Azerbaijan Finds Its Voice: JIVA’s Going to Vienna

Azerbaijan has finally done the thing: picked an artist for Eurovision 2026, and it’s a name that comes with both serious vocals and a very satisfying sense of “wait… haven’t we been here before?” On Friday 6 March, İctimai Television confirmed that JIVA will represent Azerbaijan in Vienna, marking the country’s 18th Eurovision participation since that first step onto the stage back in Belgrade 2008.

And yes, JIVA isn’t new to this whole Eurovision orbit. She actually made the top three of Azerbaijan’s national final in 2011. Which means this isn’t just “new singer, new era”. It’s more “unfinished business, but with better timing”.

The semi-final slot is set, the song is not

Azerbaijan will perform in the first half of the Second Semi-Final on Thursday 14 May. That part is locked in. The song, however, is still being kept under wraps, because Eurovision season apparently requires at least one national broadcaster to tease a reveal like it’s a royal birth announcement.

How they chose her: a whole pipeline, not a whim

Here’s the bit that actually makes this selection feel deliberate: İTV received 186 songs in total. 107 came from local composers and performers, 79 from international songwriters. That’s a lot of inbox scrolling.

From there, a professional panel reviewed everything, invited 18 candidates to auditions, and judged the very Eurovision trio of doom: vocals, stage presence, and “will this land with an international audience?”. Then they trimmed it to a shortlist of three, and a specially formed focus group made the final call, choosing JIVA.

So no public televote chaos, no week-long fandom civil war, no “robbed” discourse before the confetti even hits the floor. Just a quiet internal machine doing what it thinks works best.

Who is JIVA, really?

JIVA is Jamila Hashimova, an Azerbaijani singer known for big vocals and a performance style that leans into sincerity rather than irony. Her career goes back years: she placed second at the Baku Autumn competition in 2003, joined the Show Time project in 2007, performed with the RAST ensemble led by Rashad Hashimov, and even appeared at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Later, she fronted Hazz Band, blending jazz flavours with contemporary pop.

Since 2017, she’s been working as a solo artist across pop, dance and R&B, singing in Azerbaijani, Russian and English. And in 2025, she won The Voice of Azerbaijan on Roya Aykhan’s team, which is basically the modern TV stamp that says: “Yes, I can handle pressure and a live microphone.”

Why this could work in Vienna

This is the sort of pick that gives Azerbaijan options. With a vocalist like JIVA, you can go classy and cinematic, you can go modern and slick, you can even flirt with something jazz-leaning if you’re brave. The point is: she doesn’t feel like a gamble. She feels like a tool Azerbaijan can build around.

And in a semi-final where half the acts will be doing choreography like their rent depends on it, sometimes the simplest flex is walking out, planting your feet, and singing like you mean it.

Azerbaijan’s song reveal is the missing piece, but the artist choice already suggests a plan: make sure the live performance is bulletproof. Which, honestly, is never a bad Eurovision strategy.

Source: Eurovision