Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Last updated

Russia in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Participating broadcaster Channel One Russia (C1R)
CountryFlag of Russia.svg  Russia
Selection processNational final
Selection date8 March 2021
Competing entry
Song"Russian Woman"
Artist Manizha
Songwriters
Placement
Semi-final resultQualified (3rd, 225 points)
Final result9th, 204 points
Participation chronology
◄202020212022►

Russia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Russian Woman", written by Manizha Sanghin, Ori Avni, and Ori Kaplan, and performed by Manizha herself. The Russian participating broadcaster, Channel One Russia (C1R), organised a national final to determine its representative for the contest.

Contents

As of 2025, this was Russia's final entry in the contest, before the country was excluded the following year due to its invasion of Ukraine.

Background

Prior to the 2021 contest, Russia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since its first entry in 1994. Russia had won the contest on one occasion in 2008 with the song "Believe" performed by Dima Bilan. In 2016, Russia finished third with the song "You Are the Only One" performed by Sergey Lazarev, who would later return to represent his country again in 2019 with the song "Scream", also finishing in third place. In 2020, the band Little Big was set to represent Russia with the song " Uno " before the contest's cancellation. [1]

Before Eurovision

Early selection plans

On 8 May 2020, during an episode of Eurovisioncalls with Little Big as guests, Little Big's members Ilya Prusikin and Sonya Tayurskaya announced that they would submit several songs to Channel One and would be happy to be invited to participate again, [2] however C1R decided to choose a new representative via a national final and on 2 March 2021, it was announced that a national final would be held with several, at that time, unknown candidates. [3] On 3 March 2021, tabloid super.ru leaked a shortlist of candidates for the Russian national final and stated in an article with the list of candidates that producer Yana Rudkovskaya criticized the idea with a new selection initiated by Channel One, saying that it would be worthwhile to send Little Big again, and that there is still a chance that Little Big will represent Russia. [4]

National final

The Russian national final took place on 8 March 2021 at the Mosfilm Studios in Moscow and hosted by Yana Churikova. Three artists and songs participated and the winner was selected through a public televote. The show was broadcast Channel One as well as online via the broadcaster's website 1tv.ru. [5] The show had a market share of 12.5%, making it the fifth most popular show of the evening and the fourteenth most popular show of the week. [6]

Competing artists

For the contest, selection committee of Channel One shortlisted nine artists, [7] [8] and asked them to submit the unreleased songs for consideration. [9] Committee then listened to the received submissions and selected 3 entries for the national final. Selected artists and the competing entries for the contest were officially presented on the evening of the selection itself, [10] however, the names of participants were leaked via Instagram two hours before the show. [11] Among the competing artists were Maria Zaytseva from #2Mashi (2005 and 2008 Russian national selection participant as part of A-Sortie) and Victoria Zhuk from Therr Maitz (2010 Russian national selection participant as part of Los Devchatos).

Known shortlisted acts [8] [12] [13]

Final

The final took place on 8 March 2021. Three entries competed and the winner, "Russian Woman" performed by Manizha, was selected exclusively through a public televote. [14] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2020 Russian Eurovision entrants Little Big performed " Uno ", 1995 Russian Eurovision entrant Philipp Kirkorov performed a revamped version of " Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana ", 2015 Russian Eurovision entrant Polina Gagarina performed " Million golosov ", and 2008 Eurovision winner for Russia Dima Bilan performed "Believe" as guests. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Final – 8 March 2021
DrawArtistSongSongwriter(s)TelevotePlace
1 Therr Maitz "Future Is Bright" Anton Belyaev, Victoria Zhuk24.6%3
2#2Mashi"Bitter Words"Maria Zaytseva, Maria Sheykh35.7%2
3 Manizha "Russkaya zhenshchina" (Русская женщина) Manizha Sanghin, Ori Avni, Ori Kaplan 39.7%1

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, will be used. Russia was placed into the first semi-final, which was held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. [19]

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Russia was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Slovenia and preceding the entry from Sweden. [20]

Russia performed fifth in the grand final on 22 May 2021, following Belgium and preceding Malta. At the close of voting it finished on ninth place, receiving 204 points: 100 points from televoting and 104 points from juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. [21] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members. [22] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form. [23] [24]

Points awarded to Russia

Points awarded by Russia

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Russian jury: [23] [24]

Detailed voting results from Russia (Semi-final 1) [25]
DrawCountryJuryTelevote
Juror AJuror BJuror CJuror DJuror ERankPointsRankPoints
01Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 8710679247
02Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 3111215131114
03Flag of Russia.svg  Russia
04Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 1641484792
05Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 15831310101101
06Flag of North Macedonia.svg  North Macedonia 914159121415
07Flag of Ireland.svg  Ireland 131297111213
08Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 416423865
09Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 1210148141356
10Flag of Croatia.svg  Croatia 1197558312
11Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 10311195683
12Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 2451321074
13Flag of Romania.svg  Romania 14151310151511
14Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan 751112474210
15Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 61382665112
16Flag of Malta.svg  Malta 5223111238
Detailed voting results from Russia (Final) [26]
DrawCountryJuryTelevote
Juror AJuror BJuror CJuror DJuror ERankPointsRankPoints
01Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 256148792112
02Flag of Albania.svg  Albania 1615236141218
03Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 4410466519
04Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 91342298316
05Flag of Russia.svg  Russia
06Flag of Malta.svg  Malta 5773107413
07Flag of Portugal (official).svg  Portugal 2012920151522
08Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 23162417162317
09Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 2120169251725
10Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 7331024715
11Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland 24105112110165
12Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 221911181316101
13Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 19212119192523
14Flag of Moldova.svg  Moldova 2211111283
15Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 8251925241814
16Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 13112012111438
17Flag of Bulgaria.svg  Bulgaria 1086235620
18Flag of Lithuania.svg  Lithuania 15181523202292
19Flag of Ukraine.svg  Ukraine 1224131381347
20Flag of France.svg  France 18141816172056
21Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan 318543874
22Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 17232514222411
23Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 14171715232124
24Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 15275210210
25Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 691221181112
26Flag of San Marino.svg  San Marino 11222224121921

References

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  4. "Super публикует шорт-лист претендентов на Евровидение-2021 от России — Super.ru". Super.ru. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
  5. "Latest news: Russia makes a little (but big) announcement". Eurovision.tv. 2 March 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  6. "Рейтинги". Mediascope.net.
  7. "Юрий Аксюта и тайны отбора на "Евровидение". Доброе утро. Фрагмент выпуска от 05.03.2021" . Retrieved 6 June 2021 via YouTube.
  8. 1 2 Shawn, Andrew (18 May 2023). "Eurovision 2021 Russia". Vokrug.tv.
  9. "Сегодня в гостях у подкаста о Евровидении Вэлкам,.. | Вэлкам, Юроп! Подкаст о Евровидении | VK". Vk.com. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
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  11. "🇷🇺РОССИЯ, ВЫ ГОТОВЫ? До отбора – 2 часа ⏰". Archived from the original on 24 December 2021.
  12. "Super публикует шорт-лист претендентов на Евровидение-2021 от России — Super.ru". Super.ru. 3 March 2021. Retrieved 6 June 2021.
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  14. Chugunova, Maria (2 March 2021). "Russia to have a national selection show on March 8". ESCXTRA. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  15. Shawn, Andrew. "Uno". YouTube . Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  16. Shawn, Andrew. "A Million Voices". YouTube . Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  17. Shawn, Andrew. "Believe". YouTube . Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  18. Shawn, Andrew. "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana". YouTube . Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  19. Groot, Evert (17 November 2020). "2020 Semi-Final line-up to stay for 2021". eurovision.tv. Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  20. "Semi-Final running orders revealed". Eurovision.tv. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  21. "Voting–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 3 May 2017. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  22. "Fairness–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union. 12 January 2017. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  23. 1 2 "Juries in the First Semi-Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  24. 1 2 "Juries in the Grand Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  25. 1 2 3 "Results of the First Semi-Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  26. 1 2 3 "Results of the Grand Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 27 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.