Azerbaijani representative Dihaj takes the Eurovision stage for her first rehearsal on April 30th at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine.
As a choral conducting graduate, musician and singer, Dihaj (Diana Hajiyeva) has experimented with different genres from pop to jazz and even electronic accompanied with a live band. In the Azerbaijani music scene, she has never been shy to go her own direction, out of the main stream.
With her theatrical performance of “Skeletons,” Dihaj proves that she is comfortable enough to create an alternative world of her own and take the viewer with her — regardless of the demands of the format or genre.
The staging builds slowly in an empty room covered in chalk writing with the lyrics from the song. The room represents complex self-destructive relationships, inner barriers and hidden truths — the skeletons. A man wearing a mask serves as a “bad boy” with a symbolic ladder showing the emotional distance between the two lovers. Our heroine, being a strong woman, eventually overcomes her self-destructive feelings. The walls come down, as well as the bad boy’s mask. He’s prepared to reconnect with her, but it’s far too late. She’s made him take off the mask he was wearing in their relationship, but she is leaving him alone in the room that she has bravely escaped. At the end of the performance, four backing vocalists join Dihaj on stage.
"This staging is more of a theatrical approach. I'm happy that our delegation was brave enough to bring it to the Eurovision stage. It's not about technology or special effects anymore. For me the story is what really matters. It can raise different emotions, and I hope it won't leave viewers indifferent,” says Dihaj.
The number is directed by famous Azerbaijani choreographer and stage director Naila Mammadzada, whose portfolio includes the interval acts for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest and the closing ceremony for the 2015 European Games.
Backing vocals team for Dihaj includes: Jennie Jahns (several Azerbaijan entries, Russia 2016), Marie Nordmark Sjöström, Johan D. Seil (Russia 2016), Kristian Tåje (Sweden 2010). Vocal director Alex Panayi.