Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

One of the Buranovskie Babushkis, aka The Sporty Babushki Galina Koneva (75) will be one of the chosen ones to carry on the Olympic torch in preparations for the Sochi Olympics. She tells she was contacted earlier this year for her measurements as she will not be wearing her usual granny dress but a specially made dress for the special occasion. The other Buranovskie Babushkis will have their dresses made as well, but they haven't yet been told why as only Galina, the sporty one, will be carrying the torch. In her youth Galina took part in national skiing competitions and did also a lot of athletics so it's worth calling her The Sporty Babushki. She still runs around on skis. The torchbearers for Sochi Olympics will feature a lot of famous sportmen and otherwise well known people. The games will take place in February 2014 - unless the new Russian antigay laws create enough international boycott to cancel them...

It took some time to Dima Bilan & Yulia Volkova to get over their losing to the grannies in the Russian selection for Eurovision 2012 but now here they are. Back to her future has turned into Russian and the video is rather interesting and the song even sounds less calculated in their native language.  Сука-любовь . 

One happy pesjanajo The Russian grannies or Buranovskiye Babushki (or rather Brangurt pesjanajos in Udmurt) have reached their original goal: to collect enough money with their singing to rebuilt the church in their village. That mission is now accomplished. Buranovo, that is the Russian name of Brangurt, has some 650 souls living there today and their church was distroyed during the Sovjet era. When the Sovjet Union fell apart the people of the village turned an old shop into a prayer room but all this time they have been longing for a proper church.  "We were once again talking with the grannies that a church would be nice and all of sudden the phone rung and there was a rich business man offering a lot of money for a gig. We thought it was a sign. We decided to sing us a church and now after five years we have collected enough money and the building will start in May! " tells Olga Tuktareva. Their wish is the new church will not only make the village prettier but al...

Remember the 1990's and girl power? The 2010's is all about granny power :-) The Udmurtian grannies from Buranovo village did not only win the Russian national selection for Eurovision and become an internet sensation overnight (over 1 million views on eurovision.tv alone) and one of the hottest, if not the hottest favorite in Baku 2012 but they also woke up the interest in the Udmurt language and roots among the young people in region. Udmurt, a Finno-Ugric language has been suffering in the ex-Sovjet Union just like Carelian and all the other Finnish and Hungarian related languages when people were forced to move around and there was Russian language only policy. Many of those language are basically dead or nearly so but the grannies will make sure at least Udmurt will have a momentary breath of life. While waiting for their trip to Baku their life goes on as usual in Buranovo. They tell: "We wake up at six o'clock and go milk the cows and...

The rumours go wild in internet about the possible Russian national selection songs and artists. The usual Dima Bilan, Alexander Panayatov and the rest are rumoured as every year. But there are also two Finno-Ugric groups involved and even if their chances are slim, who knows? First of all the lovely grannies over the Ural mountains, Udmurts Buranovskie Babushki could be back but also a Finno-Ugric supergroup Osan Yöstä has sent in a song Revontulet (Northern lights ). The group has people of Finnish, Komi, Carelian, Udmurt and Izhorian tribus of Finno-Ugric people and they all sing in their own language. For a proud Carelian this can't be but good news!

Russia's TV has been very silent this year and no open call for the songs has been given and no rumours either until the last few days when it was given almost certain the Buranovskie Babushki would be the one. They charmed the world last year in the Russian selection ( here ) and the idea has been welcomed with delight by most everyone. Now let's see if it happens! Finns would be surely more than happy for that as the grannies do not sing in Russian but in Udmurt, a Finno-Ugric language from the Ural mountains.... listen some more here .Apparenly it seems thoughn that they do not have a song ready and time is running out so the other emerging possibility is Alexey Vorobyov who releases his debut album next week produced by ... Swedish Red One.... sigh.