Azerbaijan Revels as Host of Eurovision Song Contest BAKU, Azerbaijan - Intent on making a flawless debut on the world stage as the host of this year's Eurovision Song Contest finals, the government of Azerbaijan left nothing to chance. As the big event approached on Saturday night, Baku, the capital of this small, oil-rich former Soviet republic, went into a veritable lockdown. Heavily guarded police barriers went up, barring anyone without a ticket from driving downtown. Tickets, costing as much as $300, were sold under similarly tight circumstances - each matched to a passport or other identification number to prevent scalping and to give the authorities a map of exactly who would be sitting in each of the 23,000 seats in the new Crystal Hall arena. Each morning, city workers made sure every flower bed was perfect and rubbish swept away. On three afternoons last week, security forces arrested dozens of protesters seeking to draw attention to human rights abuses. But, in the end, even President Ilham Aliyev's feared security services proved powerless against the weather. Just as the British finalist, Engelbert Humperdinck, sang the first note of the first song, rain burst from the sky. The downpour did not deter the thousands of people who could not afford or otherwise snag tickets and who had gathered outdoors to watch on a jumbo screen set up on the arcing promenade along the Caspian Sea. Nor were they daunted by the late hour of the event, which started at midnight here to maximize television viewership across Europe. While those in the know rightly predicted that Sweden's raven-haired Loreen would win the top prize, many in the giddy crowd said they were rooting for a repeat victory by Azerbaijan, or Turkey, a cultural neighbor. The crowd included families with children and hard partyers wearing helmets built to carry two beer cans. When Sabina Babayeva, the hometown contestant, took the stage, she prompted a rollicking chant, "Ah-zer-bai-jan! Ah-zer-bai-jan! Russian Grannies Boogie If Ms. Babayeva had home-field advantage, the overwhelming sentimental favorite was a troupe of Russian grandmothers called the Buranovskiye Babushki. Eurovision is known for its over-the-top kitsch, but, even by its standards, there was something remarkable about grannies from the central Russian republic of Udmurtia, not far from where the Ural Mountains border on Siberia. The Babushki, with an average age of 75, finished second over all with a jaunty pop song called "Party for Everybody." Wearing head scarves and traditional dresses and coin jewelry, they bounced up and down, waving their arms, smiling mischievously. They performed with a steaming oven as a prop on stage, and, at one point during their stay in Baku, they baked trays of perepechi, a traditional dish of meat and vegetable tartlets that they served to the Eurovision press corps. In Azerbaijan, the grannies, who first appeared in a Russian news program in 2008, were treated as divas, with a constant security detail. They stayed at a resort complex outside Baku as guests of Emin Agalarov, the son of an Azeri-born Russian billionaire, Aras Agalarov. Emin Agalarov is married to Leyla Aliyeva, the elder daughter of the country's president. The hugely popular Babushki had more interview requests than they could accommodate, and Russian journalists who interviewed them said their only request was to stay in a house with running hot water and no elevators. Meanwhile, in the Babushki's remote hometown Buranovo, a Russian telecommunications company worked round the clock to install an optical cable for high-speed Internet, Wi-Fi and an interactive, digital television in the local school, so residents could watch the Eurovision final. In the crowd along the Baku waterfront, Latif Dzhangirov, 30, who lived for a while in Moscow, said the Babushki had his vote. "Sweden is great," Mr. Dzhangirov said. But our culture has a respect for older people. Elsewhere, Discontent In Astara, 200 miles south of Baku, near the Iranian border, the dozen or so men sitting in the dusty heat outside Viki's Teahouse said they were getting old before their time, with no jobs and nothing to do. Eurovision, they said, may be good for the government but had done nothing for them. "I don't care about Eurovision, because they don't care about me," said Shiriyev el-Nur, 35, who said he had spent three years during the mid-1990s as a soldier for Azerbaijan in its conflict with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh but who is now unemployed. That conflict with Armenia cast a shadow over Eurovision. Armenia pulled out of the contest, preferring to pay fines rather than participate with its enemy as host. Elvin Kerivov, 29, a part-time musician who plays the synthesizer, said he was glad the roles were not reversed. It's better for Eurovision to be here in Azerbaijan than in Armenia. If Armenia won, our delegation would have to go to Armenia to sing, which is not good for our pride. Mr. Nur, who has four daughters ages 2 to 9, said he wished the government would focus more on employment. "Look at us," he said. We are just drinking tea here because we cannot find a job. They claim the nation is in good condition, but they do not find any position for us. Biggest Gay Event Eurovision has also been the subject of some tension between Azerbaijan and Iran, its neighbor to the south, with Iranian Web sites at one point suggesting that Azerbaijan was planning a gay pride parade. That was not true, but Eurovision, in fact, does draw huge numbers of gay fans. "I think it's increasingly known as the biggest gay event in the world," said Thomas Molloy, who was in Baku with his partner, Fred Medeiros, from Chatham, England, attending their fourth Eurovision. Daniel Motiño Camúñez of the International Network of Fan Clubs of Eurovision said there was no doubt. "I think it is the glamour, the glitter, the excitement, the divas," he said, adding, "drag-queeny, tacky stuff." Several gay men attending Eurovision said they had found the people of Baku to be hugely welcoming. "They want to take pictures of us; they want to hold us," Mr. Motiño Camúñez said. I'm not even blond. The blonds are having a really hard time with this. But not all of the attention has been positive. Michael Duncan, a journalist who works on Eurovision-related Web sites, said several had come under repeated hacker attacks with antigay statements posted on the disrupted sites. The sun was already up on Sunday when Mr. Molloy and Mr. Medeiros arrived back at their hotel, exhilarated by Sweden's victory. Mr. Medeiros was draped in a huge Swedish flag. Mr. Molloy was wearing a cowboy hat imprinted with the Azerbaijan flag. "Next year in Stockholm!" they said.