Land of Fire 2008 was the national final organised by İTV that selected the Azerbaijani entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. The competition took place on 2 February 2008 at the Heydar Aliyev Palace in Baku and was hosted by Husniye Maharramova and Ilham Gasimov. The show was broadcast on İTV, in Turkey on TRT2, TRT Türk and TRT International, in Georgia on GEGT, in Lithuania on LRT televizija as well as streamed online via the İTV website itv.az and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.
Competing artists
İTV called for interested artists to apply for the competition by attending auditions held in October 2007. Eligible artists were those that were citizens of Azerbaijan or part of the Azerbaijani diaspora. 28 artists attended the auditions and on 11 January 2008, İTV announced the three artists selected for the competition from five potential performers that were shortlisted: Aynur Iskenderli, Aytaj Jafarova, Elnur Hüseynov, Erkin Osmanli and Unformal. The selection of the three competing artists was based on the decision of a panel consisting of national and international experts.
Final
The final took place on 2 February 2008. The competing artists each performed three original songs and Elnur Hüseynov was selected by a fifteen-member jury panel as the winning artist. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Eurovision Song Contest 2003 winner Sertab Erener, Eurovision Song Contest 2004 winner Ruslana and Eurovision Song Contest 2007 winner Marija Šerifović performed as guests. „Day After Day“, performed by Hüseynov in a duet with Samir Javadzadeh, was announced as the selected song on 8 February 2008.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Unformal | „Lalala Song“ | Farida Jafarova, Dilara Kazimova |
| 2 | Unformal | „Little Muse“ | Farida Jafarova, Igor Garanin, Togrul Manafov |
| 3 | Elnur Hüseynov | „If You Never Back“ | Isa Melikov, Paulina Melikova |
| 4 | Elnur Hüseynov & Samir Javadzadeh | „Day After Day“ | Govhar Hasanzadeh, Zahra Badalbeyi |
| 5 | Aynur Iskenderli | „Swear That You Will Stay“ | Ilham Abdullayev, Zahra Badalbeyli |
| 6 | Aynur Iskenderli | „Rhythm of Fire“ | Mikhail Nekrasov, Zahra Badalbeyli |
Elnur Hüseynov feat. Samir Cavadzade came 8th at the ESC.
