Tension reached fever pitch in the Azeri selections Milli Seçim Turu, with only two remaining places in the semifinal. Eight participants gave their all during the five days, trying their hardest to win that all elusive ticket to the semi. The jury was surprisingly generous this week, deciding to award two semi spaces instead of just the one.
This week’s eight participants were Nigar Hüseynova, Rolan Seyidov, Ad Gloriam, Vlada Axundova, Arzu İsmayılova, Hüseyn Abdullayev, Aysel Nərimanova and Hüsniyyə Adıgözəlova. You might remember the name Arzu İsmayılova from last year’s Milli Seçim Turu when she tried to represent Azerbaijan on home ground, just losing out to Sabina Babayeva in the final.
Each participant performed their bests to be one of the semifinalist including five shows in a week. The detailed schedule of the song selection procedure was:
- Monday: Eurovision Hits
- Tuesday: Azeri Music
- Wednesday: World Hits
- Thursday: Stage Performance
- Friday: Free Style (Participants will re-perform some of their previous song selections)
The televoting results from each day were added to the poll, which is also combined with the jury results at the end of fifth show like in previous heats. The combined results of heat six is as follows:
3 points: Ad Gloriam
4 points: Aysel Nərimanova
5 points: Hüsniyyə Adıgözəlova
6 points: Hüseyn Abdullayev
7 points: Arzu İsmayılova
8 points: Rolan Seyidov
However, Milli Seçim Turu’s jury decided to give an extra place in the semifinals this week, with Nigar Hüseynova and Vlada Axundova being the lucky recipients. Assuming that the jury return to their one semi spot only quota next week, there should then be a list of nine singers qualifying from eight heats. Azeri Milli Seçim Turu’s semi-final line up now looks as follows (You may read our previous Milli Seçim Turu articles by clicking on the links below):
From 1st heat: Vüqar Muradov
From 2nd heat: Rəvanə Əliyeva
From 3rd heat: Fərəh Hadıyeva
From 4th heat: Leyla Əliyeva
From 5th heat: Leyla Qafari
From 6th heat: Fərid Məmmədov
From 7th heat: Nigar Hüseynova and Vlada Axundova
The last semifinalist will be know at the end of next week when İçtimai TV will broadcast the fifth show of heat 8. Last year’s host country, Azerbaijan, will compete in the first half of the second semi-final in Malmö. Though this small country participated in 2008 for the very first time, they have managed to advance to the final every single year so far, finishing inside the top ten.
Below you can watch Nigar Hüseynova and Vlada Axundova’s performances in the day of Eurovision hits.
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