrounding the show which was held at the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Concert Complex began long before the appointed date. The press made noisy "predictions" about the outcome of the music contest and visitors to numerous Internet forums had their own say, while Baku youth downloaded the hits of potential winners. Colourful billboards, announcing that the Azerbaijani final concert would be attended by three stars - Eurovision winners Sertab Erener (Turkey), Ruslana (Ukraine) and Maria Serifovic (Serbia) - added oil to the fire.

As a result, tickets to the national final concert symbolically named "The Land of Fire" sold like hot cakes. There were quite a few people wanting to witness this historic moment in Azerbaijan's musical life. The huge hall of the complex was packed, while people kept coming in. It turned out that there were more tickets and invitations than seats in the hall. There were traffic jams on the approaches to the complex, while the Baku police, who had cordoned off the building, solved the problem in their own way. Following the rule "no crowd - no problem", our police started dispersing "extra" visitors on the approaches to the building. The strongest ones managed to force their way into the hall, while others went home and watched the show live on Public TV.

In the first part of the concert, the contenders for Eurovision 2008 sang one song each. The show was opened by the "graduate" of the TV music project, "Sing Your Song", Elnur Huseynov, who sang the song "If You Are Never Back" (music by Isa Malikov and words by Paulina Volodkovskaya-Malikova). Then participant in the TV project Azeri Star, Aynur Isgandarli, and the group Unformal demonstrated their talent on stage. While Aynur's song did not cause any furore in the hall, the rockers stood out for their own song -simply called "La-la-la" (music by Farid Cafarov and words by Dilara Kazimova and Togrul Manafov). While unsophisticated viewers chose their favourites, the professional jury carefully assessed not just the presence of vocal talent, but also the ability to face a huge audience with confidence. It should be noted that the national jury included the director-general of Public TV, Ismayil Omarov, the rector of the Baku Music Academy, Farhad Badalbayli, the first deputy director-general of ITAR-TASS, Mikhail Gusman, the arts director of the Qaya state ensemble, Rauf Babayev, composers Vaqif Garayzada and Eldar Mansurov, choreographer Tarana Muradova and other artists and cultural figures.

Guests…

The second part of the concert was dedicated to the famous visitors - Sertab Erener, Ruslana and Maria Serifovic. As the organizers of the contest promised, the Azerbaijani final concert was visited by three Eurovision winners. Each of them presented Bakuvians with a programme consisting of old hits and new songs. Ukrainian Ruslana stood out particularly for her show "Wild Energy" - with colourful and unusual costume, rhythmic dance and an amusing, animated picture on a big screen. This part of the concert was closed by Serbian Maria Serifovic. This short haired brunette, wearing jeans and a dark jacket was clearly not favoured by the show as she continually changed her clothes. Maria Serifovic sang some of her romantic songs, one of which, "Molitva", secured her victory at the Eurovision song contest last year. In the final stage of the contest, the youngsters presented the audience and jury with one song each, and their successful performance was to influence the outcome of the final voting. Unformal sang one of their own songs called "Muse" (music by Farid Cafarov and Igor Garanin, and words by Farid Cafarov and Togrul Manafov). The performance of the Azerbaijani rockers was welcomed by exuberant young people who turned the stage into a real discotheque. Aynur Isgandarli, who was clearly overexcited on the day, puzzled the audience with her voice, which became a shout at times, and her weak attempts to keep abreast of music and dance at the same time. The bored audience was waiting for the last contender - Elnur Huseynov. By then it was already known that he would perform with the singer Samir Cavadzada.

Winners and others

The stage suddenly became orange and tongues of flame could be seen from somewhere down below, while a carved throne appeared in the middle of the stage. Music began, and suddenly two strange creatures appeared on stage. One of them had big, snow-white wings on his back and the other was wearing a blood-red coat to match his blood-red eyes. Such unexpected changes in the young singers cheered up an audience who had thought that they were not going to see a real show. As "Angel" Elnur spread his wings, "Devil" Samir sat without ceremony on the throne, as if he was not going to give it up to anyone. The musical dispute between the inhabitants of Heaven and Hell ended with a wonderful opera and heartfelt mugam. The song combining pop, rock, opera and mugam music, "Day After Day", was composed especially for the duo by Govhar Hasanzada and Zahra Badalbayli. The idea of using the eternal confrontation between Good and Evil lent an element of musical drama to the performance. The professionals from Ukraine who trained our contenders had clearly followed the well-known formula for Eurovision success - a combination of a successful song, effective performance and, of course, talent - all these are the necessary components for success at the contest. According to Inna Vishnyak, coordinator of the project to train the Azerbaijani delegation in Ukraine, Elnur Huseynov and Samir Cavadzada have all these components, which means that Azerbaijan has a chance of winning.

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation played an important role in training the Azerbaijani delegation for participation in the Eurovision song contest. At the same time as the voting, a competition was announced for the best song - a real smash hit that would be able to conquer all of Europe. To this end, the national organizing committee addressed well-known Azerbaijani composers, including masters like Eldar Mansurov, Vaqif Garayzada and others. While our masters worked on a potential European hit, the media reported that those amateurs of "cultural" plagiarism, Armenians, have decided to present another "Armenian song" at Eurovision, using the Azerbaijani motifs "Sari Galin", "Dilbarim" and "Qaragila". But before taking action against the "pirates", the Azerbaijani delegation decided to wait for the official registration of the "Armenian hit". According to the rules of the competition, member countries should present their finished songs to the European organizing committee by 15 March. Eleven states, including Armenia, have not yet done this. According to the head of our delegation to Eurovision 2008, Adil Karimli, the dissemination of such rumours can be an ordinary Armenian trick aimed at arousing an emotional reaction. Azerbaijan, taking part in the prestigious Eurovision song contest for the first time, is aiming for no more, no less than first place. So let's hope that this becomes reality.