Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Eurovision Song Contest 2009
Country  Russia
National selection
Selection process National Final
Selection date(s) 7 March 2009
Selected entrant Anastasiya Prikhodko
Selected song "Mamo"
Finals performance
Final result 11th, 91 points

Russia was the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, held in the Russian capital Moscow, after Russia's win in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Channel One will resume organisation of the Russian participation in Eurovision.

Contents

National final

Channel One used a national final to select the 13th Russian entry for Eurovision, having primarily used internal selections to select previous entries.[1] Over 1000 entries were sent into Channel One. 50 of them were chosen and sent to a jury to select 15 that will compete in the televised national final on 7 March 2009. The winner was to be selected in the same voting method to be used at Eurovision, with both televoting and a jury vote.[2] Venger Collective, Tim Rocks, Polina Griffith, Quatro are the following artists of Russian preselection that are breaking "1st of October rule", according to which participating songs, in full or in part, should not be publicly performed, released on audio or video, published in the internet or in any other way before 1st of October 2008.[3] Channel One announced that Polina Griffith would sing "Cry For You" instead of "Love Is Independent". The other performers have decided to continue competing with their ineligible songs.

Different artists performed throughout the song including former Russian Eurovision entries, such as last year's winner Dima Bilan, Alsou and Serebro, and artists competing in this year's Eurovision also performed, including Jade Ewen for the United Kingdom, Patricia Kaas for France, Sakis Rouvas for Greece and AySel and Arash for Azerbaijan.[4][5]

In the first round, jury and televoting selected three acts to qualify to a Super Final. In this Super Final, the winner will be decided solely by a jury. The three qualifying artists were Anastasiya Prikhodko with "Mamo" (means "Mother" in Ukrainian), Valeriya with "Back to Love", and Kvatro with "Ya tebya lyublyu".[4][6]

Final - 7 March, 2009
Draw Artist Song
1 Anna Semenovich "Love lovila"
2 Tomas N'evergreen "One More Try"
3 Alexa "Ne dumat o tebye"
4 Plazma "Never Ending Story"
5 Anastasiya Prikhodko "Mamo"
6 Valeriya "Back to Love"
7 Nano "Traitor"
8 Tim Rocks "The Happiest Man"
9 Princess Avenue "Never, Never"
10 Nikolay Fokeyev "You Can Stop The Time"
11 Venger Collective "9 O'Clock Moscow"
12 Polina Griffith "Cry for You"
13 Alexey Vorobyov "Angelom byt"
14 Unisex "Ai-ai-ai"
15 Arishata "Breakdown"
16 Kvatro "Ya tebya lyublyu"

An eleven member jury selected the final winner from the three super finalists. The winner, receiving six votes to five, was Ukrainian singer Anastasiya Prikhodko, a last-minute entry to the competition, with the song "Mamo", performed in Russian and Ukrainian.[6][7]

Super Final
Draw Artist Song
1 Anastasiya Prikhodko "Mamo"
2 Valeriya "Back to Love"
3 Kvatro "Ya tebya lyublyu"

Prikhodko's win sparked allegations of vote-rigging.[8] Valeriya's producer Yusif Prigozhin did not agree with the bilingual nature of Prikhodko's song stating: “A song performed in Ukrainian can’t have anything to do with Russia”.[8]

At Eurovision

Due to Russia's win in 2008, Russia automatically qualified for the final of the contest and finished in 11th place with 91 points.

See also

References

  1. ^ Klier, Marcus (2008-12-10). "Russia: televised national selection again". ESCToday. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/12675. Retrieved 2008-12-10. 
  2. ^ Krasilnikova, Anna (2009-02-22). "Russia: Host country's national final on March 7th". ESCToday. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13336. Retrieved 2009-02-22. 
  3. ^ Mikheev, Andy (2009-02-24). "Latest News". ESCkaz. http://esckaz.com/2009/rus.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-03. 
  4. ^ a b Klier, Marcus (2009-03-07). "Live: National final in Russia". ESCToday. http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/13453. Retrieved 2009-03-07. 
  5. ^ Fisher, Luke (2009-03-07). "Live from Moscow, the Russian National final". Oikotimes. http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=5285. Retrieved 2009-03-07. 
  6. ^ a b Fisher, Luke (2009-03-07). "Anastasia Prihodko to represent Russia in Moscow!". Oikotimes. http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=5289. Retrieved 2009-03-07. 
  7. ^ Omelyanchuk, Olena (2009-03-07). "Russia votes for Anastasia Prikhodko". EBU. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=1988. Retrieved 2009-03-07. 
  8. ^ a b Eurovision vote-rigging row as Ukrainian wins contest to represent Russia, The Times (March 10, 2009)

External links