Today, Russia selected its representative for the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest which will be held in Baku in May. Authorities tipped former participants Dima Bilan & Yulia Volkova to win the national final but the group, Buranovskiye Babushki, took the ticket just over the favourites.
The show started at 19.00 CET in the Akademicheskiy Concert Hall in Moscow with the presentation of Olga Shelest and Mikhail Zelenskiy and lasted around three hours. The show was broadcast by Russian RTR, via web and satellite; and of course, the official channel of the contest, eurovision.tv, was in amongst the broadcasters.
In the show, 2008 Ukrainian representative Ani Lorak, who finished just behind Russian Dima Bilan in Belgrade was one of the guest acts and she performed her participating song Shady Lady. In meantime, popular Russian band Diskoteka Avaria made an appearance on the stage giving their support for the participants, the band also performed Malinki.
The Songs
Tonight, 25 hopefuls participated in the Russian national final to have the honour of representing Russia at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku this May. The broadcaster RTR kept the details of the participants secret till the first days of March. A couple of days ago, we were informed via RTR website, about the participating names but the songs came out with the start of the show.
The songs were performed in Russian and English languages. The running order of the night was:
1. Lena Maksimova – Brave
2. Ksenona – Close My Eyes
3. Irson Kudikova – Woman’s Heart Never Lies
4. The UPS – Kiss
5. SARDOR – Believe
6. 4POST – Navsterechu Nebu
7. Efrosiya – Ya Tebya Lubila
8. UNITE IT – Turn Off The Light
9. Katya Savelyeva – Life’s Beautiful
10. Olga Makovetskaya – Positive Emotions
11. Rene – I Miss You
12. Farinelli Balls – Breath Away Song
13. Polina Smolova – Michel
14. CHINKONG & KARINA – High Up
15. Mari Karne – Mezhdu Nebom I Zemlej
16. Mark Tishman – Money Is Love
17. Ed Sulzhevskij – 100 минут
18. Elena Ekimova – Do You Like?
19. Dima Bilan & Julia Volkova – Back To Her Future
20. Riff Action Family – Sky
21. AIDA & TIMATI – Fantasy
22. Pavla – One Million Butterlies
23. Syostry Syo – Une Marionette
24. Buranovskiye Babushki – Party For Everybody
25. Jet Kids – Oh Yeah
The duet of the winner of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Dima Bilan, and 2003 representative Yuliya Volkova (from t.A.T.u) was tipped to win the Russian final, starting from just after the participating names announced till the last minutes of the show. They brilliantly performed the ballad song Back to Her Future but isn’t it fun when nobody guesses the winner, anyway?
The Voting
Tonight in the Russian selections, the results were decisive after a combination of jury and televoting results 50/50. The jury was membered by seven expert names, also including another former representative, singer and songwriter Philip Kirkorov. The rest of the jury members were, Sergej Arhipov, Igor Krutoy, Aleksandr Igudin, Arman Davletyarov, Roman Emelyanov and Gennadiy Garshteyn.
The final combined results were:
• Aida & Timati: 26,74 points
• Dima Bilan & Yuliya Volkova: 29,25 points
• Buranovskiye Babushki: 38,51 points
The results are showing the group Buranovskiye Babushki will represent Russia at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest in Baku with the song Party for Everybody. The group contains six grandmothers, originally from the village of Buranovo, where they influenced of naming the group. Their song will be performed in the Udmurt accent of Russian language. Previously, the grandmas have taken a huge continental sympathy with the participation in the 2010 Russian national final. Last year, the group also submitted an entry to represent Russia in Düsseldorf, but RTR decided on Alex Sparrow.
Below you can watch the representative act, Party for Everybody or you can take a look at Dima Bilan & Yulia Volkova duet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAe8yfjfODQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQqmSixgumw
