Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

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Azerbaijan was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Just Go", written by Fuad Javadov and performed by Jiva. The Azerbaijani participating broadcaster, İctimai Televiziya (İTV), internally selected its entry for the contest.

Participating broadcasterİctimai Televiziya (İTV)
Country Azerbaijan
SelectionprocessInternal selection
Announcementdate
  • Artist: 6 March 2026
  • Song: 9 March 2026
Quick facts Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026, Participating broadcaster ...
Azerbaijan in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2026
Eurovision Song Contest 2026
Participating broadcasterİctimai Televiziya (İTV)
Country Azerbaijan
Selection processInternal selection
Announcement date
  • Artist: 6 March 2026
  • Song: 9 March 2026
Competing entry
Song"Just Go"
ArtistJiva
SongwriterFuad Javadov
Placement
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (15th)
Participation chronology
◄2025 2026
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Azerbaijan was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 14 May 2026. Performing during the show in position 2, Azerbaijan was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Azerbaijan placed last out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final, with 2 points, marking Azerbaijan's worst result in the contest to date.

Background

Prior to the 2026 contest, İctimai Televiziya (İTV) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Azerbaijan seventeen times since its first entry in 2008.[1] It had won the contest on one occasion in 2011 with the song "Running Scared" performed by Ell and Nikki. Since its debut in 2008, it had had a string of successful results, qualifying to the final in every contest until in 2018 when it failed to qualify with the song "X My Heart" performed by Aisel. It had placed in the top ten seven times, including a third-place result in 2009 with the song "Always" performed by AySel and Arash, and a second-place result in 2013 with the song "Hold Me" performed by Farid Mammadov. In 2025, it failed to qualify to the final with the song "Run with U" performed by Mamagama.[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, İTV organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2026 contest on 2 September 2025.[2] İTV had used various methods to select its entry in the past, including internal selections of both the artist and song, as well as national finals to select its artist followed by an internal selection to determine the song. Between 2011 and 2013, İTV organized a national final titled Milli seçim turu to select the performer, song or both for Eurovision. In 2014, the broadcaster utilised an existing talent show format titled Böyük səhnə where the winning performer would subsequently be given an internally selected song. Since 2015, İTV had internally selected both the artist and song, a procedure which was continued for the selection of its 2026 entry.[3]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 15 December 2025, İTV announced that both the artist and song that would represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 would be selected internally. Their announcement called for interested artists and songwriters to submit their applications and entries to the broadcaster by 18 January 2026. Songwriters could be of any nationality.[3] 186 submissions were received at the closing of the deadline, 107 of which were from local songwriters.[4] 18 acts were selected to take part in an audition round, from which three proceeded to the final stage based on the decision of a jury panel and a focus group of international music and television industry experts.[5][6][7]

On 6 March 2026, İTV announced that Jiva, who won the third season of The Voice of Azerbaijan, would represent Azerbaijan.[8] The song Jiva would be performing, "Just Go", was written by Fuad Javadov and was presented on 9 March via the release of the official music video.[9]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 took place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[10] Azerbaijan was scheduled for the first half of the second semi-final.[11]

On May 14, during the second semi-final it was announced that Azerbaijan failed to qualify for the Grand Final, alongside four other non-qualifying acts.[12]

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Azerbaijan and awarded by Azerbaijan in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Azerbaijan

More information Score, Televote ...
Points awarded to Azerbaijan (Semi-final 2)[13]
Score Televote Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points  Bulgaria
1 point
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Points awarded by Azerbaijan

More information Score, Televote ...
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Detailed voting results

Each participating broadcaster assembles a seven-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent and two of which have to be between 18 and 25 years old. Each jury, and individual jury member, is required to meet a strict set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. No member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.[15] The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

The following members comprised the Azerbaijani jury:[14]

  • Azad Faig Shabanov
  • Ilkin Sardar Dovlatov
  • Vugar Vagif Jamalzade
  • Amina Namig Hajiyeva
  • Sevinj Nadir Aliyeva
  • Tarana Huseyn Muradova
  • Medina Sadiyar Ali
More information R/O, Country ...
Detailed voting results from Azerbaijan (Semi-final 2)[13]
R/O Country Jury Televote
Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Juror F Juror G Rank Points Rank Points
01  Bulgaria91044144374210
02  Azerbaijan
03  Romania551912586547
04  Luxembourg7117101110131212
05  Czechia107108511910174
06  Armenia141414131314141414
07   Switzerland12121314812111338
08  Cyprus13133363556112
09  Latvia2957481283101
10  Denmark11812113679283
11  Australia836127221011
12  Ukraine428610163892
13  Albania312212111256
14  Malta14959944765
15  Norway661112713101113
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More information R/O, Country ...
Detailed voting results from Azerbaijan (Final)[14]
R/O Country Jury Televote
Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Juror F Juror G Rank Points Rank Points
01  Denmark15192051411191347
02  Germany13152514615201522
03  Israel7113459574112
04  Belgium16624211521151623
05  Albania310197495612
06  Greece242122232425122314
07  Ukraine2283122121074
08  Australia81211111112111165
09  Serbia6310172123811
10  Malta1477169539292
11  Czechia9461810191310183
12  Bulgaria4827316865210
13  Croatia551718374720
14  United Kingdom182523242523252525
15  France222319202222222417
16  Moldova172015121361414101
17  Finland2095131910211238
18  Poland211413101814241916
19  Lithuania10229252313231819
20  Sweden23182181718101721
21  Cyprus251712151624182015
22  Italy1114218411213
23  Norway191618192117172218
24  Romania1113464768356
25  Austria122416222020162124
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References

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