Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

For Russia's upcoming participation, see Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016.
Russia

Member station Channel One
Russia-1
National selection events
Appearances
Appearances 19 (19 finals)
First appearance 1994
Best result 1st: 2008
Worst result 17th: 1995
External links
Channel One page
Channel Russia page
Russia's page at Eurovision.tv

Russia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 19 times since their debut in 1994 and has participated every year since 2000. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". Russia has also finished second in the contest four times, with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006, Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012, and Polina Gagarina in 2015. As of 2015, Russia, along with Sweden, holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st Century, with a total of eight.

Russia, along with Romania and Greece has never missed the final since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004.[note 1]

Contest history

Their debut was in the 1994 contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2015 Russia came second in the contest with Alsou's song "Solo", Dima Bilan's "Never Let You Go" and Buranovskiye Babushki with "Party for Everybody", Polina Gagarina's "A Million Voices" song, respectively. In both 2003 and 2007, Russia placed 3rd, with t.A.T.u.'s "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia" and Serebro's "Song #1."

In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinski with the song "Me is me", but on the eve of competition (for the second time in its history), he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round and therefore missed the 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".

Since the introduction of the semi-finals, Russia is, along with Ukraine, Greece and Romania, one of the four countries left that has never missed a final. Azerbaijan has also never missed a final, but due to the fact Azerbaijan debuted after the semi-final introduction, Azerbaijan is not counted as one of these countries.

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 eight, most recently with Polina Gagarina, who was second in 2015 with 303 points, which is the highest score of a non-winning entry in Eurovision history and the highest score of any Russian contestant.

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, while in 1995, 1997 and from 1999 to 2007 the contest was broadcast on Channel One. Since 2008, there is an alternation on broadcast, with Russia-1 on even years, and Channel One on odd ones.

Contestants

Table key
  Winner
  Second place
  Third place
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
1996a Andrei Kosinsky Russian "Ya eto ya" (Я это я) Failed to qualify 26 14
1997 Alla Pugacheva Russian "Primadonna" (Примадонна) 15 33 No semi-finals
Did not participate in 1998 and 1999b
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 Yulia Savicheva English "Believe Me" 11 67 Top 11 Previous Year
2005 Natalia Podolskaya English "Nobody Hurt No One" 15 57 Top 12 Previous Year
2006 Dima Bilan English "Never Let You Go" 2 248 3 217
2007 Serebro English "Song #1" 3 207 Top 10 Previous Year
2008 Dima Bilan English "Believe" 1 272 3 135
2009 Anastasia Prikhodko Russian, Ukrainian "Mamo" (Мамо) 11 91 Host country
2010 Peter Nalitch and Friends English "Lost and Forgotten" 11 90 7 74
2011 Alexej Vorobjov 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
NOTES:
a. ^ 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.
b. ^ Russia was forced to sit out another year in 1999, as the EBU only allows countries which had broadcast the previous year's contest to enter the next year's contest.
c. If a country won the previous year, they did not have to compete in Semi Finals. In addition, back in 2005-2007, countries who done well did not have to compete in Semi Finals the following year. The top ten non-Big four along with the Big four countries automatically qualified, 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 everyone within the top 10.

Act selection process

Year Selection process Channel
1994 National Final with 9 participants Russia 1
1995 Internal Selection Channel 1
1996 National Final with 14 participants Russia 1
1997 Internal Selection Channel 1
Did not participate between 1998 and 1999
2000 Internal Selection Channel 1
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005 National Final with 29 participants
2006 Internal Selection
2007
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

Commentators and spokespersons

Year(s) Commentator Dual Commentator Spokesperson Channel
1994 Vadim Dolgachyov No Dual Commentator Arina Sharapova Russia 1
1995 Unknown Marina Danielyan Channel 1
1996 Vadim Dolgachyov Russia did not participate Russia 1
1997 Philipp Kirkorov Sergei Antipov Arina Sharapova Channel 1
1998 No Broadcast No Broadcast Russia did not participate No Broadcast
1999 Aleksej Zhuravlev Tatjana Godunova Channel 1
2000 Zhanna Agalakova
2001 Alexander Anatolievich Konstantin Mikhailov Larisa Verbickaya
2002 Yuriy Aksuta Elena Batinova Arina Sharapova
2003 Yana Churikova
2004
2005
2006 Tatjana Godunova
2007 Elena Batinova
2008 Dmitriy Guberniyev Olga Shelest Oxana Fedorova Russia 1
2009 Yana Churikova Semi-finals — Aleksey Manuylov;
Final — Philipp Kirkorov 		Ingeborga Dapkunaite Channel 1
2010 Dmitriy Guberniyev Olga Shelest Oxana Fedorova Russia 1
2011 Yuriy Aksuta Yana Churikova Dima Bilan Channel 1
2012 Dmitriy Guberniyev Olga Shelest Oxana Fedorova Russia 1
2013 Yuriy Aksuta Yana Churikova Alsou Channel 1
2014 Dmitriy Guberniyev Olga Shelest Russia 1
2015 Yuriy Aksuta Yana Churikova Dmitry Shepelev Channel 1
2016 TBA TBATBA Russia 1

Voting history

As of 2015, Russia's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only
Rank Country Points
1  Ukraine 83
2  Azerbaijan 72
3  Armenia 67
4  Greece 59
5  Norway 55
Most points received in the grand finals only
Rank Country Points
1  Estonia 151
2  Latvia 129
 Belarus 129
4  Israel 112
5  Lithuania 104
 Ukraine 104
Most points given in the semis and finals
Rank Country Points
1  Armenia 123
2  Azerbaijan 114
 Ukraine 114
4  Moldova 101
5  Greece 92
Most points received in the semis and finals
Rank Country Points
1  Estonia 202
2  Belarus 175
3  Latvia 167
4  Moldova 154
5  Armenia 148
 Israel 148

Hostings

Year Location Venue Presenters
2009 Moscow Olympic Indoor Arena Semi-finals: Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov;
Final: Alsou and Ivan Urgant[1]

Photogallery

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ The "Big Five" (United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Germany) are not counted in this list since they receive automatic qualification to the final. Neither is Azerbaijan who qualified every year, but debuted in 2008. Also Bosnia and Herzegovina and Ukraine are not counted because they skipped the contests from 2013 to 2015 and in 2015 respectively.

References

  1. ↑ "Exclusive: The hosts of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 2009-05-07.

External links

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