The thirty-seventh artist in our Who Is series for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest is Efendi from Azerbaijan.
Samira Efendiyeva, professionally known as Efendi, was born on April 17th 1991 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Her music career took off in 2009 when she participated in the singing competition Yeni Ulduz. Efendi is no stranger to competitions, having participated in Böyük Səhnə (Azerbaijan’s Eurovision national final) in 2014, and The Voice of Azerbaijan in 2015, finishing in 3rd place. She has also represented her country in the Silk Way Star competition in Almaty, Kazakhstan, placing 3rd, and at the Voice of Nur-Sultan festival in 2019.
Last year she was internally selected to represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam. She was due to sing “Cleopatra” before the competition was cancelled.
Shortly after the cancellation, it was revealed that Efendi would sing for Azerbaijan at the 2021 contest. 229 songs were submitted to the Azeri broadcaster, with “Mata Hari” ultimately being selected as Efendi’s entry.
Efendi will perform in the second half of the first semi-final on May 18th.
Image source: Eurovision.tv / iTV
Azerbaijan debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, they were represented by Elnur & Samir with the song “Day After Day”, they finished 8th in the final. In 2011 Azerbaijan won the Eurovision Song Contest represented by Ell & Nikki and their song “Running Scared”. The song scored a total of 221 points, receiving only three sets of 12 points from Malta, Russia and Turkey. In 2018 Azerbaijan failed to qualify for the final for the first time, having previously had a 100% qualification record.
