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There has been a change in the head of Azerbaijan's delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest, Azernews reports.

Nurlana Jafarova, a well-known presenter who is currently the head of the press service of the Azerbaijani delegation at Eurovision, has been appointed as the new head of the delegation.

Nurlana Jafarova has been working in the field of television and radio since 2006. Previously, she worked as the director of 106 FM radio in 2014-2016, the editor-in-chief of the Music and Entertainment program editorial office of Azerbaijan Television in 2017-2020, and then as a presenter at Public Television.

According to another change, Maksim Tsurkov, director of International Relations and Content Acquisitions at Azerbaijan Public Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, will also act as an advisor to the CEO of the company on the Eurovision project.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is set to take place in Switzerland, following Switzerland's victory at the 2024 contest with the song "The Code" by Nemo.

This will be the third time that Switzerland has hosted the contest, having done so for the inaugural contest in 1956 and the 1989 contest, held in Lugano and Lausanne, respectively.

It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan reached the Top 5 in five consecutive contests - 3rd in 2009, 5th in 2010, 1st in 2011, 4th in 2012, and 2nd in 2013.

Azerbaijan marked its debut in 2008 with the duo of Elnur and Samir, who managed to become the eighth in the final with their song Day After Day.

The brilliant duet of Aysel and Arash, which represented Azerbaijan next year, took third place at the song contest, while Safura Alizada, who represented the country at the Eurovision 2010 in Oslo, came fifth.

On its fourth attempt with Ell and Nikki's song Running Scared, the Land of Fire won the event, bringing the contest to Baku's Crystal Hall in 2012. Ell and Nikki were the first mixed-gender duo to win the contest since 1963 and the first winners from Azerbaijan.

In 2018, Aysel Mammadova performed brilliantly at the Eurovision 2018 semi-final, but she couldn't make it to the final. The singer represented Azerbaijan with the song X My Heart.

Azerbaijan's Chingiz Mustafayev impressed all Eurovision fans with his stunning performance in 2019. The singer finished in eighth place in the song contest.

In 2020, the song contest was cancelled amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, fans of the music contest had a great chance to enjoy a spectacular show called Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light, featuring 41 songs from that year's entries.

During the show, Samira Efendi pleased Eurovision fans with the song Cleopatra about trusting your gut instinct, standing up for yourself, and being a "Queen" - even when things get tough and especially if someone betrays or hurts you.

Next year, Efendi thrilled the audience with her hit song Mata Hari, which features ethnic motives based on traditional Azerbaijani musical instruments, such as zurna (trumpet) and nagara (drum), as well as melodies from the Azerbaijani folk dance yalli.

In 2022, Nadir Rustamli represented Azerbaijan at Eurovision 2022. The singer left Eurovision fans speechless with the song Fade To Black, co-written by Andreas Stone, Anders Rethov, Sebastian Schub, and Thomas Stengard. He came 16th, scoring 106 points.

In 2023, young talents-Tural and Turan Bagmanovlar rocked the Eurovision stage in Liverpool with the song Tell Me More.

The year 2023 marked Azerbaijan's 15th involvement in the Eurovision Song Contest since its debut in 2008.

Fahree (Fahri Ismayilov) and Ilkin Dovlatov represented Azerbaijan at Eurovision 2024 with the song​ "Özünlə Apar".

The song is co-written​ by Fahree, Edgar Ravin, Hasan Haydar, Mila Miles, and Mado Salikh.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @lmntypewriterrr

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