Azerbaijan gets back onto its Eurovision footing with Samra's "Miracle"
Azerbaijan's Eurovision entries, with few exceptions, have always felt a little eerie to me. They debuted in the competition in 2008 and have been fairly ruthless in pursuing victory since then. Every entry feels lab-grown, for lack of a better term - you can tell a lot of money was spent figuring out the exact singer and song to send, and their entries always synthesize what's going on in pop at the moment with the general cheesy spirit of the ESC in a way that's a little too uncanny when it happens year over year. This year's entry, Samra's "Miracle", is no exception:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dix6XJ_Uo-w
The more minimal beat that kicks off the song is VERY on trend with pop this year, and immediately launches into some equally Eurovision-friendly instrumentation by the time the chorus hits. Lyrics go straight for heartbreak, a nice universal theme, and Samra's vocal performance is perfectly pitched. Where I think think this could get tripped up is the live performance - if that can't match the performance in the promo, we may see Azerbaijan sweating whether they'll make it to the final stage come their semi-final.