THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

 SELECTION
Following the controversial involvement of Azeri police in questioning people who had voted for Armenia in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, there were suggestions that Azerbaijan may be suspended from the competition in Oslo. Instead the EBU decided to impose a fine on the Azeri broadcaster and to stop any repeat of state interference in Eurovision voting.

Azerbaijan's Eurovision selection was completed over two shows.  A semi-final was held on February 2nd and six acts performed and a jury chose three acts to proceed to the final. The final was held on March 2nd at Buta Palace in Baku and hosted by Husniya Maharramova and Ilham Hasymov. The three singers performed different songs from the ones they sang in the semi-final and  Safura was chosen as the winning singer, by a jury, while the winning song, which was chosen internally from the three songs performed by Safura was not announced until March 18th.

 BIOGRAPHY
Azerbaijan's entry in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest is the talented Safura who will perform the Swedish-written "Drip Drop" in Europe's favourite TV-show.

Safura started to sing at the age of three. At six she had her first stage performance. And ever since, she has taken part in various competitions. She is the winner of Azerbaijani talent show Yene Ulduz which is the equivalent to "Pop Idol". Safura graduated from musical school where she played violin, though she always dreamed about playing saxophone. And if you want something very bad, you go ahead and do it. So now Safura is the only female celebrity in Azerbaijan who can play this tough instrument!

Thanks to her parents Safura started to show an early interest for fashion, too. She displayed her growing talents in fashion design while working on her very first stage outfits which she created with her mother's help.

Safura is a huge fan of the "Twilight" saga. She read all Stephenie Meyer's books. She is following all the news from the movie set of this modern story of "Romeo and Juliet" as well as the actors' personal life. She adores Robert Pattison who is playing the handsome vampire Edward.

 REACTION
Since being chosen as the Azeri entrant, Safura has taken part in the largest publicity campaign of any of this year's entrants, visiting over twenty countries, re-recording the song and making one of the most expensive promotional videos of the year. An early rush of money saw Azeribaijan installed as one og the bookmakers favourites, a position it has maintained since. The song has performed reasonably well in internet polls, featuring in the Top 10 in most votes.

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