Nigar Jamal

Nigar “Nikki” Aydin qizi Jamal, born Nigar Mutallibzadeh on September 7, 1980, in Baku, is a celebrated Azerbaijani singer. Before embarking on her singing career, Jamal spent five years as a housewife. She attended Khazar University from 1997, studying economics and management for three years. 

Her journey in the Azerbaijani music scene began in December 2010 with her participation in Milli Seçim Turu 2011, the national selection for Eurovision. Jamal’s initial performance in Heat 7 led to a joint first-place finish and advancement to the semi-finals. Ultimately, she and Eldar Gasimov triumphed in the final on February 11, 2011, earning the privilege to represent Azerbaijan at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany. Performing as Ell & Nikki, their song “Running Scared,” penned by international songwriters, secured victory with 221 points.

Following their Eurovision win, Jamal and Gasimov toured various countries to perform their winning song. Azerbaijan honored their achievement by issuing 15,000 commemorative postage stamps. In September 2011, Jamal made a guest appearance in the Turkish comedy series Yahşi Cazibe.

In 2012, Jamal was selected as one of the five Azerbaijani jury members for Denmark’s Eurovision contestant selection. On December 1, 2011, she debuted her post-Eurovision solo track “Crush on You,” along with its music video. Subsequent releases included collaborations with Miri Yusif on “Qal” (“Stay”) and Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan on “Come Into My World.”

August 11, 2012, marked the release of her debut album “Play With Me,” featuring work with Danish songwriter Boe Larsen. 

In early 2014, Jamal served as a judge on the Turkish edition of X Factor, where she played a pivotal role in producing the show’s winner.

In 2015, she reached the no. 1 spot in the Turkish charts with the song “Broken dreams”. She teamed up with Berksan for the song “Herhalde”. A year later, she released the single “Çağıran da ürəkdi” and in 2017 she came up with “Sus”. 

In 2023, she recorded several songs with Ell.