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Agence France Presse
May 26, 2012 Saturday 9:49 PM GMT
Oldies take on youth in controversial Eurovision
BAKU, May 26 2012
Contenders from Russian grannies to a sultry Swedish starlet clashed
Saturday as Azerbaijan hosted a glitzy Eurovision Song Contest that it
hopes will banish qualms about its questionable rights record.
Eurovision is the biggest event ever hosted by energy-rich Azerbaijan
as it seeks to present a glitzy front to the world despite the
intolerance of dissent and opposition under the rule of the Aliyev
dynasty.
The final's 26 acts lit up the spectacular Crystal Hall built to host
the contest in barely half a year on the Caspian Sea, with an audience
of some 20,000 inside the venue and 100 million television viewers.
The favourite to win once votes are counted after 2200 GMT is Sweden's
entry, Loreen, a 28-year-old singer who performed an upbeat number
called "Euphoria" with high-kicking dance moves and a fake snowstorm.
Also warming hearts were Russia's Buranovskiye Babushki, a choir of
elderly women from a remote village who performed a song set to a
disco beat, "Party for Everybody", with the unusual props of a model
stove and a tray.
Veteran crooner Engelbert Humperdinck opened the final representing
Britain, with a ballad called "Love Will Set You Free." A star since
the 1960s, he equals the eldest of the babushki in age at 76.
In a sombre performance in a simple black suit, the singer famous for
his links with Elvis Presley stood in a spotlight on stage with a
dance duo and a violin player in the background.
The competition got underway with a spectacular display of Azerbaijani
folk dancing and a performance by last year's winners Ell and Nikki,
whose surprise victory brought the event to Azerbaijan.
The show included the usual range of the weird and exotic including a
Norwegian rapper of Iranian origin, half-naked French gymnasts and an
Albanian entry with a song solely in her native language and a truly
terrifying top note.
But the festive atmosphere was clouded by the detentions of dozens of
opposition activists who attempted to hold several peaceful
demonstrations calling for democratic freedoms in the
tightly-controlled state.
The Public Chamber opposition alliance said that more than 60
protestors were detained Friday in the latest protest and a court
sentenced three protesters to jail terms of five or six days.
Azerbaijan is run by strongman President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded
his late father Heidar Aliyev in 2003.
His wife Mehriban Aliyeva heads the organising committee and his
son-in-law, Emin Agalarov, a Moscow-based businessman who also has
launched a pop career, sang in a black leather jacket in a musical
interlude after the voting.
Radio Liberty reported this month that a construction company in the
project to build the Crystal Hall venue in a city-commissioned project
had links to the Aliyev family.
The event was also far beyond the reach of ordinary Azerbaijanis, with
tickets for the final starting at 160 manat ($204), half the monthly
income of the average Azeri according to World Bank statistics.
With political sensitivities never far from this Eurovision, the
promotional videos shown included landscapes from Nagorny Karabakh,
which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized from Azerbaijan in
a war in the 1990s.
Armenia had pulled out of the contest saying it feared hostile
treatment and Azerbaijan barred those who had visited Nagorny Karabakh
from travelling to the contest.
Rights activists have met Loreen of Sweden to brief her on the rights
situation, but she declined to comment on her views on human rights at
a news conference on Thursday.
She also did not step away from the planned sequence during her
performance in the final of the competition which is avowedly
apolitical and where any political statement would be highly
scandalous.
One of the activists to meet Loreen, Rasul Jafarov who is coordinating
a Sing for Democracy campaign during Eurovision, told AFP before the
final that he felt she had been intimidated into keeping quiet.
am/sjw/ach
From: A. Papazian
May 26, 2012 Saturday 9:49 PM GMT
Oldies take on youth in controversial Eurovision
BAKU, May 26 2012
Contenders from Russian grannies to a sultry Swedish starlet clashed
Saturday as Azerbaijan hosted a glitzy Eurovision Song Contest that it
hopes will banish qualms about its questionable rights record.
Eurovision is the biggest event ever hosted by energy-rich Azerbaijan
as it seeks to present a glitzy front to the world despite the
intolerance of dissent and opposition under the rule of the Aliyev
dynasty.
The final's 26 acts lit up the spectacular Crystal Hall built to host
the contest in barely half a year on the Caspian Sea, with an audience
of some 20,000 inside the venue and 100 million television viewers.
The favourite to win once votes are counted after 2200 GMT is Sweden's
entry, Loreen, a 28-year-old singer who performed an upbeat number
called "Euphoria" with high-kicking dance moves and a fake snowstorm.
Also warming hearts were Russia's Buranovskiye Babushki, a choir of
elderly women from a remote village who performed a song set to a
disco beat, "Party for Everybody", with the unusual props of a model
stove and a tray.
Veteran crooner Engelbert Humperdinck opened the final representing
Britain, with a ballad called "Love Will Set You Free." A star since
the 1960s, he equals the eldest of the babushki in age at 76.
In a sombre performance in a simple black suit, the singer famous for
his links with Elvis Presley stood in a spotlight on stage with a
dance duo and a violin player in the background.
The competition got underway with a spectacular display of Azerbaijani
folk dancing and a performance by last year's winners Ell and Nikki,
whose surprise victory brought the event to Azerbaijan.
The show included the usual range of the weird and exotic including a
Norwegian rapper of Iranian origin, half-naked French gymnasts and an
Albanian entry with a song solely in her native language and a truly
terrifying top note.
But the festive atmosphere was clouded by the detentions of dozens of
opposition activists who attempted to hold several peaceful
demonstrations calling for democratic freedoms in the
tightly-controlled state.
The Public Chamber opposition alliance said that more than 60
protestors were detained Friday in the latest protest and a court
sentenced three protesters to jail terms of five or six days.
Azerbaijan is run by strongman President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded
his late father Heidar Aliyev in 2003.
His wife Mehriban Aliyeva heads the organising committee and his
son-in-law, Emin Agalarov, a Moscow-based businessman who also has
launched a pop career, sang in a black leather jacket in a musical
interlude after the voting.
Radio Liberty reported this month that a construction company in the
project to build the Crystal Hall venue in a city-commissioned project
had links to the Aliyev family.
The event was also far beyond the reach of ordinary Azerbaijanis, with
tickets for the final starting at 160 manat ($204), half the monthly
income of the average Azeri according to World Bank statistics.
With political sensitivities never far from this Eurovision, the
promotional videos shown included landscapes from Nagorny Karabakh,
which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized from Azerbaijan in
a war in the 1990s.
Armenia had pulled out of the contest saying it feared hostile
treatment and Azerbaijan barred those who had visited Nagorny Karabakh
from travelling to the contest.
Rights activists have met Loreen of Sweden to brief her on the rights
situation, but she declined to comment on her views on human rights at
a news conference on Thursday.
She also did not step away from the planned sequence during her
performance in the final of the competition which is avowedly
apolitical and where any political statement would be highly
scandalous.
One of the activists to meet Loreen, Rasul Jafarov who is coordinating
a Sing for Democracy campaign during Eurovision, told AFP before the
final that he felt she had been intimidated into keeping quiet.
am/sjw/ach
From: A. Papazian