Azerbaijan’s Acceptance and View of Eurovision and National Branding

             Everyone leaves an impression; whether it is displayed as an emotion, reaction, or action. This happens to normal people, organization and even nations. This brand, or nation brand is a, “result of the interpretation of commercial and public… interests to communicate national properties among… international populations for a variety of interrelated purposes” (Aronczyk). Nations can form their national identities by leaving impressions on a wide range of people. National identity is where a country's values come from, but they may not always align with how the nation brands themselves.

              Through my past two blog posts I have defined the national identity of Azerbaijan and analyzed their entries in the commercial platform of the Eurovision Song Contest. Azerbaijan’s national identity can be summed up into three categories of language, religion, and modernization. The strong sense of modernization comes from keeping up with its previous owners and western Europe at societal advancements. The robust language and religion come from opposing neighboring countries by standing out with Shi’ism and their Turkic language. The combination of language and religion is best summed up as culture. Azerbaijan’s Eurovision performances from the period of 2011-2015 vary in theme. They include three falling under love and two other categories. Under love they showed themes of desperation, loss, and bound pasts. Additionally, they had themes of activism and seizing the moment.

              Azerbaijan views the Eurovision Song Contest as a tool of nation branding as this is seen through the alignments and misalignments between their national identity and Eurovision performances. One alignment can be seen though the participation in the contest, an activism theme, and the modern lifestyle of Azerbaijan. Within that alignment is also a misalignment due to the other song themes present in the years after winning in 2011. Lastly, there is a misalignment in the avoidance of human rights issues, but willingness to unite for change.

              Firstly, we’ll discuss Azerbaijan’s participation in Eurovision. Azerbaijan is a small country in eastern Europe. It is generally unknown beyond the veil of the now non-existent Soviet Union. After its win in 2011 with the performance of Ell and Nikki, Azerbaijan was thrown into the headlights of Europe. Having to host the following year made them the center of attention. They had finally realized the power and outright fame the contest could bring. “According to the information from the Internet Forum of Azerbaijan, the queries on Azerbaijan on Google increased eight fold during one month after the country’s Eurovision victory (2011), while the searches on Baku doubled over the same period” (Ismayilov). This widespread participation and spotlight is a contributing factor to their interest in Eurovision. It is important to take into context what the country is doing at the time of participating in the song contest. Azerbaijan has not had the best history of complete peace and handling of human rights issues, but they let themselves be thrown into the light without fear of this. Their blatant involvement in Nagorno-Karabakh is a prime example of an unsolved issue. Additionally, through Dilara’s start a fire (2014) they showed how forward they are in action even if they are not always the largest jumps forward. They wanted everyone who heard that song to know that Azerbaijan as a country looks for change through activism. Looking for change shows an explicit exhibition of modernization. In the western eye, taking problems head on and making consistent change is integral to being a modernized country. Azerbaijan is taking all of the right steps by participating in a widely-spread program thus showing their eagerness to change and modern attitude. This is a definite alignment between how Azerbaijan acts and how it wants to be seen. Thought this is a clear alignment it has some issues. Azerbaijan’s culture is not so strongly represented in its music for the years 2011-2013. The songs themselves have deep meaning in relation to love, but through the lens of national identity their meaning is lacking. Though they are participating they are not clearly showing a connection between themselves and their performances. This disconnect between culture shows the true misalignment in their beliefs. If the country values their world presence so much then, why would they not want to show their culture through their performance? The reason for their confused performance themes is due to the song writers. To appear more western and forward thinking Azerbaijan chose Swedish writers to create most of their music (Azerbaijan). Their culture has no presence in this music besides the occasional Azeri element. In the case of Sabina Bebayeva (2012), the songwriters included a Mugham traditional singer. Adding a duduk or Mugham singer is simply auto-orientalising to Azerbaijan’s culture and gives no real substance to who they are. This obviously shows that they are taking Eurovision seriously, but it takes away from the cultural aspects and possible communication of a proper national identity to the audience. In the end, their general participation aligns with Dilara’s song and a sense of modernity, but it misaligns when looking at the cultural piece.

              Though there is a huge alignment with the modernization of Azerbaijan, the themes of songs, and their participation, there are different issues that stem from their national identity. A main piece of Azerbaijan’s national identity comes from their culture, which won out in a test of time, “between two ideological and political currents. The first current stressed the primacy of culture” (Souleimanov). Azerbaijan is known as the Land of Fire. Its burning will is a strong part of who they are. They are a people who do not hold back against things that may threaten their culture. This ideal clearly aligns with the performance by Elnur (2015). In this song, he sings, “I won’t sleep tonight” (Huseynov). This song is all about seizing the moment and aiming for change. This song wholly represents the ideals of Azerbaijan’s national identity. Pushing against the molds they have been put into shows this. Azerbaijani people aren’t those who would hold back and let the world move around them. Their language and religion staying strong and coming out on top in their location is proof of this and is clearly an alignment of Azerbaijan’s ideal and national identity.

Azerbaijan is evidently interested in Eurovision since it has seen what the contest can truly bring to a country in the sense of fame, online attention, nation branding, and projection of national identity. However, does their interest lie on the higher or lower end of the scale? Azerbaijan is in fact interested in the Eurovision Song Contest, but it is on the lower end. Azerbaijan is wary of the effects that this contest can have on their own image. This can be seen in how they avoid huge issues in their music. Each of their songs carry their own deep meaning, but some more so than others. Talking about love doesn’t put them apart from any of the other countries who do the same. Also, talking about peace, especially when the country itself is having border conflicts does not make the world believe that they are perfect. The topics of the songs clearly misaligned with their intent to participate in the contest. It is as if Azerbaijan is purposely essentializing their own songs and making them appear to be from another culture through having different writers to be more accepted by their western counterparts. Their wariness has cut them short of truly showing their own national identity and properly branding their nation. They have gone for a more modern vibe resulting in that part of their national identity showing, but in the face of modernity they have forgotten about their roots and have not clearly displayed that in their music.

Overall, Azerbaijan’s true view of Eurovision is very convoluted. In some senses their national identity lines up with how they themselves want to be branded, but in other cases this is not so. In a major part, their participation does both. It aligns with the activism of Dilara’s song (2014) and the portrayed modernity of the country, but it misaligns when their culture is not present in their musical performances. In addition, it aligns when the culture is compared to Elnur’s performance (2015) through the idea of seizing the moment. Each connection is almost always split down the middle on whether or not it aligns with their representation in Eurovision and their own national identity. This down the middle split can only go to show that Azerbaijan does not take its presence to the extreme in Eurovision, but still uses it to promote their modern society in the eyes of the west. Whether or not they have wasted their presence by only focusing on the modernity is up to the reader, but a combination of political strife and geographical location shows that their goal of a modern society is not without reason.

Word Count: 1470

Works Cited

Aronczyk, Melissa. Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Web.

"Azerbaijan." Eurovision.tv. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2017. <http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-country/country?country=37>.
Babayeva, Sabina. “When the Music Dies,” music and lyrics by Anders Bagge, Johan Kronlund, Sandra Bjurman, Stefan Orn. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzT7O3Fnwpk Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

Huseynov, Elnur. “Hour Of The Wolf,” music and lyrics by Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif, Lina Hansson, Sandra Bjurman. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcVrAFtc5YI Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

Ismayilov, Murad. "State, Identity, and the Politics of Music: Eurovision and Nation-building in Azerbaijan." Nationalities Papers 40.6 (2012): 833. Web.

Kazimova, Dilara. “Start A Fire,” music and lyrics by Stephan Orn, Johan Kronlund, Alessandra Gunthardt. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mPUMPcFQAY Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

Ninen, Michael. “National Identity in Azerbaijan.” Blog Post One, 2017.

Ninen, Michael. “Analyzing Azerbaijan’s Eurovision Entries From 2011-2015.” Blog Post Two, 2017.

Souleimanov, Emil. "Between Turkey, Russia, and Persia: Perceptions of National Identity in Azerbaijan and Armenia at the Turn of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." Middle East Review of International Affairs (Online) 16.1 (2012): 74-85. ProQuest. Web. 11 Mar. 2017.

"The Land of Fire." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 11 Mar. 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Land_of_Fire#Historical_and_political_development.

Analyzing Azerbaijan's Eurovision Entries from 2011-2015

          Eurovision is a singing contest where the countries of western Europe, eastern Europe, and a few other regions of the world gather to battle it out in a contest of musical prowess. This is a lighthearted contest that draws the world’s attention. Eurovision aims to show unity, but it is actually a political bout full of hidden meaning. Each song can carry significant meaning even if it isn’t blatantly said. Oftentimes, countries will submit songs that have hidden messages towards other countries. Using these method countries can get out different opinions, on a public platform. Even if someone claimed the meaning of a song, there is no proof as it is all subjective. These songs use strong symbolism, imagery, and allegorical themes to bring a deep experience to the viewer. Additionally, these songs are broadcast to Europe. This means that there is a language barrier, so the singers have to convey the songs meaning in many ways. Azerbaijan is no exception to this rule. Over the past five years Azerbaijan has had a fair share of these symbolic songs.

From 2011 to 2015, Azerbaijan had five interesting performances. The first three years I'll be looking at all have a general theme of love. This does not mean that the songs have no meaning. In fact, Azerbaijan shows multiple types of love including DESPERATION, LOSS, AND BOUND PASTS. Since the Eurovision Song Contest is a contest made for subliminal messages, it is unusual to miss out on the opportunity by singing a love song.

In 2011 Azerbaijan’s Ell and Nikki delivered a song called “Running Scared” (2011), in which they sing about the desperation that comes from an unbalanced relationship.

At first it seems as if this song has no deeper meaning than the love between the performers, but it is clear from the direction the singers face and the lyrics that this is false. In the opening, the singers and backup dancers are standing in unison, alluding to its necessity in a relationship. Unity brings stability and understanding, but as the singers start, they face away from each other and separate showing their weak unity. The first verse has a line saying, “I just wanna be, be around you all the time… Oh god I need you.” Ell is singing to Nikki about how much he wants her. This shows how desperate he is for her. Nikki is almost running away from Ell this entire performance. The chorus includes being scared of Tonight, and Life. If all Ell is seeking is emotional stability because he is “Running Scared.” “Running Scared” may even denote how he feels when he isn’t with her, meaning that he is afraid of losing her. Ell goes on to sing, “what I wouldn’t give away. To be [your] shelter and keep you safe.” As he sings this, he captures Nikki and holds her face forcing her to comply with his desperation. This isn’t the only song with love as its theme. This trend of love continues in 2012.

In 2012 Sabina Babayeva took the stage with “When The Music Dies” (2012), in which she sings about love and loss. This love song brings a more ominous and dark theme opening with dark blue lights on Sabina’s body and fog machines. Suddenly, lights turn on and a sea of red floods the back screen. Red is symbolic of love, disappointment, anger, and confusion. The singer herself is dressed in a white dress, which may signify purity, but not so much. At different points her dress turns red turning her into a lost lover void of the purity she once had. Sabina’s song is about emotions that come after a breakup. She sings, “I tried to keep us alive… I still wanna keep us alive.” This means she was in a relationship that didn’t work out, but she wanted to get back together. As the song continues it gets progressively more intense, which shows the deep emotional pit she is in. Towards the end a Mugham traditional Azerbaijani singer layers his voice into the final moments of the performance. This deepens the emotional effect and pays homage to the culture. This song gives off a more intense feeling of betrayal and love and is a lot less lofty than the previous year.

In 2013 Farid Mammadov performed “Hold Me” (2013), a love song about bound pasts.  This love song puts forth a more emotionally scarred theme. Farid is a man who goes through different emotional stages throughout the song. In the beginning he is single and is dancing with his shadow. The shadow’s movements are robotic as if the choreography wanted to invoke the feeling of mindlessness. A woman in a red dress with an extremely long train walks onto the stage up to the shadow. Both Farid and the woman touch the box releasing rose petals. The shadow fights against the rose petals showing unhealthy that relationship was. In the last chorus the woman and the shadow start dancing together as if the woman wants Farid’s old self. He says, “You said I was your fantasy… unchain my soul.” This proves that the woman was looking for something that wasn't there anymore.  She tried forcing him to be something that he was not. This version of a love story was more about the inner working of the singer’s heart, rather than an idealistic relationship. After this third year, Azerbaijan broke away from the romantic vibe.

In 2014 Dilara Kazimova performed her ballad “Start A Fire” (2014), a moving activism song. The camera starts in a position behind her, to surprise the audience with the voice and face of the singer. A trapeze artist is revealed and Dilara continues to sing through the first two verses. She sings, “But no one sees the bitter cold and shivering empty hands.” This represents people begging for money and people who are homeless. During these first two verses the background is a bright star. The star is the wishes, gathering hearts, and dreams of the people of Azerbaijan. As soon as the first chorus starts the background changes to stained glass windows, which are symbolic of a cathedral. Almost immediately after that the scene changes to a large city. Cities denote the development of a country. This means this imagery shows hope for the future growth of Azerbaijan into utopia. The scene changes for a fourth time into crystals. The crystals have an allegorical meaning of the precious nature of the “eager, bold and noble” who fight for freedom. Crystals are precious and rare and so is the will to fight for change. Lastly, the scene changes into a red fury, which can only be imagery of starting a fire. This song is all about the determination of humanity to make change. They build and create structures and help those around them. After singing her song Dilara says, “make love not war.” This certainly brings her performance together as a call to humanity to work together for change.

In 2015 Elnur Huseynov graced Eurovision with “Hour Of The Wolf” (2015) seizing the moment. He is paired with two interpretive dancers who imitate wolves.  This performance starts with a solar eclipse as the background. Solar eclipses happen when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, as if the sun has been blotted out of the sky. This eventually changes to a lunar eclipse showing a red moon. The dancers begin to “fight” with each other in this time of desperation. Their costumes have an external spine as if they are being controlled like puppets. To their surprise the moon turns into a bright full moon showing that a new day came and went. This song is about not giving up on finding peace. Elnur sings, “I feel brave yet scared, but I’ll stay prepared.” He’s looking for an answer and he “won’t sleep” until there is change. In small moments we can feel desperate and confused by our circumstances like the moon's changing phases. It is impossible to make change if it is ignored, so we have to stay course and not stop the fight.

According to the Eurovision website all of the performers in the five years I analyzed are from Baku, Azerbaijan (Eurovision.tv). This is interesting because it shows that Azerbaijan has a pride in their own people. This is quite representative of the country as a whole because the country holds an extreme majority of Azerbaijani citizens. Race is not the only piece of a diverse environment. In fact, Azerbaijan has had diversity under gender too. The performances trade-off between male and female performers. This shows how progressive they are as a country. Lastly, Azerbaijan lacks in diversity with the experience of its singers. According to the Eurovision website all of the singers from these five years started from a young age. Almost as if they were manufactured. Azerbaijan does a great job diversity, lacking only in some areas.

As you can see, this is not simply a song contest, but a battle of ideals and representations of each country. In Azerbaijan’s case, they use a mix of messages. Their love songs show deep emotions of desperation, love and bound pasts. The songs by Dilara and Elnur have a clear theme of change using activism and seizing the moment to back it up. In addition to the themes the strong sense of diversity drives these performances. As a country Azerbaijan itself has been through extreme changes over the last few decades, so showing their continued will to change and diversity is important. It shows Europe how they can and will aim for greatness. Through their varying performances and themes of love and change Azerbaijan has put themselves in the view of the world, proudly displaying who they are as a country.

Word Count: 1634

Works Cited

Elli/Nikki. “Running Scared,” music and lyrics by Stefan Orn, Sandra Bjurman, and lain James Farquharson. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0tlQUW5X0U Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

Babayeva, Sabina. “When the Music Dies,” music and lyrics by Anders Bagge, Johan Kronlund, Sandra Bjurman, and Stefan Orn. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzT7O3Fnwpk Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

"Eurovision.tv." Eurovision.tv. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/timeline

Mammadov, Farid. “Hold Me,” music and lyrics by Dimitrios Kontopoulos, John Ballard, Ralph Charlie, and Al Fahel. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iN3d_V7KVLE Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

Kazimova, Dilara. “Start A Fire,” music and lyrics by Stephan Orn, Johan Kronlund, and Alessandra Gunthardt. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mPUMPcFQAY Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

Huseynov, Elnur. “Hour Of The Wolf,” music and lyrics by Nicolas Rebscher, Nicklas Lif, Lina Hansson, and Sandra Bjurman. Azerbaijan, Eurovision Song Contest, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcVrAFtc5YI Accessed 12 Feb. 2017.

National Identity in Azerbaijan

            Imagine you are at a soccer game. The crowd is roaring because your team is about to score a game winning goal. Suddenly, before the ball makes it into the goal it is blocked and your team loses. The other team screams in victory. After the game, the two teams’ fans break out into fights over their team allegiance and the loss. Who would have thought that devotion to a team could bring about such violence and hatred? These differences, ideas, and homages are what form national identity. National identity is defined as a, “psychological bond [that] is usually termed ‘a sense of belonging’ (Connor 1978) or ‘a fellow feelings’ (Geertz 1963). Such expressions point to the close link established between the individual and the collective self, namely the nation” (Triandafyllidou 1998). Soccer shows this sense of belonging with its separation of teams. Those who do not feel welcome in another team’s stadium are others. “Others” is a concept denoting that contrasting groups of people make national identity more visible. Between countries, these ideas of national identity and others is much more intricate and hidden.

              The country of Azerbaijan has been forming its national Identity since they left the Soviet Union around 1936. The separation and collapse of the Soviet Union led to the independence of Azerbaijan. Not only did Azerbaijan gain independence, it also went on to start forming its national identity. When the Soviet Union took hold of the country they imposed their pro-Russian values onto their states versus allowing the pro-Turk environment to grow. In her book Tokluoglu explains, “most interviewees agreed, during the Soviet period being modern meant speaking Russian, visiting Russian cities, studying in Russian schools, and attending the performances of visiting foreign show groups” (Tokluoglu 2005). This meant that the extent of brainwashing that transpired in Azerbaijan was widespread. This left no room for growth in their own national image because this Russian lifestyle was so imposing this led to a huge jump after independence. Azerbaijan's national identity suddenly changed to a different modern take. This meant, “speaking English, having a job in a foreign oil company, and being part of international trade networks,” to become more modernized and like western Europe (Tokluoglu 2005). This completely refined Azerbaijan’s national identity making them a modern pinnacle of eastern Europe (Tokluoglu 2005). In fact, Azerbaijan became even more liberal and free thinking for a Middle Eastern state as time went on. Through this new modern era Azerbaijan created a sense of ethnic nationalism drawing on its strong sense of separation from the Soviet Union as an External significant other. Azerbaijan wanted to create a country that held the interests of its ethnic origins, and those interests themselves were drawn from the strong modernization that is Azerbaijan’s national identity.

              Azerbaijan’s national identity isn’t only formed by the ethnic nationalism and modernization; it also comes from its religion and language, which are integral parts of the culture. Souleimanov iterates that, “The formation of the Azerbaijani identity at first played out as a contest between two ideological and political currents. The first current stressed the primacy of culture and religion (société persane), while the second emphasized origin derived from language (Souleimanov 2012). The Turkic Azerbaijani language was not the only prevalent language in the country. It had other small groups and some growing English, but these were all beat out by Azerbaijani itself. The Azerbaijani language is important to the national identity because it fought to stay alive in the countries changing environment. As for the religion, Azerbaijan falls into the Shiite sect of Islam. This is a smaller sect that slightly changes the main story of Muhammad. This idea of strong religion adds to the country's national identity because it is very different from its own neighbors. This religion is another piece of Turkic culture that survived the bout of time and became the main religion of the country.

              Conflict can become some of the best means to see the national identity of any country. Azerbaijan is no different. Nagorno-Karabakh is a region with misconstrued ownership in Azerbaijan. The ownership has been in question for nearly three dozen years. The area is populated by ethnically Armenian people, but Azerbaijan claims ownership over it (Blagov 2002). The region itself voted to secede into Armenia, but it is not being allowed. Goble explains, “Armenia is Christian and tied to Europe; Azerbaijan is Muslim and tied to Iran (it is predominantly Shiia) and to Turkey, with which it shares a virtually common language (Goble 1992). National identity is not only formed through strong individual traits, but it is also formed by the traits of others. Armenia, in this sense is the strong other. With their religious affiliation to Christianity it puts them apart from Azerbaijan. These ethno cultural differences make the national identity of Azerbaijan even stronger. Azerbaijan’s strong support of its own sect of Islam gains the most attention when facing the Christian unwavering region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

              It is clear that the national identity caused by historical events, current events, and the actions of others can bring out the best in a country. These events and outside sources are what makes countries who they are. Azerbaijan is a growing country that uses a strong sense of cultural significance such as language and Religion in addition to its modernized liberal society to launch them further into the future as their own person. They stand out against their past external significant other of Russia by constantly changing and adapting to a more western European lifestyle. They stand out against their current other of Armenia by practicing their religion. By combining all of these things Azerbaijan truly stands out against the crowd. They score a goal, defeat the enemy, and the crowd goes wild.

Word Count: 961

Works Cited

Blagov, Sergei. "POLITICS-ARMENIA: PEACE PACT WITH AZERBAIJAN FAILS AGAIN." Global Information Network, Aug 16, 2002. 1, http://login.proxy.seattleu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/457554496?accountid=28598.

CONNOR, W. 1978 ‘A nation is a nation, is a state, is an ethnic group, is a…’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 377-400

GEERTZ, C. 1963 ‘The integrative resolution: primordial sentiments and civil politics in the new states’, in C. Geertz (ed.) Old Societies and New States: The Quest for Modernity in Asia and Africa, New York: Free Press

Goble, Paul A. "Coping with the Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis." Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 16.2 (1992): 19-28.

Rasizade, Alec. "NAGORNO-KARABAKH: AN APPLE OF DISCORD BETWEEN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN: PART ONE." Contemporary Review, 06, 2011. 166, http://login.proxy.seattleu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/880152936?accountid=28598.

Souleimanov, Emil. "BETWEEN TURKEY, RUSSIA, AND PERSIA: PERCEPTIONS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN AZERBAIJAN AND ARMENIA AT THE TURN OF THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES." Middle East Review of International Affairs (Online) 16.1 (2012): 74-85. ProQuest. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.

Triandafyllidou, Anna. “National Identity and the ‘Other’.” Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 21, no. 4, 1998, pp. 593–612.

Tokluoglu, Ceylan. “Definitions Of National Identity, Nationalism And Ethnicity in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1990S.” Ethnic & Racial Studies 28.4 (2005): 722-758. SocINDEX with full text. Web. 2 Feb 2017.