Dilara Kazimova

Dilara Kazımova began her artistic journey as a member of the group Woman. In 2004, she joined the music competition Sing Your Song, where she performed a duet called “Cherry” with the band Unformal. Her collaboration with the band was so successful that she eventually became the lead singer of Unformal. In the finals of Sing Your Song, held at the grand Haydar Aliyev Palace, Dilara and Unformal were celebrated as runners-up.

In 2006, she broadened her artistic portfolio, starring alongside renowned actor Fəxrəddin Manafov in the film “Çalış, nəfəs alma”. The film was well-received, earning a prestigious award at the Salento Finibus Terrae international short film festival in Italy. Continuing her journey with Unformal, in 2007, they performed the theme song “Sonsuz Yol” for the film Sirat Körpüsü.

Dilara’s first encounter with the Eurovision Song Contest came in 2008 when she participated as part of “Unformal”. They reached the final stage and secured second place. Then, in 2010, Dilara returned to the Eurovision national selection, this time as the lead singer of Milk and Kisses. Once again, they finished in second place. That same year, Dilara won New Wave held in Jurmala, Latvia, and she acted in a joint Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, and Russia production called “Qardaşımdan yaxşısı yox idi”.

In the subsequent years, Dilara continued to make waves in the music industry. In 2012, she presented her duet “Doğma Mahnılar” with Orkhan Zeynallı. In 2013, she introduced her single “Мысли”, a melodic piece composed by Emin Kərimiyə with lyrics by Riyad Əliyev.

Dilara’s dream to represent Azerbaijan in the Eurovision Song Contest came true in 2014. She won the national selection through Böyük Səhnə,  the natiuonal final for the contest, and earned the right to represent her country with the song “Start a Fire”. Dilara reached the final and earned a 22nd place there. She also represented Azerbaijan at the Ukrainian version of the TV show “The Voice” in 2014 and was a guest performer at the solo concert of the group Okean Elzı in Baku.

In 2015, she acted in the film “4.1 şəhər motivləri”, also known as “Dmitrov küçəsi 86”. That same year, she performed the folk song “Laçın” on Turkey’s popular television show “Transparent Room” to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre.

In 2018, Dilara dedicated her single “613” to the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly Massacre. Later that year, she presented her single “Azərbaycan” at the Genclik Mall. She also performed at Star of Asia in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and collaborated with composer-singer Murad Arif to present the duet “Yalnız Səni Gözlədim”.

In 2020, she released her single “Azərbaycanım”. In 2021, Dilara performed a duet with Elshad Xose called “Əsl sevgi”, with lyrics and music by Xose himself. She also introduced a single called “Ünvanımız xoşbəxtlik”, which she composed herself, and later in the year, she presented her singles “Qaralama” and “Olmaram”.

In 2022, she teamed up with Ulviyya for the song “Korablik”. In December of that year, Dilara released two solo singles in English: “Running” and “Dream”. followed in 2023 by “Alov” and “Olmaz”.