Denmark may have won this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, due to last year’s winner, held in Malmö, Sweden, but Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev is reported to have ordered an inquiry into why his country, apparently, failed to provide any points to their neighbour, Russia. Russia gave maximum points, 12, to the Azerbaijan entry. From the BBC report
Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Russia, Polad Bulbuloglu, disclosed that President Aliyev had ordered an investigation and votes were being recounted.
He said that a large number of voters in Azerbaijan, submitting votes by text message, had supported the Russian Federation.
“According to this data, Russia should have received 10 points from Azerbaijan. An announcement will be made about this tonight on Azeri Public Television.”
Camil Guliyev, head of the country’s state broadcaster, said the failure to give Russia any points was of serious concern.
“We sincerely hope that this incident, possibly initiated by certain interest groups, will not cast a shadow over the brotherly relations of the Russian and Azerbaijani peoples,” he said, without elaborating.
Azerbaijan, which hosted last year’s contest, has traditionally tried to maintain good relations with Moscow though there have been tensions over energy in the past.
For the record, here is the winning entry from Denmark.
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