Eurovision contest shines unsettling light on Azerbaijan

While some consider Eurovision a musical laughingstock and others embrace its unabashed celebration of pop music, the annual song contest has inspired much more serious consideration this year because of its host country: Azerbaijan.

Global attention has turned to the 2012 contest amid a series of anti-government rallies, protests against President Illharn Aliyev, the persecution of journalists and opposition voices and allegations of residents being forcibly ejected to make way to build the glittering Crystal Hall in the capital of Baku to host Eurovision.

All of this is set against the oil-rich, strategically locatednation's attempt to present a more appealing face to the West, by presenting a slick, blockbuster edition of Eurovision, watched annually by some 125 million people worldwide.

"The most that has ever been spent [to host Eurovision] has been in the $30 million range and that was when Moscow hosted several years ago. It's become very clear that Azerbaijan is trying to out-Moscow Moscow because that contest was very blingy," according to Karen Fricker, co-founder of Eurovision and the New Europe academic research network.

"I've been to Eurovision for the past eight years and ... they're well outside the box in terms of how much they're spending," she told CBC's Q on Wednesday, noting that current spendingis estimated in the hundreds of millions.

As the 57th edition of the singing contest approached, democracy activists urged closer international scrutiny of the former Soviet nation and its government's actions, in hopes ofultimately improving conditions for average Azerbaijan citizens.

Meanwhile, average Azeris have been flocking to the Eurovision events, including Tuesday night's first semi-final where Russia's entry Buranovskiye Babushkia group of folk song-crooning grannies from a remote regionstole the show.

"Last night was the best-attended semi-final ever in the history of the semi-finals of Eurovision," Fricker told Q guest host Jim Brown.

Other favourites heading into Saturday's grand finale includeBritish music icon Englebert Humperdinck, flamboyant Irish twins Jedward and Swedish pop singer Loreen who acknowledged the concerns of activists at a press conference.

The goal of the democracy campaign has been for participating Eurovision artists to make a comment about Azerbaijan, Fricker said.

"What the anti-government people want is for the artists to say something from the stage. Now, how they could do that in the highly disciplined, three minute-long, got to get my song out format, I don't know. But then again, I'm here talking to you about these problems, these concerns. Any raising of consciousness, [that's] a lot that's been achieved by the global media."