Like any exacting stage manager, the Azerbaijani government has labored hard to adjust the lights and perk up the props for Baku’s international debut as the host of Eurovision 2012. But the painstaking preparations did not just involve the Azerbaijani capital’s buildings and infrastructure. They also involved the distribution of Eurovision tickets.
There's a side of Azerbaijan that the ruling regime wants the world to see as the country prepares to host the most extravagant Eurovision in the contest's five-decade history.
It's the side that features a multimillion-dollar venue, bespangled performers, and all the frothy pop that audiences have come to expect of the world's most celebrated song competition.
Later this month, the eyes of the world will be focused on a shimmering glass-and-steel building newly erected on the shores of the Caspian Sea to welcome the pop stars and television crews from the more than 40 European countries that will broadcast the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 spectacle.
With two weeks to go until Azerbaijan hosts the Eurovision 2012 Song Contest, official preparations are wrapping up in Baku. But the Azerbaijani government is not the only party getting ready for the event. Civil society activists are hard at work, too.
There are three weeks to go until the Eurovision song contest kicks off in Azerbaijan. But already an air of intrigue is enveloping the event, centering on whether a son-in-law of President Ilham Aliyev will be included in the lineup of performers.
In the run-up to next month’s Eurovision Song Contest in Baku, the Azerbaijani authorities have relaxed the draconian restrictions on public demonstrations that have been in place since November 2006, i.e. before the reelection of President Ilham Aliyev for a second presidential term.
The opening act for this year’s Eurovision song contest is a war of words. State-controlled media outlets in the host country, Azerbaijan, are assailing Germany, complaining that Berlin is behind a “large-scale aggressive campaign” to politicize the Eurovision event and discredit Baku.
