My Eurovision 2016 Special continues with Azerbaijan, who has been sending amazing acts over and over again, especially after their win in 2011. This placed 17th in the Eurovision Song Contest with a respectable 117 points. Samra sings her heart out in this catchy song, full of emotion, she clearly means every word in this video for Miracle.
Samra, full name Samra Rahimli, first ventured into the music industry by appearing on O Ses Türkiye (The Voice of Turkey) where she got to the quarter finals in 2015. She next appeared on Səs Azərbaycan (The Voice of Azerbaijan).where she became a finalist. She was chosen by internal selection to represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. Her vocals are stunning on this track, and I so hope she continues to release music because I definitely want to buy her future releases. The song was written by Amir Aly, Jakob "Jakke" Erixson, Henrik Wikström and Dom Amir.
The music video is a pure performance-based video, without much special effects apart from strobe lighting, which doesn't help to intrigue the audience all that much.
What does capture our attention is Samra's amazing acting, she has totally connected to the track. Although she didn't write it, the song has meaning to her.
The strobe lighting emphasises the chorus, it doesn't relate unless miracles come in beaming lights.
There's nothing else to this music video. Samra reminds me of me, if I could actually sing, I mean. Literally, I'd be singing into that microphone and I'd be giving the song all I've got, every hand movement and emotional face used at the artful moment in the lyrics. Samra does the exact same thing. She's singing this song to someone and boy does she mean business! I hope she gets to released more singles and hopefully an album, because this is one voice I want to hear more of.
Farid Mammadov almost brought the competition back to Azerbaijan. He came runner-up in the competition, and I predict Azerbaijan will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest again in the near future due to it's great performances in the last few years. Farid Mammadov is a new artist and has released three singles so far. This one being the most popular. Azerbaijan holds a national selection so the public can choose who will represent the country, it is called Milli Seçim Turu. And this country has been doing well since they first entered.
"Hold Me" was written by Dimitris Kontopoulos, who has written many Eurovision songs. The song is so engaging and emotional, but then the Turkish version is heard, retitled as "Bana Dönsen", and it has this sad spin on things, and pulls at my heart strings. I feel like they are two separate songs, and I can't choose which one I prefer, naturally I would go for the English version, but this Turkish version has a special feel to it.
Azerbaijan came 2nd, and it was very close at the start. Farid Mammadov got 234 points. 8 from France, 12 from Lithuania, 8 from Moldova, 7 from Spain, 5 from Belgium, 10 from Belarus, 12 from Malta, another 12 from Russia, 4 from Germany, 2 from the Netherlands, 10 from Romania, 12 from Hungary, 7 from Iceland, 12 from Greece, 10 from Ukraine, 12 from Georgia, 2 from Ireland, 12 from Austria, 3 from Slovenia, 7 from Croatia, 12 from Montenegro, 8 from Cyprus, 5 from Serbia, 3 from Latvia, 2 from San Marino, 12 from Bulgaria, another 12 from Israel, 7 from Albania and 6 from Switzerland.
Although Farid Mammadov didn't sing the song in Turkish, there is no English music video, and henceforth, I will have to review this one.
The music video is lacking the staging we had at Eurovision, check the video below, that staging is definitely one of my favourites, and if I were reviewing it, it would definitely get five stars, as for this one...
It's a pure performance piece, but I feel there are too many different scenes that lead to nothing, why do I want to see him performing in all these places, it's not as if he is touring or anything. I just think there's too much variety in the places we see.
On the other hand, he has perfect performance skills, you know how he's feeling, you can tell he just wants to be held, and it's so full emotion, I can't take my eyes off his face, it tells me everything, I don't even care that it's not in English, and it certainly doesn't need to be.
Overall the song, in whatever version, is amazingly emotional, one of those songs you'll sing along to when you're upset, and it gets your sadness out of you. The accompanying video fails to entertain me with the backgrounds, but Farid Mammadov's stage presence is fill of hurt and sorrow that I just want him to be happy again.
