Major international sports and culture events, spectacular shows and undoubtedly effective organization, it all comes together in Azerbaijan, a rising regional leader.
The country’s economic successes, coupled with the Government’s effective implementation of ambitious socio-economic reforms, and its special care for development of culture and sports have all boosted Azerbaijan’s international standing in the last decade.
With its rich and well-educated human resources and rapidly developing economy, Azerbaijan’s international popularity has been on the rise with the country repeatedly proving lately its capacity to host high-level world scale forums and activities.
Soon, it started to bear fruit with Azerbaijan staging, among others, annual musical contests and festivals such as Gabala International Music Festival, Baku International Jazz Festival, Gabala International Music Festival, International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival, and the International World of Mugham Festival.
However, given its huge potential, Azerbaijan and in particular, its capital Baku, was eager to host bigger events and attract bigger audiences.
Just a little bit of impetus was needed to start paving the way for a bigger success capable of shocking the world, pleasing the friends of Azerbaijan and spoiling the mood of its critics. In 2011, in a breathtaking final, Ell/Nikki, representing Azerbaijan at Eurovision Song Contest with a song titled “Running Scared” miraculously won the tough competition and brought Eurovision to Baku next year. Baku did a great job hosting this grand contest in Crystal Hall, a new indoor arena built within only 8 months since Azerbaijan won the title. It proved to be an exceptional host of the contest expressing friendliness and openness to the world. This was the first international event of this magnitude in Baku. Moreover, it was the first serious test of its kind for management capacity and infrastructure of the city. Azerbaijan did not lose face. It ensured full safety of the guests who arrived at Eurovision-2012. At that time Azerbaijan’s arch-rival Armenia, refused to perform in Baku and called for a boycott of the Eurovision 2012 contest. Azerbaijan managed to cope with the task and pressures exerted on the country passing the test successfully.
