In the short period following independence, this ex-Soviet republic has managed to get in conflict with all its neighbours, and the only way in and out of the country is via a tunnel to Turkey.

Despite their extreme eastern longitude, Azerbaijan entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 and ended 8th (the position previously reserved for their beloved neighbours Armenia).

Facts
Population: 8 million
Eyebrows: 8 million
Export: Oil (but Armenia steals it on the way)
Culture: None (Armenia stole it)
Motto: None (Armenia stole it)
History: None (Armenia stole it)

Azerbaijan will be represented by the song "Always", performed by Aysel & Arash.
Azerbaijan continues their tradition to have their entries performed by an Azeri singer together with a foreign one. Last year one half of the duo Samir & Ellinor was born in Uzbekistan, and this year they've borrowed the Swedish-Persian singer and songwriter Arash to team up with newcomer Aysel.
Arash has apparently dug deep into his family trees and found some great great grandfather from Azerbaijan, and announced that he now feels completely Azeri.
The song, sounding lot like the annual token ethnic MF entry, is written by Arash together with Robert Uhlmann, Johan Beijerholm, Anderz Wrethov and Elin Wrethov. They are also not from Azerbaijan, but announced that they are all descendants of Lucy, who had a lot of features in common with the modern day Azeris.

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