The success of Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest, could be based on the professional decision of the broadcaster, İçtimai TV, that the broadcaster picks the song internally where the representative is selected by a long term national final. This way, the country won the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest with Running Scared by Swedish songwriters and composers Stefan Örn and Sandra Bjurman.
This year Azerbaijan decided to use another Swedish songwriting team of, Anders Bagge and Johan Kronlund, to write the song entry for Sabina. It is called When the Music Dies. The music is a ballad with a modern sound but there is also ethnic elements inside. The song was recorded with ethnic Azeri instruments, kamancha and balaban. It was also decorated with sounds of a variety of local percussion instruments – davul and ghawal. The studio work was done by top Azerbaijani musicians: Oktay Şerifov, Serkan Vahabov, Şirzad Fataliyev, Yashar Bakhiş and mugham legend Alim Gasımov.
The representative name, Sabina Bayayeva graduated from music college named after Asaf Zaeynalli and she usually performs soul, pop and ballads. As her favourite style is jazz, Sabina knows nearly 50 jazz standards. At the same time she has been a soloist of Aypara vocal-instrumental group for seven years. She sings Azerbaijani folk music and songs of different composers who she worked with.
As host country of this year's Eurovision Song Contest Azerbaijan is directly qualified for the final and thus do not have to qualify from one of the two semi-finals.
Below you can watch the official videoclip of the Azerbaijan entry:
