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Düsseldorf, Germany - After an exciting voting in front of tens of thousands of people in a fully packed Düsseldorf Arena and millions of TV viewers all over Europe, it was finally Ell/Nikki from Azerbaijan who received the highest number of points from televoters and juries from the 43 countries participating in this year's edition of Europe's favourite TV-show! Ell/Nikki managed to gather 221 points altogether - followed by Raphael Gualazzi from Italy with 189 points and Sweden's Eric Saade who collected 185 points.
Europe experienced a breathtaking show live from the Düsseldorf Arena
tonight with 25 acts from 25 countries giving their very best. 20 of
these had qualified from the two Semi-Finals while host nation Germany
and the rest of the so-called 'Big Five' - France, Italy, Spain and the
United Kingdom - were automatically set for the Final. After all 43
countries had voted, it was Ell/Nikki from Azerbaijan who was the lucky
winner with their song Running Scared, collecting 221 points altogether.
The dream to represent Azerbaijan in Eurovision has followed Nigar
since 2000. That was when the Russian singer Alsou, highly popular in
Azerbaijan, finished on the 2nd place in the Contest with her song Solo.
Alsou’s success gave Nigar the hope that one day her dream of
performing on the Eurovision stage may become reality. Last autumn,
Nigar revived her dream of taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Eldar Gasimov was born in Baku in 1989. Just like Nigar, Eldar has
dreamt of performing on the Eurovision stage since 2000. He has
passionately followed the Contest, particularly after Azerbaijan’s 2008
debut. Last autumn, Eldar decided to try himself in the national
Eurovision selection. He was one of 77 contenders to represent
Azerbaijan in Eurovision 2011. After preliminary castings and 7
pre-selection shows, which were broadcast by the ITV channel, Eldar went
to the national selection final and became one of the two winners.
Just like in the last few years, a mixture of 50% televote and 50%
jury was used. For this purpose, national juries consisting of five
music industry professionals gathered in all 43 participating countries
who ranked the songs in Eurovision Song Contest style, giving 12 points
to their favourite song, 10 points to their second favourite, etc. The
results of the five jury members were then added up and accounted for
50% of the country's votes. Those results were then combined with the
televoting results.