Blog Post 2: The nation on stage - Azerbaijan’s 2021 entry, “Mata Hari”

In my previous paper, I concluded that Azerbaijan national identity has been threatened by the ethnic-Armenian, both externally by Armenia and internally by Armenia’s irredenta the Nagorno-Karabakh region. With their incoherent values across the country and the lack of distinction from their greatest ally, Turkey, Azerbaijan is left grasping straws to create an identity for themselves. In this paper, I will be exploring the extent to which those facets are present in Azerbaijan’s 2021 performance at Eurovision in Rotterdam, Netherland.

Meet the singer, Samira Efendi

According to Eurovision Song Contest Wiki, Azerbaijan’s 2021 Eurovision entry, Efendi’s “Mata Hari,” got ranked at 20^th place in the grand final. The performance involved a female singer, Efendi, and five backing dancers. Samira Efendi, also known by her stage name Efendi is an Azerbaijan-born singer. Before she represented Azerbaijan in 2020 with the song “Cleopatra” and 2021 Eurovision with the song “Mata Hari”, she participated in domestic talent shows like Səhnə and The Voice of Azerbaijan. She also represented Azerbaijan internationally in Silk Way Star which was aired in Kazakhstan (Fandom, n.d.).

“Mata Hari”

The most prevalent subject in Efendi’s 2021 performance “Mata Hari” is Mata Hari herself. Mata Hari was a female dancer, courtesan, and alleged spy, touted by the French as “the greatest woman spies of the century” and was later executed in 1917 (History.com Editors). According to History.com Editors, her espionage led to the death of thousands of soldiers after she made her way up to the high-ranking military officers and leaking their secrets. Her action of exploiting men’s lust and taking advantage of them plays into the theme of gender equality and women empowerment, which likely the reason why she was chosen as the title and the focus of this performance. Asian Development Bank assessment (2019, p. 53) claimed that “Women continue facing gender-based restrictions and discriminations, deeply rooted in patriarchal attitudes, traditional social norms, and by strict gender roles and stereotypes in Azerbaijan.” With Hari’s actions going against Azerbaijan male-dominated gender role where women lead a more domestic life (Asian Development Bank, 2019, p. 53) – supporting the man in their family – she was the perfect candidate to represent the impactful change a woman can make.

During the performance, the background effect was sparingly used to enhance the narrative of Mata Hari to keep it suitable to the general audiences and turning towards a flashier presentation to make it appealing to increase its appeal to the audiences that are not aware of Mata Hari. The visual representations including the flower-like outline that appears in the background throughout the performance resembles Mata Hari’s golden breastplate. Additionally, as the performance progresses to the end, the background displays an alluring visual of an orb, possibly a sun, burning more vigorously as it goes through its final phase. Nearing the end of the performance, it reaches the end of its lifespan as it violently collapsed into an image resembling an eye. The increasing flame intensity could be interpreted as Mata Hari spreading her influence through the officer ranking while the violent collapse represents her death alongside the soldiers that she took down with her. The eye that appears after the collapse can be interpreted as Mata Hari, translating to eye of the day, a symbol of woman empowerment.

In the live performance, Efendi and the dancers wore what looks like a combination of a black embroidered tulle dress and lingerie. While the sexualized theme of their garment was probably just an attempt to follow the pop culture trend, it could be argued that they are just playing into the theme of Mata Hari’s profession, an exotic dancer. As a strip plastic 

“Mata Hari,” or “Cleopatra” in disguise?

Prior to her Eurovision 2021 entry “Mata Hari,” she was selected to perform “Cleopatra” at Eurovision 2020. While it was unfortunate that the event was cancelled as a result of the pandemic, fans were not disappointed to learn that parts of “Cleopatra” lived on in “Mata Hari” through clear references and similarities in her 2021 entry. The most apparent instance of “Cleopatra” reference in “Mata Hari” resides in the line “Just like Cleopatra” in the lyrics implying a common feature between Cleopatra and Mata Hari.

The other reference she made to “Cleopatra” is the snake image shown in the background during the performance. Although Azerbaijan seems to have an abundance of snakes (Animals in Azerbaijan, 2021), it is unlikely that the digitally rendered snake shown was trying to send a message about Azerbaijan’s wildlife rather, a direct reference to Cleopatra’s death by snake (Ducksters, 2022).

One other feature of the performance that could be referencing to “Cleopatra” is the yellow and golden colors that appear frequently on the background display. Efendi’s “Cleopatra” music video was shot in a desert wearing gold, yellow, and black themed attires and initially shown soaking in gold flakes-infused water. While it could be argued that that is a reference to Mata Hari’s well known dancer attire, it would also make sense to say that Mata Hari was picked as she was the next closest person to Cleopatra in terms of the theme and the message they were trying to convey.

One most obvious musical gimmick shared between the two songs was used when a non-English phrase was sung, where a digitally manipulated monotonous lower frequency voice was used to sing. In case of “Cleopatra”, it was a Japanese phrase “南無妙法蓮華経, 南無妙法蓮華経, 南無妙法蓮華経”(“Efendi – Cleopatra Lyrics”, 2021) which is the part of the Nichiren Buddhism chanting (Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia, 2014), whereas it was “Yalan da mən, yanan da mən, yaman da mən” which translates to “I am lying, I am burning, I am evil” in “Mata Hari” (“Efendi – Mata Hari Lyrics”, 2021).

Why “Cleopatra?”

From a statement made my Efendi, “Cleopatra is a song about trusting your gut instinct, standing up for yourself and being a “queen” – even when things get tough and specially if someone betrays or hurts you.” (Muldoon, 2020) Notice the common theme in both “Cleopatra” and “Mata Hari,” it is women empowerment and gender equality. Unlike many other queens in her time who are like a secretary to the kings, Cleopatra was a beloved queen who led Egypt to prosper by building Egyptian economy and establishing trade with the neighboring countries. She led the army to war against Octavian and committed suicide possibly from getting bitten by snake (Ducksters, 2022). As a queen who led her country’s narrative and determined her own fate instead of enjoying a lavish domestic lifestyle, it is no surprise how she became a symbol for powerful woman.

The mainstream “novelty”

Efendi’s first three songs prior to her first Eurovision entry in 2020 were love songs written entirely in Azerbaijani, while the last two – “Mata Hari” and “Cleopatra” – shifted focus to women empowerment and are primarily in English. The transition begs the question: Was the swap to women empowerment theme sung primarily in English intentionally done to appeal the Eurovision audience? According to Chalkley, a novelty song is “one that uses presentation, musical style or an individual talent to produce something unusual and different.” And one of the features she used to differentiate a novelty song to the mainstream ones is the theme, whether it is about love and heartbreak or not. She also stated that “most Eurovision songs are about love in some form or another.” (2017) Solidifying the claim that Efendi moved on to the topic women empowerment as an attempt to become “novelty” and the use of English made it even more accessible to the international audience.

As a pop singer and strip plastic dancer performing a pop song and strip plastic dancing in 2020 and 2021 – when pop topped the chart with Hip-Hop/Rap (“gen z's top music genre”, 2021) and erotic dances prevalence and exotic dance becoming a norm in pop culture – it would be reasonable to attribute the genre’s popularity to “Mata Hari’s” success in Eurovision.

The performance in regard to Azerbaijan national identity

Despite being in persistent conflict with Armenia, I was not able to draw any solid interpretation that relates the performance to the Nagorno-Karabakh region or Armenia. That is, unless the “you” in the song is referring to Armenia, but that would imply direct hostility which would not be in Azerbaijan’s best interest.

On the other hand, there were many instances where references to Azerbaijan’s national symbols and culture were made. At exactly 2:22 mark into the Eurovision life performance video (NPR, 2021), the background LEDs shows a picture of what seems to be a star with a flaming sphere in the center. The image bear striking similarity to Azerbaijan’s national symbol, the “Flame of Fire” with a circular outline encasing a star and fire in the middle. In the first half of the performance, the background was primarily flashing brightly in blue and red – Azerbaijan’s national color. Meanwhile, the choreography seems to be a combination of Samba, strip plastic, and Abayi – Azabaijan’s national dance.

Culture wise, there were two unique sounding instruments that are traditional to Azerbaijan: nagara, a drum and zurna, a woodwind. Language wise, the thrilled ‘r’ was done intentionally to emphasize the “Voiced alveolar liquid” trilled sound (Siegel, n.d.) unique to few languages such as Azerbaijan.

Concluding thoughts

While Azerbaijan missed their opportunity to perform “Cleopatra” in 2020 ESC, their 2021 entry, “Mata Hari” was their second attempt at presenting a women empowerment-themed performance with elements from “Cleopatra” making reappearances in “Mata Hari.” Her success in the ESC 2021 could be attributed to Efendi’s well executed performance and effects, her song being the more mainstream pop music genre, and the novelty theme of women empowerment. Finally, while not overtly showcasing their national identity, some aspects such as national color, symbol, and traditional instrument made an appearance throughout the performance.

Word count: 1647

 

References

Animals in Azerbaijan. AZ Animals. (2021, June 24). Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://a-z-animals.com/animals/location/europe/azerbaijan/# 

Asian Development Bank. (2019). Azerbaijan Country Gender Assessment. Adb.org. https://doi.org/10.22617/tcs190569-2 

Chalky, E. (2017, May 2). Gimmicks, glitter and glam: Eurovisions' novelty song contest. ESCInsight. Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://escinsight.com/2017/05/02/eurovision-song-contest-novelty-songs/ 

Ducksters. (2022). Ancient Egyptian Biography for Kids: Cleopatra VII. Ducksters. Retrieved from https://www.ducksters.com/history/ancient_egypt/cleopatra_vii.php 

EBU. (n.d.). Efendi - Azerbaijan - rotterdam 2021. Eurovision.tv. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://eurovision.tv/participant/efendi-2021 

Efendi - Mata Hari Lyrics. Musixmatch. (2021, December 18). Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Efendi/Mata-Hari 

Efendi - Cleopatra lyrics. Musixmatch. (2021, July 24). Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Efendi/Cleopatra 

Efendi. (2021). "Mata Hari" (Azerbaijan). Eurovision Song Contest 2021 Rotterdam [DVD]. Universal Music Group.

Fandom. (n.d.). Samira Efendi. Eurovision Song Contest Wiki. Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://eurovisionsongcontest.fandom.com/wiki/Samira_Efendi 

History.com Editors. (2021, October 13). Dancer and spy Mata Hari is executed. History.com. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mata-hari-executed

Siegel, A. H. (n.d.). Essentials of Azerbaijani: An Introductory Course. Liberalarts. Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/slavic/public-outreach/azeri.pdf. 

This has rapidly become gen z's top music genre. YPulse. (2021, November 16). Retrieved February 24, 2022, from https://www.ypulse.com/article/2021/11/16/this-has-rapidly-become-gen-zs-top-music-genre/