Introduction

This year the Russian broadcaster Channel 1 has made an internal selection for the Eurovision Song Contest representative. Due to the current situation it’s interesting to see that Russia takes part in Vienna, while the Ukraine has withdrawn. The ESC is strictly non-political, but sometimes it’s strange to see that countries take part in the ESC even if the people do not live in peace while watching the Eurovision Song Contest. In some years songs of peace have good chances to win the ESC, like 1982, when Nicole won with “Ein Bisschen Frieden”, while there has been some tough political interferences between the host country UK and Argentina. This year there will also be at least two peace songs one from Hungary and one from France. Hopefully, the Russian singer Polina Gagarina will receive the same respect than everybody else and that Russia does not utilize her for strategic instrumentalization.

This year’s Russian singer Polina Sergejewna Gagarina was born in Moscow, Russia (former Soviet Union) in 1987. Her first years she spend in Greece with her family, that’s why Polina fluently speaks Greek. She went to a music school and graduated from State Music School of Popular & Jazz Art and MKhAT Theatre School. In the age of 16 Polina could win the casting show „Fabrika Zvyozd“. By now she released two albums and several singles which placed well in the charts, not only in Russia. She is working on her third album. Above that she received many awards. She’s is married with the famous photographer Dmitry Iskhakov and has a 7 years old son. She is celebrated as new shining star in Russia.

The Russian entry is called “A Million Voices” and should empowering people to work for a better future. The video clip is lovely made, with many happy faces of children and elderly people. The beautiful voice of Polina is very suitable to this melody. The song has been composed by the same international team as two years ago, when Dina Garipova made a 5th place in Malmö with “What If”. It will be hard for the juries and TV spectators to judge this entry in a fair way. As the message of the song is full of love and peace, unfortunately, this is not what comes to people’s mind when they think of Russia these days.

History

Debut: 1994
Participations: 19
Finals: 18
Top 10: 10
Chance for Top 10: 53%

This will be the 19th time for from Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest. Russia’s debut year has been in 1994 in Dublin with “Vechni Stranik” by Youddiph, when a lot of new countries took part for the first time like Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania, Poland, Hungary and Estonia. Youddiph made a 9th place in the first year.
In the short history of Russian entries it’s quite obviously that almost all songs have been sung in English. Furthermore the image of the utmost contemporary music should be spread out into the world – the new music from Russia.

The big wish to win the ESC came true in 2008, when Dima Bilan sang “Believe” in Belgrade, with the help from the violinist Edvin Marten and the Russian figure skater Evgeni Plushenko, who won three gold medals at Olympia, with the first ice-skating performance at Eurovision. For many this exaggerated performance was far too much.
One year later the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Moscow for the first time in history. The Russian have put every effort into this show to make it the most modern ESC ever in particular from the technology point of view. Never before there were more LED lights used in ESC history. But the Russian have often been close to victory three time the 2nd place, and two times 3rd place that’s a result nobody could complain. 10 times Russia made it into the Top10, so there is a chance of 53% for Russia to be on a top position. There is always a lot of neighbour country voting, so Russia always qualified for the Grand Final.

Russia is the biggest country in the world and therefore it has a huge amount of viewers, the interest in the ESC has grown from year to year, there were also singers from the Asian part in Vladivostok: Mumiy Troll with “Lady Alpine Blue” (12th).