Azerbaijan 2022: Nadir Rustamli with ‘Fade To Black‘

Our final inclusion to the class of '22 comes from The Land of Fire…

Unfortunately for Azerbaijan, this battle to be the last to reveal hasn't led to much excitement for the song itself, rather just officially ticking it off for both fans and punters to be able to work on rankings and predictions. Of course, the 100-1 pre song suggested this wouldn't enter the frame anyway but it's good to be thorough and now it's out we can indeed categorically rule this out.

This is Azerbaijan in second gear from singer to song. There's an attempt to ramp this up with the pacing change but there's still a lack of impact and there's no real commitment to it, much like with the ethnic elements pasted on top in post production. It's just all very half hearted and hard to invest in.

The semi final presents a problem for Azerbaijan with a couple of rivals here. Australia, Belgium and Poland are all here with the former 2 looking more likely on the jury side and Ochman doing the whole thing better. Its possible the likes of San Marino and Malta prop up the jury score here but that might still place them behind those 3. I'm not expecting too much from the televote either and if I was a producer, would probably be putting this in 2nd in the lineup. Based of all that I'm going to have this more out than in for now even if Azerbaijan usually do enough to secure a Saturday night appearance.

Personal Rating: 6/10

Competitve Rating: 4/10

Early Prediction: Semi 2 10th- 14th, 19th-23rd if in the final.