Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Azerbaijan was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.^[11]

Once all the competing songs for the 2022 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Azerbaijan was set to perform in position 4, following the entry from Serbia and before the entry from Georgia.^[12]

The two semi-finals and final were broadcast in Azerbaijan on İTV with commentary by Murad Arif.^[13][14] The Azerbaijani spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Azerbaijani jury during the final, was supposed to be Narmin Salmanova, however during the broadcast of the final, Azerbaijan's jury votes were read by the EBU's Executive Supervisor Martin Österdahl. This was attributed to connection difficulties during the voting.^[15]

Nadir Rustamli took part in technical rehearsals on 2 and 5 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 11 and 12 May. This included the jury show on 11 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.^[16]

The Azerbaijani performance featured Nadir Rustamli dressed in a gray outfit performing with a dancer. The performance began with Rustamli and the dancer on a bleacher prop with the former near the top row and the latter on the bottom row. The performers mimicked each other's movements which included sitting, lying and walking across the seats. Towards the end of the song, the prop split into two with the performers on opposite sides. The stage lighting transitioned between white, red and blue colours and the LED screens displayed lightning effects.^[17][18] In regards to the performance, which was directed by Mads Enggaard, Rustamli stated: "The staircase represents stepping away from the past and moving forward. At the end of the staircase, I face my fears, insecurities, and all of the dark thoughts I've been through. Then I fight through them, and win."^[19][20] The dancer that joined Nadir Rustamli on stage was Luc Boris André.^[21]

At the end of the show, Azerbaijan was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed tenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 96 points: 0 points from the televoting and 96 points from the juries.^[22]

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Azerbaijan was drawn to compete in the second half.^[23] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Azerbaijan was subsequently placed to perform in position 15, following the entry from Lithuania and before the entry from Belgium.^[24]

Nadir Rustamli once again took part in dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Nadir Rustamli performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. Azerbaijan placed sixteenth in the final, scoring 106 points: 3 points from the televoting and 103 points from the juries.^[25]

In a statement released during the broadcast of the grand final, the EBU revealed that six countries, including Azerbaijan, were found to have 'irregular' jury voting patterns during the second semi-final. Consequently, these countries were given substitute aggregated jury scores for both the second semi-final and the grand final (shown above), calculated from the corresponding jury scores of countries with historically similar voting patterns as determined by the pots for the semi-final allocation draw held in January.^[28][29] Their televoting results were unaffected. The Flemish broadcaster VRT reported that the juries involved had made agreements to vote for each other's entries to secure qualification to the grand final.^[30] After the Azerbaijani jury votes were announced by Martin Österdahl instead of the scheduled spokesperson, İTV released a statement implying that this was instead due to their refusal to present the calculated aggregate scores. The statement went on to request clarity from the EBU over the issue and also revealed that the Azerbaijani jury would have awarded 12 points to Ukraine under the original scores rather than to the United Kingdom.^[31][32]

On 19 May, the EBU issued a further statement clarifying the voting irregularities identified in the second semi-final. This confirmed that the six countries involved had consistently ranked each other's entries disproportionately highly: the Azerbaijani jury, as well as the juries from Georgia, Romania and San Marino, had each ranked the other five countries' entries as their top five, proving beyond statistical coincidence that they had colluded to achieve a higher placing. This prompted the suspension of Azerbaijan's intended jury scores (shown below) in favour of the EBU's calculated aggregate scores, shown above.^[33]

Azerbaijan's suspended jury results (Semi-final 2)^[33]

Score	Country
12 points	Poland
10 points	Georgia
8 points	Romania
7 points	Montenegro
6 points	San Marino
5 points	Finland
4 points	Australia
3 points	Sweden
2 points	Serbia
1 point	North Macedonia

Detailed voting results of Azerbaijan's suspended vote (Semi-final 2)^[33]

R/O	Country	Juror 1	Juror 2	Juror 3	Juror 4	Juror 5	Rank	Points
01	Finland	10	11	3	4	9	6	5
02	Israel	16	17	16	15	14	16
03	Serbia	7	8	7	10	7	9	2
04	Azerbaijan
05	Georgia	3	2	2	1	3	2	10
06	Malta	15	6	11	14	10	12
07	San Marino	1	5	15	5	16	5	6
08	Australia	9	9	4	3	15	7	4
09	Cyprus	6	16	8	17	6	11
10	Ireland	17	14	17	16	17	17
11	North Macedonia	8	7	9	9	8	10	1
12	Estonia	11	10	12	13	13	13
13	Romania	5	12	5	6	1	3	8
14	Poland	2	1	1	2	2	1	12
15	Montenegro	4	3	6	7	5	4	7
16	Belgium	14	15	10	11	11	14
17	Sweden	12	4	13	8	4	8	3
18	Czech Republic	13	13	14	12	12	15