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.