Aysel Teymurzade was internally selected by seven of the most competent and well-known personalities in the Azerbaijani music- and show business, such as iTV Director General Ismayil Omarov, Rector of Baku Musical Academy College Farhad Badalbayli, President of the Azerbaijan National Music Committee of the International Music Council Lala Kazimova, Director of the Azerbaijani public Philharmonic Hall Murad Adigozelzade.
From Baku to Texas and back
AySel was born in Baku on the 25th of April, 1989. In 2006, she graduated from the prestigious Intellect Lyceum in Baku. She studied piano, and she had been at the Texas High School, United States, in 2005 and 2006. During this period she won three gold medals in Youth Song Contests which were held at the Southern Arkansas University, Arkansas. Since 2006 she is a student of the Azerbaijan University of Languages' department of International Relations.
"Best qualified"
"I like the fact that this year, the broadcaster works on the principle of doing the job first and announcing the results after that, and not the other way around. This approach gave us opportunity to choose the artist and song that will be best qualified to represent Azerbaijan at the biggest European song contest in May 2009, and do that avoiding any direct or indirect pressure from producers and other interested persons," said Farhad Badalbayli, Rector of the Baku Musical Academy College and member of the selection committee.
iTV calls for songs
At the same time, the broadcaster announced that any interested Azerbaijani and foreign song writers, composers and music producers are welcome to send in their songs. The deadline for submissions to be considered by the jury is the 1st of February. "Now we are working actively to select the song for representative of Azerbaijan for the Eurovision Song Contest of 2009," said the head of Azeri delegation, Adil Kerimli. "We are doing everything to ensure high quality of the selection and choose a worthy song for AySel to represent Azerbaijan in Moscow."
Debute
Last year, Azerbaijan debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest. With Day After Day, Elnur & Samir qualified for the Final and finished in a respectable 8th place.
