The deputy Chief of Staff for the Azerbaijani broadcaster responsible for their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest – iTV, Ələsgər Vəliyev has responded to rumours that Azerbaijan could withdraw from the contest in 2023.
No mention of Eurovision in the annual schedule
The rumours of their withdrawal came from an instagram post from a user ‘songfestival.azerbaijan’. The post was in Azaerbaijani but in English it said the following.
Today, the Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company presented the list of TV programmes and entertainment programmes that will be broadcasted in 2022/23 season, Eurovision Song Contest has not been added to the list of broadcasts.
songfestival.azerbaijan
A rebuttal swiftly followed
As previously mentioned Ələsgər Vəliyev responded to these rumours with the following statement.
In the information we released about the new television season, we did not provide information about all the programs and projects included in the program. Because in terms of volume, information was received very widely.
This information mainly talks about new projects, serials, films to be shown for the first time and author’s programs. In the press release, it was also mentioned that all the other shows, projects and programs that have been widely watched and loved by the public will continue to be broadcast on Public TV Radio.Eurovision is traditionally an international Song Contest broadcast by Public Television every year. Public TV broadcasts this competition every year since 2007, when it became a member of the European Broadcasting Union. In other words, there is no new news in this matter. Therefore, claims about the refusal to broadcast Eurovision are unfounded.
Ələsgər Vəliyev
Azerbaijan in Eurovision 2022
Azerbaijan finished 16th in the Grand Final with 106 points. Their dark ballad “Fade To Black”, performed by Nadir Rustamli, was a big hit with the juries, scoring 103 points. It received only 3 points from the public. Furthermore this was the only song to ever qualify for a final without scoring a single point in the televote in the semi final.
