Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Pictured Russia's national flowe camomille In light of today's events I can as well publish this Russian review that was ment to be published in coming days along with the other  country reviews.  I haven't modified the text in any way, this is how it was ment to be published sometime next week.  Originally this was my number 42.... Russia chose internally Julia Samoylova with Flame is burning ending speculation whether they will participate at all. But the decision to send a singer in a wheelchair was met with disbelief and outrage abroad as it was seen as an attempt to stop booing and critizism. Then came the news Ukraine might ban her as she has performed in the annexed Crimea in 2015.... Headlines guaranteed and the political soap opera goes on.... And poor Julia in the middle of it all victimized. As that's the overal impression I get.  Julia (27) was born in Republic of Komi and started losing the function of her legs after an unsuccesful poliomyeli...

Several new agencies are reporting today that Ukraine’s security service has banned Russia’s contestant from this year’s Eurovision song contest because she performed in Crimea. Samoylova has toured in Russia-annexed Crimea without entering it by going through the border with the Ukrainian mainland. Under Ukrainian law, that allows authorities to block her entry into Ukraine. Ukrainian Security Service spokeswoman Olena Gitlanska said that the service has banned Samoylova from the country for three years “on the basis of information received about her violation of Ukrainian law”. Therefor she won't be able to participate in the Eurovision song contest in Kyiv in May. What about Armenian Artsvik? Russia calls the decision "cynical and unhuman". What about their decision to send her in the first place? Pure provocation. They also promise to boycott the future contests if the organizers don't stand up for the singer. Is that a promise? :-) UPDATE: EBU has jus...

Ukrainian troops are in high alert again following the events of the past few days when Russia accused Ukraine is carrying out armed incursions into Crimea, that was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014. The spice up the soup is the 25th anniversary of Independence of Ukraine on August 24, and Russia's parliamentary elections on September 18.  Meanwhile Russia has announced they are moving new air defence missiles to Crimea, that are designed to hit airborne target at the range up to 400 kms, and ballistic missiles at the range of 60 kms. Ukraine also claims some 40.000 Russian troops are massed on the Crimea-Ukraine border.  On the other hand Russian UN representative Vitaly Churkin said “There is chaos in Kiev. They don’t know what to do with Donetsk. The Minsk agreements are quite clear, but they have no political will to implement them. Instead of doing this, Kiev “distracts attention to other things,” he added. "Events in Donbass in 2014-15 showed that t...

Jamala brought Ukraine it's second Eurovision song contest victory last night. But who is she? Susana Jamaladinova (32) aka Jamala is a spinto soprano who composes her on muic, and mixes jazz, soul, world music, r'n'b, classical and even opera. She was born in Kirghiz, then USSR from a Crimean Tatar father and Armenian mother. Stalin deported her family there - and that's what her winning song 1944 is all about. They had 15 minutes to pack up their belongings and were forcibly deported to Uzbekistan. Crimean Tatars received a very unfriendly welcome there as the Soviet propaganda already worked with the country’s residents. The family returned to Crimea after Ukraine's independance.  Now a similar story is happening to Jamala as she can’t visit Crimea where her 87-year-old grandfather lives. Her music school in Crimea even removed her portrait from the honoring display.  Jamala started singing publicly at the age of 15 and participated in many talent con...

Not everyone is welcomed in Eurovision song contest..... Or at least don't bring your flag if you are coming from one of these: Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabach, Basque, Islamic State, Crimea, Palestine, People's Republic of Donetsk, Northern Cyprus, Transnistria. As approved by the ESC Reference Group in April 2016.  You can and are welcome to bring your official national flag if you are from any of the participating countries, or countries that have recently taken pasrt like Turkey, Portugal and Romania.  Rainbow and EU flags are being tolerated, if they are not used intentionally to make any politcial staement during the show.  Read more here , to check out also allowed sizes fo flags. Follow up: It didn't take long to Basque and Kosovo among others to react to this list. In Spain that matter ended up in the parliament and EBU had to release a statement soon after. As it turns out, the published document was a draft of the EBU’s policy that wasn’t yet read...

The Russian entry is written by Russian Philip Kirkorov, Greek Dimitris Kontopoulos, Swedish John Ballard and Ralph Charlie and Maltese Gerard James Borg. Cypriot Alex Panayi, Swedish Jenny Tärneberg and Anna Standberg along with Portuguese Rui Andrade will be the backing singers... how many other nationalities they will still have time to add into their team? Will it help and make people forget about Crimea? At least the singing Tolmachevy sisters are Russian.... Then there's the question of Crimean vote. EBU is having nightmares about it as the contest is and must stay unpolitical officially. When people of Crimea vote where will they vote go? Will they be counted with the Russian vote or the Ucrainian vote? Will it split depending of which telephone operator you use? Is that then fair? One votes as a Russian, another as an Ucrainian in one country? Will Ucraine end up giving "Russia 12 points"? EBU's Jan Ola Sand says they don't have an answer to that ye...

Zlata Ognevich, the Ukrainian entrant in Eurovision 2013 with Gravity has released the dance remix of the song, both for radio and club . In true Eurovision style Zlata sings her song in the language Nakatonka which is spoken by people from the fantasy world of Zlata Ognevich.... Ok! Besides that she is also promoting Crimea region in a video that uses also her song. A bit like the Croatian guys do! The good old Eurovision meets tourism promotion is well alive. Especially when the Greek promopack comes with a DVD showcasing Greece!