Phil’s Eurovision Countdown 2025 – Part 5/37 – Azerbaijan

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AZERBAIJAN – Run With U – Mamagama

Another song that X tells me I shouldn’t like or be listening to because **checks notes** Azerbaijan.  Anyway enough of them, and on to a valid song in a song contest, a phrase that will be repeated more often that it should be.

Well what do we have here? A slice of the 1980s that isn’t wrapped up in being so far up itself that it becomes ironic – something the contest in general needs a lot less of.

Mamagama’s preview video for this has me hankering for a better time, floppy disks, cassette tapes and all sorts of nods to the past but behind all of that is the unmistakable beat of a cracking little pop song. It does have its downsides – their English intonation, at parts, is a little bit off, which is to be expected, as its not their first language, or even their second. I don’t know why the Azeri pinky-plonky instruments are between the verses – I just don’t think that they need to be there, but I am guessing it’s a nod to locality. The song also doesn’t build as you would traditionally expect, and I get the sense that there is a four-minute version knocking around somewhere, because just when you think there is going to be more…. the song ends!

It’s not groundbreaking in a contest context, but I guess that it doesn’t need to be – it just needs to be decent. I hope that on stage they make some nods to the video, but it’s going to be difficult to recreate and that’s going to be a shame. I reckon this will qualify, and that’ll piss off a lot of people!

Phil’s Score – 5 Points