Azerbaijan takes 2nd place at 'Eurovision-2013' - PHOTOS - VIDEO

Azerbaijan`s representative Farid Mammadov has taken the second place in the “Eurovision-2013” song contest in Malmö with 234 points.

The highest voting points - 12 points came to Azerbaijan from Austria, Israel, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, Malta, Greece, Montenegro, Lithuania and Georgia.

The winner of the contest was Emmelie de Forest from Denmark who stormed to victory with 281 points.

Representative of Ukraine Zlata Ognevich with “Gravity” song took the third place with 214 votes.
The final outcome was decided by a 50:50 split between professional juries and televoting from all 39 participants. The jury votes were decided during the Jury Final last night and the televotes decided during tonight's show. The 26 finalists were made up of 20 qualifiers from the first and second Semi-Finals held on the 14th and 16th of May and six automatic qualifiers including the Big 5 countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the host country Sweden.

Farid Mammadov was born in Baku to Asif Mammadov, a professional judoka and amateur rock musician, and Maya Mammadova, a silver-winning Soviet gymnast. Farid Mammadov is currently a student of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts. He works for the Baku Jazz Centre.

Since childhood, Mammadov sang in the Bulbul ensemble managed by Aybaniz Hashimova. For a long time he was a soloist of this ensemble. He has been interested in soul and jazz since age 8 and cites Stevie Wonder as a major influence.

Mammadov is the author of “Gal yanima” (“Come to me”), one of the songs which he performed during the Azerbaijani Eurovision selection tour.

Besides music, he also practices Greco-Roman wrestling and capoeira.

In March 2013 Farid won the Azerbaijani national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 to be held in Malmö, Sweden. Mammadov was the first male solo singer to represent Azerbaijan in the contest. His performance was staged by Fokas Evangelinos, a Greek choreographer who directed the Eurovision performances of Sakis Rouvas and Ani Lorak. Azerbaijan placed 2nd in the 2013 competition.

Mammadov represented Azerbaijan at the “Eurovision-2013” with the song “Hold Me”.