AndyIn a move sure to delight conspiracy theorists and bloggers everywhere, Mamu by Anastasia Prikhodko was picked to represent Russia at this year’s Eurovision.
The controversy? Well, Prikhodko is Ukrainian, and Mamo is sung partly in Russian and partly in – gasp – Ukrainian. Oh yes, and Prikhodko only entered the Russian qualification contest after she’d been kicked out of the Ukrainian qualification contest.
The biggest complaints about Prikhodko’s victory came, not too surprisingly, from Yusif Prigozhin the husband of the singer who finished second.
It’s a disgrace… A song performed in Ukrainian cant have anything to do with Russia.
Given that his wife’s song (along with most of the other contestants’) was sung in English, so I’m not entirely sure how he came to this conculsion.
Anyways, personally I think it’s a bit of a coup for Russia. They not only get to put one over arch enemies Georgia, who have entered a grumpy song about how they don’t like Putin – they get to claim that in Russia, music is all about peace and goodwill between neighbours. Oh, and that they like Ukrainians, really.
And, actually, I think the song’s ok – it’s not great, but Russia certainly won’t be disgraced in May.
PS – you can see the full history of Russia’s Eurovision experience here – Every Russian Eurovision VIdeo, Ever.
You forgot to add that the music was written by Meladze (Georgian living in Russia) and the lyrics by an Estonian lady 🙂
Dmitri Minaev´s last blog post..March 10 in Russian history. Stoletov’s research of photoelectric effect
You’re right. Russia is being culturally colonised… 🙂
Andy´s last blog post..We dont wanna put in – Georgias Eurovision video
I’d rather put it another way: we’re still one nation 🙂
Dmitri Minaev´s last blog post..March 10 in Russian history. Stoletov’s research of photoelectric effect
The multiethnic dynamic vis-a-vis Russia has been evident for some time.
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Russia has a crappy song for the second time in a row in Eurovision…oh well, at least its marginally better than in 2008.
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I didn’t like the song at first, since Prikhodko doesn’t have the classic diva pipes and her voice seemed weak. But she really knows how to wield it, and it’s clear by the end she can really put some passion into a performance.
As far as the Ukrainian bit, I wish both sides would stop pretending that Ukraine and Russia aren’t two sides of the same coin culturally. And WTF is with the rule about no politics on squeaky clean Eurovision? We wouldn’t want things to get interesting, after all.
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Andy:
Regarding your post, as you might already know, the mentioned Georgian group hasn’t been kicked out. Instead, they’ve been instructed to select another song:
http://www.rttv.ru/Top_News/2009-03-10/Georgia_s__Putin_song__banned_from_Eurovision.html
On the matter of Ukraine, Russia and music, here’s a Cossack song that’s sung in Ukrainian, but with photos of Russian Cossacks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t74er5nTMHo
In Ukraine, the Cossack population includes some of the more Russia friendly segments of the population.
I came across these other songs that are sung by Cossacks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ABBhRp6bn0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EbwMCxqxCw&feature=related
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