Eurovision Milli Seçim Turu 2011 Milli Seçim Turu 2011 was the national final organised by İTV that selected the Azerbaijani contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The competition consisted of nine shows that commenced on 15 November 2010 and concluded with a winning artist on 11 February 2011. All shows were broadcast on İTV and streamed online via the broadcaster's website itv.az. The final was also streamed online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv and broadcast in Turkey on TRT Avaz as well as in Georgia on the GPB First Channel. Format The national final consisted of two stages. The first stage involved interested artists attending auditions after submitting applications between 5 and 15 October 2010. Eligible artists were those that were citizens of Azerbaijan or part of the Azerbaijani diaspora. 77 artists selected from 120 applicants advanced to the second stage, the televised shows. Nine shows including seven heats between 15 November 2010 and 31 December 2011 selected one artist from each show that would advance to the semi-final in January 2011. In the semi-final, five artists were selected to advance to the final on 11 February 2011. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining five artists. The results of the heats and semi-final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from public televoting and a seven-member jury panel. Each heat and semi-final took place across five days where the artists each performed cover versions of various songs in order to showcase their voice, dance ability and stage presence: world hits on Monday, Eurovision hits on Tuesday, Azerbaijani songs on Wednesday and a song of their choice on Thursday. The results were announced on Friday. For each of the eight shows, the public was able to cast their votes through telephone or SMS over the five days. In the final, the jury selected the Azerbaijani Eurovision contestant. The members of the jury were: Ismail Omarov – General Director of İTV Lala Kazimova – President of the National Music Committee of Azerbaijan Rauf Babayev – singer Faiq Suceddinov – singer Zulfiyya Khanbabayeva – singer Zahra Badalbayli – musician and poet Manzar Nuraliyeva – representative of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan Shows Heats The seven heats took place between 15 November 2010 and 31 December 2011 at the İTV studios in Baku, hosted by Husniyya Maharramova and Leyla Aliyeva. Tarik Yigit