Azerbaijan

AySel

AySel was born in Baku on 25th April 1989 in the family of a University professor. AySel is just 19, but her ambition coupled with the faith in her talent has already led the young artist to the main stage of the European show business, the Eurovision Song Contest stage, as the representative of Azerbaijan.

AySel started to sing at the age of four and began to take part in national vocalist competitions when she was eight. In 2001, she won the prestigious Azerbaijani contest Pohre. At thirteen, AySel entered a Baku music school where she learnt to play the piano and sang in the choir. The piano is AySel's passion - no wonder, since AySel's parents still keep a unique 18th Century piano at home.

In 2004 AySel went to study in the USA on the exchange program FLEX. Within days of her arrival in the USA, she signed up for the local choir and began training for young vocalist competitions. During her year in the US, AySel won 3 gold medals at prestigious contests which were held in the Southern Arkansas University and in the University of Texas at Austin.

Upon her return to Baku, AySel took part in the television project Yeni Ulduz 4 ("New Star 4") where she went straight to the final. When the project finished in 2006 AySel became a student at the International Relations department of the Azerbaijani University of Foreign Languages, where she is still studying whilst simultaneously working hard to prepare for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow.

Arash and AySel

Arash

Famous singer, author, entertainer and producer Arash was born 23 April 1977 in Tehran, Iran. At the age of 10 he and his family moved to Sweden. His debut album, "Arash", was released by the Warner Brothers Music in June 2005, after he had finished college. His singles, "Boro Boro" ("Go Away") and "Temptation", made it to the hit lists around Europe, and their respective videos garnered significant airplay on more than 20 MTV outlets across the world. In addition he has had hits notably in Eastern European and South-East European charts like Russia, Ukraine, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Georgia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Turkey etc. He has gone gold in 5 countries: Germany, Russia, Slovenia and Greece for his album, "Arash", and in Sweden for "Boro Boro".

Arash has Azerbaijani roots that is why he had decided to take part in the Azerbaijani Eurovision national selection. In February his song "Always" won the selection to represent the country in Eurovision 2009. On the 12th of February 2009 Azerbaijan announced the launch of the Eurovision duo of AySel & Arash. The decision to create the duo of AySel and Arash was taken by the 7-member jury of the Azerbaijani national final for the ESC 2009.

The Duo

On the 12th of February 2009, Azerbaijan ("The Land of Fire") announced the launch of the Eurovision duo of AySel & Arash. In the second ESC semi-final on the 14th of May in Moscow, young AySel will compete for the victory in the Eurovision 2009 along with the experienced songwriter and artist Arash by her side.