Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

On 20 March 2020, İTV confirmed that Efendi would remain as Azerbaijan's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.[2] On 7 January 2021, the broadcaster called for interested songwriters to submit their songs to the broadcaster by 1 February 2021. Songwriters could be of any nationality.[3] Six songs were shortlisted from 229 submissions from local and international songwriters and their titles were revealed by INFE Azerbaijan on 9 February 2021.[4][5]

• "Breathing You"
• "Manifesto"
• "Mata Hari"
• "Owe You Pretty"
• "Ratata"
• "When I'm Gone"

On 13 March 2021, İTV announced that "Mata Hari" was the selected song that would represent Azerbaijan. "Mata Hari" was selected from the six shortlisted songs based on the decision of İTV and participants of an opinion survey that featured music industry experts and Eurovision fans.[5][6] The song was released on 15 March 2021 alongside a music video. "Mata Hari" was written by Amy van der Wel, Josh Earl, Luuk van Beers and Tony Cornelissen.[7]

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Azerbaijan was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from Romania and preceding the entry from Ukraine.[9]

On 18 May, the day the semi-final was held, Azerbaijan qualified for the Grand Final.

Azerbaijan performed 21st in the grand final on 22 May 2021, following France and preceding Norway.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.[10] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members.[11] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.[12][13]

The following members comprised the Azerbaijani jury:[12][13]

• Sevda Alekbarzadeh
• Fuad Alishov
• Vagif Gerayzada
• Zamig Huseynov
• Atari Jafarova

Detailed voting results from Azerbaijan (Semi-final 1)[14]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Lithuania	11	9	10	14	9	15		8	3
02	Slovenia	7	6	6	10	8	7	4	13
03	Russia	1	1	3	3	3	1	12	3	8
04	Sweden	3	14	1	12	5	5	6	10	1
05	Australia	15	15	13	4	10	13		12
06	North Macedonia	14	12	15	5	12	14		15
07	Ireland	12	2	14	6	15	8	3	14
08	Cyprus	8	11	7	11	7	11		7	4
09	Norway	13	8	9	13	6	12		2	10
10	Croatia	4	7	5	8	14	6	5	9	2
11	Belgium	10	5	4	15	13	9	2	11
12	Israel	9	13	12	7	4	10	1	1	12
13	Romania	6	10	2	2	11	4	7	6	5
14	Azerbaijan
15	Ukraine	2	4	8	9	2	3	8	4	7
16	Malta	5	3	11	1	1	2	10	5	6

Detailed voting results from Azerbaijan (Final)[15]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Juror A	Juror B	Juror C	Juror D	Juror E	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	10	16	23	21	19	19		15
02	Albania	20	10	19	25	18	20		21
03	Israel	11	17	15	12	14	16		1	12
04	Belgium	16	15	7	19	2	8	3	17
05	Russia	1	1	3	3	3	1	12	5	6
06	Malta	5	7	12	2	1	4	7	12
07	Portugal	12	3	14	8	12	9	2	25
08	Serbia	24	18	10	11	24	18		18
09	United Kingdom	23	22	24	22	25	24		22
10	Greece	6	6	2	1	8	2	10	11
11	Switzerland	15	2	17	17	15	12		7	4
12	Iceland	19	8	18	16	17	17		16
13	Spain	17	21	25	20	13	21		24
14	Moldova	2	4	4	5	7	3	8	10	1
15	Germany	22	24	21	24	21	23		19
16	Finland	13	14	5	9	11	13		6	5
17	Bulgaria	7	12	13	6	10	10	1	20
18	Lithuania	21	23	20	13	22	22		14
19	Ukraine	3	5	9	10	5	5	6	3	8
20	France	9	13	16	4	4	7	4	9	2
21	Azerbaijan
22	Norway	18	9	8	18	16	15		4	7
23	Netherlands	25	25	22	23	23	25		23
24	Italy	14	19	6	14	6	14		2	10
25	Sweden	4	20	1	15	20	6	5	13
26	San Marino	8	11	11	7	9	11		8	3