Azerbaijan: Samira Efendi's song for Eurovision 2021 released – Listen to "Mata Hari"

The cancellation of Eurovision 2020 took away the contest but ITV – the Azeri broadcaster – didn't deny Samira Efendi's right to perform in Eurovision and invited her back.

Similarly to last year, the song selection was done internally and has just been unveiled. Samira Efendi is set to take the stage at Eurovision 2021 in Rotterdam to perform "Mata Hari":

Mata Hari is written and produced by Amy van der Wel, Luuk van Beers, Tony Cornelissen and Josh Earl.

Samira Efendi

Samira Efendiyeva (Samirə Əfəndiyeva), 29, is an Azerbaijani singer from Baku. She has tried four times before to represent Azerbaijan at Eurovision Song Contest in the past including 2019.

Two years ago, she was one of the five singers shortlisted by the Azeri broadcaster to compete in Tel Aviv, but was beaten by Chingiz (Truth).

It would be only in 2020 that the Azeri broadcaster would internally select Samira out of five artists to go to Eurovision 2020. She released her song "Cleopatra", but just one week after the presentation the sad message came: Eurovision 2020 was cancelled.

Samira rose to fame after participating in singing competitions such as Yeni Ulduz (2009), Böyük Səhnə (2014) and The Voice of Azerbaijan (2015). She is no stranger on representing her home country as she has competed in international singing competitions for Azerbaijan.

Mata Hari

Mata Hari is about female power, says Efendi:

– It is very important to talk about strong women in order to remind our beautiful ladies that despite the fact that we still live in a world full of prejudices, a woman can do anything and female power cannot be compared with anything. And if suddenly you do not have enough inspiration now, let the stories of strong women in history become the source of that very charge of energy with which you can cope with everything and achieve even bigger success.

– There is a queen in each of us and I want to remind you that it's time to release her.

Azerbaijan in Eurovision Song Contest

Azerbaijan has participated 12 times in Eurovision Song Contest since its debut in 2008. They have had great succes in Eurovision, with five Top-5 results out of 12! They won the competition in 2011 (Ell/Nikki - "Running Scared").

Worst result was in 2018, where Azerbaijan didn't manage to qualify for the Grand Final for the first time. They qualified for the Grand Final 11 out of 12 times.