Azerbaijan’s Eurovision 2013 entry Farid Mammadov has expressed his gratefulness to famous Russian singer and producer Phillip Kirkorov for his support during the Contest. Days before the Contest Kirkorov openly supported the young Azerbaijani artist in a top-rated in Russia TV show “Evening with Urgant” and in the progran “Today Tonight,” hosted by another famous Russian showman Andrey Malakhov.
“I can’t believe I was lucky enough to get support from such a talented and respectable man,” said Farid. “I’m very grateful to Phillip for his warm words before the Contest. It was very important for me. Also I’m very happy to have common friends with Phillip after Eurovision: the Greek team Fokas Evangelinos and Dimitris Kontopoulos, and the dancer from Kirkorov’s dancer team, Alexander Kuzmenko, who performed on stage with me. I hope that in the future I am again lucky enough to work with Phillip. For me, it would be a great pleasure of him to become producer of the Russian version for my Eurovision song Hold Me. Also, maybe one day we could sing in a duet?”
Let us remind that during Eurovision 2013 week, Farid was also inspired by an endorsement from legendary British singer Bonnie Tyler. “Farid has a great song and very powerful voice. For me he is likely to be a winner.”
In addition to that, minutes before the Grand Final Farid Mammadov won Marcel Bezencon Award in the Artistic category. This award is given to the best artist as voted on by Eurovision commentators from 39 participating countries. The award is named after the creator of the annual competition and is given to artists for 11 years already.
After finishing in second position for Azerbaijan in last Saturday night’s Eurovision Song Contest, Farid enjoyed more success today as ‘Hold Me’ becoming a hit in European charts. ‘Hold Me’ is now #1 song in Azerbaijan and a top 5 hit in Greece. The song is also in the charts in several countries across Europe, including Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Austria. ‘Hold Me’ has also charted in Switzerland, Spain, Netherlands, Norway and this week is a new entry in the Danish and Finish charts.
This rounds off a most successful week for Farid. Not only did he received critical acclaim for his stunning artistic interpretation of ‘Hold Me’ on the Eurovision stage, he also received more 12 points than any other country in the 2013 contest. Farid been also invited to appear on several TV shows and music festivals across Europe starting with an appearances on leading German TV Station ZDF for the programme ‘ZDF Fernsehgarten’.
