Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Russia
Member station	VGTRK; Channel One;
National selection events	National final 1994 ; 1996 ; 2005 ; 2008–2010 ; 2012 ; Internal selection 1995 ; 1997 ; 2000–2004 ; 2006–2007 ; 2011 ; 2013–2016 ; 2018–2020 ;
Participation summary
Appearances	22 (21 finals)
First appearance	1994
Best result	1st: 2008
External links
	Channel One page; Russia-1 page
	Russia's page at Eurovision.tv
	For the most recent participation see; Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

Russia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since their debut in 1994. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". One of the most successful countries in the contest in the 21st century with a total of ten top five placements, Russia finished second with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006, Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012 and Polina Gagarina in 2015; third with t.A.T.u. in 2003, Serebro in 2007, Sergey Lazarev in 2016 and 2019, and fifth with Dina Garipova in 2013. In 2018, they failed to qualify for the final for the first time in their history.

Contest history

Their debut was in the 1994 contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Russia came second at four contests; in 2000 with the song "Solo" performed by Alsou, in 2006 with Dima Bilan's song "Never Let You Go", in 2012 with the song "Party for Everybody" performed by Buranovskiye Babushki, and in 2015 with Polina Gagarina's song "A Million Voices". They also achieved four third-place finishes; in 2003 with t.A.T.u's song "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", Serebro's in 2007 with their entry "Song #1", and in 2016 as well as 2019 with Sergey Lazarev's song "You Are the Only One" and "Scream" respectively.

Russia has failed to qualify for the Final on two occasions. In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinsky with the song "Me is me", but he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round, while in 2018 Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song "I Won't Break", failed to qualify from the televised second semi-final.

In 1998, because Russia did not participate in the contest (due to lower average scores in participating in previous competitions), Russia refused to broadcast the competition and the European Broadcasting Union in return forbade the country to participate the following year. According to unconfirmed information, Russia was required to submit Tatyana Ovsiyenko with the song "My Sun".

Russia won their first Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, when Dima Bilan, participating for the second time in the contest, won with the song "Believe", bringing the contest to Russia for 2009.

Russia was the most successful country in Eurovision in 2000-2009, with one win, two second places, and two third places. However, in 2010 they finished 11th, and in 2011 they were 16th, which was the worst place for Russia since 1995. Interest in the competition fell, but in 2012 Buranovskiye Babushki finished in second place, increasing Russia's interest in the show. Russia holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st century, with ten, with Sergey Lazarev holding the record of the highest score of any Russian contestant, who finished third in 2016 with 491 points.

In February 2019, Sergey Lazarev was once again confirmed as the Russian representative for Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv. Which makes Sergey the second return artist in Russian Eurovision participation history after Dima Bilan, who participated in 2006 and 2008 respectively. This time he represented his country with the song Scream, managed to bring Russia back to grand final for the first time since 2016 and achieved the 10th top 5 result by finishing third once again.

Broadcast

The contest has been broadcast irregularly on two different public state channels in Russia, both EBU members: for the 1994 and 1996 it was broadcast on Russia-1 of VGTRK, while in 1995, 1997 and from 1999 to 2007 the contest was broadcast on Channel One. Since 2008, there is an alternation on broadcast and selection, with Russia-1 on even years, and Channel One on odd ones. This however changed after not broadcasting 2017 contest, when Channel One started to do the broadcast and selection on even years, while Russia-1 on odd ones.

Contestants

Table key
1	Winner
2	Second place
3	Third place
X	Entry selected but did not compete

Year	Artist	Language	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1994	Youddiph	Russian	"Vechni stranik" (Вечный странник)	9	70	No semi-finals
1995	Philipp Kirkorov	Russian	"Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" (Колыбельная для вулкана)	17	17	No semi-finals
1996	Andrey Kosinsky	Russian	"Ya eto ya" (Я это я)	Failed to qualify[lower-alpha 1]		26	14
1997	Alla Pugacheva	Russian	"Primadonna" (Примадонна)	15	33	No semi-finals
2000	Alsou	English	"Solo"	2	155
2001	Mumiy Troll	English	"Lady Alpine Blue"	12	37
2002	Prime Minister	English	"Northern Girl"	10	55
2003	t.A.T.u.	Russian	"Ne ver', ne boisia" (Не верь, не бойся)	3	164
2004	Julia Savicheva	English	"Believe Me"	11	67	Top 11 previous year[lower-alpha 2]
2005	Natalia Podolskaya	English	"Nobody Hurt No One"	15	57	Top 12 previous year[lower-alpha 2]
2006	Dima Bilan	English	"Never Let You Go"	2	248	3	217
2007	Serebro	English	"Song #1"	3	207	Top 10 previous year[lower-alpha 2]
2008	Dima Bilan	English	"Believe"	1	272	3	135
2009	Anastasia Prikhodko	Russian, Ukrainian	"Mamo" (Мамо)	11	91	Host country[lower-alpha 2]
2010	Peter Nalitch and Friends	English	"Lost and Forgotten"	11	90	7	74
2011	Alexey Vorobyov	English, Russian	"Get You"	16	77	9	64
2012	Buranovskiye Babushki	Udmurt, English	"Party for Everybody"	2	259	1	152
2013	Dina Garipova	English	"What If"	5	174	2	156
2014	Tolmachevy Sisters	English	"Shine"	7	89	6	63
2015	Polina Gagarina	English	"A Million Voices"	2	303	1	182
2016	Sergey Lazarev	English	"You Are the Only One"	3	491	1	342
2017	Julia Samoylova	English	"Flame Is Burning"	Withdrawn[lower-alpha 3] X
2018	Julia Samoylova	English	"I Won't Break"	Failed to qualify		15	65
2019	Sergey Lazarev	English	"Scream"	3	370	6	217
2020	Little Big	English[lower-alpha 4]	"Uno"	Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 5] X

Selection process

Year	Selection process	Channel
1994	National final with 9 participants	RTR
1995	Internal selection	ORT
1996	National final with 14 participants	RTR
1997	Internal selection	ORT
Did not participate between 1998 and 1999
2000	Internal selection	ORT
2001
2002
2003		Channel 1
2004
2005	National final with 29 participants
2006	Internal selection
2007	Internal selection
2008	National final with 27 participants	Russia 1
2009	National final with 16 participants	Channel 1
2010	National final with 25 participants	Russia 1
2011	Internal selection	Channel 1
2012	National final with 25 participants	Russia 1
2013	Internal selection	Channel 1
2014		Russia 1
2015		Channel 1
2016		Russia 1
2017		Channel 1
2018		Channel 1
2019		Russia 1

Related involvement

Heads of delegation

Broadcaster	Head of delegation
Chanel One	Yuri Aksyuta
RTR	Ekaterina Orlova

Commentators and spokespersons

Year	Commentator	Channel	Spokesperson	Ref.
1994	Sergei Antipov	RTR	Irina Klenskaya
1995	No commentator	ORT	Marina Danielyan
1996	Vadim Dolgachyov	RTR	Did not participate
1997	Philipp Kirkorov, Sergei Antipov	ORT	Arina Sharapova
1998	No broadcast		Did not participate
1999	Aleksej Zhuravlev, Tatjana Godunova	ORT	Did not participate
2000	Aleksej Zhuravlev, Tatjana Godunova		Zhanna Agalakova
2001	Alexander Anatolievich, Konstantin Mikhailov		Larisa Verbickaya
2002	Yuri Aksyuta, Elena Batinova		Arina Sharapova
2003		Channel 1	Yana Churikova
2004
2005
2006	Yuri Aksyuta, Tatjana Godunova
2007	Yuri Aksyuta, Elena Batinova
2008	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Russia 1	Oxana Fedorova
2009	Yana Churikova (all shows), Aleksey Manuylov (semi-finals), Philipp Kirkorov (final)	Channel 1	Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
2010	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Russia 1	Oxana Fedorova
2011	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Channel 1	Dima Bilan
2012	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Russia 1	Oxana Fedorova
2013	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Channel 1	Alsou	[1]
2014	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Russia 1	Alsou	[2]
2015	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Channel 1	Dmitry Shepelev
2016	Dmitry Guberniev, Ernest Matskyavichys	Russia 1	Nyusha
2017	No broadcast		Did not participate
2018	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Channel 1	Alsou
2019	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Russia 1	Ivan Bessonov	[3][4][5]

Hostings

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters	Ref.
2009	Moscow	Olympic Indoor Arena	Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov (semi-finals) Alsou and Ivan Urgant (final)	[6]

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Year	Category	Song	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2016	Press Award	"You Are the Only One"	Sergey Lazarev	3	491	Stockholm	[7]

Barbara Dex Award

Year	Performer	Host city	Ref.
2003	t.A.T.u.	Riga	[8]

Photogallery

Serebro in Helsinki (2007)
Dima Bilan in Belgrade (2008)
Anastasia Prikhodko in Moscow (2009)
Peter Nalitch and Friends in Oslo (2010)
Alex Vorobyov in Düsseldorf (2011)
Dina Garipova in Malmö (2013)
Tolmachevy Sisters in Copenhagen (2014)
Polina Gagarina in Vienna (2015)
Sergey Lazarev in Stockholm (2016)
Julia Samoylova in Lisbon (2018)
Sergey Lazarev in Tel Aviv (2019)

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Notes and references

Notes

In 1996, Russia failed to qualify from the audio only pre-qualification round. The official Eurovision site does not count 1996 in Russia's total list of appearances.
If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in Semi Finals. In addition, from 2004 to 2007, the top 10 non-Big Four countries did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top 10, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's grand final along with all countries in the top 10.
Russia withdrew from the 2017 contest, after Julia Samoylova was banned from entering the host country Ukraine. The official Eurovision site does not count 2017 in Russia's total list of appearances.
Contains phrases in Spanish.
The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References

""Good evening Malmö" - Voting order revealed". eurovision.tv. EBU. 18 May 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
""Good evening Copenhagen" - Voting order revealed". eurovision.tv. EBU. 10 May 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Btq1bhQBDEQ/
"Страна провожает Сергея Лазарева на "Евровидение"" (in Russian). Russia-1. 30 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
"Иван Бессонов объявит в эфире результаты "Евровидения-2019"" (in Russian). Russia-1. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
"Exclusive: The hosts of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 7 May 2009.
"Winners of the Marcel Bezençon Awards 2016". eurovision.tv. 15 May 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
Adams, William Lee (9 July 2015). "Poll: Who was the worst dressed Barbara Dex Award winner?". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 8 December 2019.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] In 1996, Russia failed to qualify from the audio only pre-qualification round. The official Eurovision site does not count 1996 in Russia's total list of appearances.

[note2-2] If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in Semi Finals. In addition, from 2004 to 2007, the top 10 non-Big Four countries did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top 10, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's grand final along with all countries in the top 10.

[3] Russia withdrew from the 2017 contest, after Julia Samoylova was banned from entering the host country Ukraine. The official Eurovision site does not count 2017 in Russia's total list of appearances.

[4] Contains phrases in Spanish.

[5] The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[6] ""Good evening Malmö" - Voting order revealed". eurovision.tv. EBU. 18 May 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2020.

[7] ""Good evening Copenhagen" - Voting order revealed". eurovision.tv. EBU. 10 May 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2019.

[8] ttps://www.instagram.com/p/Btq1bhQBDEQ/

[9] "Страна провожает Сергея Лазарева на "Евровидение"" (in Russian). Russia-1. 30 April 2019. Retrieved 1 May 2019.

[10] "Иван Бессонов объявит в эфире результаты "Евровидения-2019"" (in Russian). Russia-1. Retrieved 1 May 2019.

[11] "Exclusive: The hosts of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 7 May 2009.

[12] "Winners of the Marcel Bezençon Awards 2016". eurovision.tv. 15 May 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2019.

[13] Adams, William Lee (9 July 2015). "Poll: Who was the worst dressed Barbara Dex Award winner?". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 8 December 2019.