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Samira EfendiSamirə Əfəndi
Background information
Birth name	Samira Azer gizi Efendiyeva
Born	(1991-04-17) 17 April 1991 (age 33) Baku, Azerbaijan SSR, USSR
Genres	Pop jazz
Occupation	Singer
Years active	2009–present

Samira Azer gizi Efendiyeva (Template:Lang-az; born 17 April 1991), known as Samira Efendi or Efendi, is an Azerbaijani singer.

Career

Early career

Efendiyeva gained popularity in her home country after participating in the singing competitions Yeni Ulduz (2009), Böyük Səhnə (2014) and The Voice of Azerbaijan (2015-2016, third place). In 2017, she was the Azerbaijani representative in the international singing competition Silk Way Star, staged in Almaty, Kazakhstan, finishing in third place. Efendiyeva represented her country again at the Voice of Nur-Sultan festival held in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan in 2019.

2020–present: Eurovision Song Contest

On 28 February 2020, the Azerbaijani broadcaster İTV announced that Efendiyeva had been internally selected to represent Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, held in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However, on March 18, 2020, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 20 March 2020, Efendi announced on her Instagram account that she will represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 after the cancellation of 2020 contest. She would sing "Mata Hari" which premiered on 15 March 2021. She would perform Mata Hari in the first semi final and qualified with an 8th place with 138 points, and at the final received a 20th place finish with 65 points.

During her time at the Eurovision Song Contest, she would record a new song and music video posted by Eurovision's YouTube account. The song has no official name, but the song was dedicated to the Norwegian singer that had been selected to go to the contest, Tix. Tix had shown a noticeable crush on Efendi throughout their time at Eurovision through a variety of ways, including giving gifts, asking Efendi out on dates, and singing love songs (including a couple parodies, including Tix's own song Fallen Angel and the Pokemon Indigo League theme song) to her. In response, Efendi would also do the same, including releasing a new song. It is unclear whether they are in a relationship.

Controversy

During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War between her country Azerbaijan and Armenia, Efendi received substantial negative publicity after she called Armenians “terrorists” and posted pictures on her social media of her uniformed in military PR photos supporting the country’s president Ilham Aliyev, who has drawn international rebuke for his human rights record. A petition calling for her disqualification garnered almost 10,000 signatures but there has been no official action from Eurovision.

Discography

Singles

References

1. ^ "Azərbaycanı Eurovision-2020 müsabiqəsində təmsil edəcək Samirə Əfəndi kimdir?". BBC News Azərbaycanca (in Azerbaijani). 28 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
2. ^ "Meet Azerbaijan's Eurovision 2020 artist Samira Efendi". Eurovision.tv. 28 February 2020. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
3. Dyussembekova, Zhazira (5 October 2017). "Qazaqstan TV starts broadcast of Silk Way Star contest". The Astana Times. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
4. "Efendi & TIX - A Eurovision Saga - Eurovision 2021". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
5. "Report of Human Rights in Azerbaijan".
6. "Controversy about Efendi".

• 1991 births
• Living people
• Musicians from Baku
• Azerbaijani female singers
• Azerbaijani pop singers
• The Voice (franchise) contestants
• Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Azerbaijan
• Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2020
• Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2021
• 21st-century women singers