Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Azerbaijan's Chingiz with "Truth"...

I'm rolling to the end of the second semi-finals running order in today's Eurovision spotlight focusing on the countries and artists participating in the yearly even being held next week in Tel Aviv, Israel. You can catch up on the rest of the series so far by clicking here. And now we come to the former Soviet Republic that is trying for their second win...

Last year was a rough one for the Caucasian country of Azerbaijan, as they failed to qualify for the finals since the first time since they started in 2008. It wasn't the quality of the song that was of question - "X My Heart" by female singer Aisel was a real charmer, but it was first in the running order of a very competitive semi-final and both her and Armenia's entry didn't make the cut. This year, it appears they weren't going to let that happen again. Or will they?

Azerbaijan - "Truth" by Chingiz

Chingiz Mustafayev, who was born in Moscow and moved to Azerbaijan as a child, was chosen internally to enter Eurovision this year, with the electro-pop song "Truth" written by Joachim Persson and Boris Milanov with some others. Chingiz is already a vet of The Voice of Ukraine. The song, about getting over a broken heart by a lying lover, already has had a striking music video to go along with it...

Well, the song itself was a pleasant if anything Maroon-5 do-over, but after the first rehearsal this past week, which revealed his staging involving robots and projection screens building up to an out-of-body hologram shot, and suddenly this song is the talk of the town to possibly win the whole thing. Which I had known from the start. Incredibly catchy with a radio-friendly production built in, this is definitely going to make an impression as the second semi-finals closer. And with reliable voters Russia, Moldova, and Malta, as well as neighboring Armenia (though that's tricky), and you can be assured Chingiz will definitely not be left behind, and has a legitimate shot for the top-5. (Rating: 8.5/10)

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Azerbaijan has been taking part in Eurovision since 2008, and have so far had a great record - in fact during the years 2009 through 2013, the country has occupied each of the top five positions. Their best showing came in 2011 when Ell & Nikki won the contest with their midtempo ballad "Running Scared", with the next year's contest being held in Baku...

As for my personal favorites, Farid Mammadov sang another one of my top ten all-time favorites with "Hold Me", which landed in second place behind Denmark's "Only Teardrops" in 2013...

We've only got the last three of the "Big Five" left, with the UK, Germany, and Italy being covered in the next few days...