The 54th Eurovision Contest in Russia has ended; the 55th will be hosted by Oslo, Norway.
Winner takes all
The finals of the 54th Eurovision 2009 song contest were held in Moscow on Saturday, May 16. The start of the voting was announced on TV by the crew of the International Space Station. There was little variety in the opinions expressed by TV viewers: as expected, Norway established the lead from the start and never dropped back. It gained almost twice as many votes as the runner-up with the Norwegian song "Fairytale" winning a record 387 points.
Eurovision 2010's road to Oslo was paved by 23-year-old Alexander Rybak, an ethnic Belarussian who wrote his song himself. Ukrainian singer Anastasia Prikhodko, who competed on behalf of Russia with Konstantin Meladze's song "Mamo" finished 11th. Her performance was accompanied by a video clip in which she gradually aged to 70. Coupled with her emotional delivery, it made a powerful impact. But not in Europe: only Russia's neighbours and countries where Russian is understood voted for it. But its 11th place finish will hardly prevent the song from being one of the year's top hits in the CIS countries.
In spite of his name, Alexander Rybak considers himself to be a Norwegian. He speaks English better than Russian, although judging from the vote tally he has become accepted as a European overnight. His musical parents took Alexander out of Belarus at the age of five. Since then he has visited Moscow three times and never visited Minsk: the Rybak family fears Lukashenko's dictatorship. "We could come to Belarus, but we cannot receive a guarantee allowing us back to Norway," the singer said in an interview before the contest. However, the hero of Eurovision 2009 would be prepared to visit his homeland if he gets an official invitation from Alexander Lukashenko.
In Norway Alexander continued studying music, but he saw himself as a violinist rather than a vocalist. He is very popular in his new country: winner of the local "Factory of Stars," he gained more than 80% of the vote in the national Eurovision competition. He already has a contract with Universal and he is thinking of conquering the Russian musical market, perhaps by preparing a programme in Russian one day.
Eurovision has never been his ultimate dream, but when he wrote the song "Fairytale" about first love, he realised it was ideal for the contest. It was an unusual composition, upbeat and sad at the same time combining Slavic and Scandinavian motifs, while the violin added to its charm. No wonder the song was singled out by almost all the voters: you can be sure you'll hear it on the radio for the next six months at least.
Just listening
In spite of the abundance of technical gimmicks in the show, the top six entries were all songs in which music took precedence over entertainment. It looks as if the European viewer, tired of freaks, monsters and ballerinas appearing out of nowhere, has voted for songs. Finnish fire-throwers were at the very bottom, in 25th place; the Germans, represented by a world-famous stripper, Dita von Teese (the strict rules did not allow her to show her bosom), finished 20th and the acrobatic, drum-beating number of Svetlana Loboda left her in 12th place. Dutch gay activists, Toppers, sporting sparkling jackets, did not even make it to the finals.
The top six, next to Rybak's "Fairytale," included a moving song by an Icelandic Cinderella, Johanna, sizzling hits from Azerbaijan and Turkey, a musical number by a British girl, Jade, to music by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and the "elfine" electronic Urban Symphony from Estonia. The Greek Sakis Rouvas (7th place) might have risen higher if he had concentrated more on singing than dancing. Our long-time acquaintance Patricia Kaas was eighth mainly due to the votes of friendly countries: her subdued song "Et S'il Fallait Le Faire" paled somewhat against the colourful background. The same is true of "Mamo" performed by Ukrainian Anastasia Prikhodko, who represented Russia (11th place).
O, Mamo
The bizarre choice of Anastasia Prikhodko to represent Russia raised eyebrows among the State Duma deputies.
"I think it would be reasonable to verify the technical methods and equipment used by the operator in conducting the SMS vote which selected Prikhodko inside Russia," said Anton Belyakov, Chairman of the Public Anti-Corruption Committee.
His high-profile statement made no difference as it came a day before the final. In spite of mighty opponents, Anastasia performed Konstantin Meladze's "Mamo" in Russian and Ukrainian. The number was accompanied by a video clip in which Anastasia aged until she was 70. Coupled with her emotional delivery, it made a strong impression. But not on Europe: only Russia's neighbours and the countries where our language is understood voted for her. Its eleventh place in Eurovision is unlikely to make "Mamo" less successful with the public: it is set to be one of the top hits of the year in the CIS countries. Nobody was particularly distressed by Anastasia's defeat in the contest: if she had won, another celebration would have to have been staged in Moscow, which would have come as an anti-climax to Eurovision-2009.
Putin, Webber and Kirkorov
To prevent solidarity by voting for neighbours the European Broadcasting Union changed the rules of the contest: this time a country's total was a sum of TV votes and professional jury votes. In Russia the head of the jury was Filipp Kirkorov, a great Eurovision enthusiast. After placing 17th in 1995 (the worst performance of any Russian in the history of the contests) he returned to the contest in the capacity of producer and even once as composer.
Upon taking on his new job Filipp Kirkorov immediately engaged Vladimir Putin in a polemic because Mr Putin had promised Andrew Lloyd Webber a vote for Britain. Kirkorov said that Jade had a good song but not a winning one. The notice "Kirkorov versus Putin" was surely an attention-getter, but the jury president resigned a couple of days before the start of the final citing his friendly ties with some of the contestants (Sakis Rouvas).
As a result Kirkorov had to be content with the role of commentator on Channel 1, while the jury was headed up by Igor Matviyenko. The gossip is that Kirkorov was one step ahead: if he had not quit of his own accord, he would have been publicly accused of being friends with the contestants.
Nearly all the members of the organising committee said at the press conference that they would vote with Putin for Great Britain (only Yuri Aksyuta, who started his career as a DJ on a Russian-French radio station, had the guts to declare his sympathy for Patricia Kaas). And still Russians did not vote as "their boss told them": Jade got only six points in Russia behind Norway, France, Estonia and Azerbaijan.
Europe waits for young talent
By bringing in foreign experts and throwing around a big budget Russia staged the most lavish Eurovision contest in its history, once again demonstrating the Russian "broad sweep" to the world and Europe. Stunned by the magnitude of the show, the members of the European Broadcasting Union said in a press conference that in their humble opinion quantity is not necessarily desirable and that Eurovision should go back to its roots and again become a contest not of technology and big names but of songs and young performers. These sentiments have not yet been translated into any decisions and probably never will be, but we still have a year before the next contest in Oslo. So, if the rules do change, Russia will long be able to pride itself on staging a "European feast during a crisis."
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Celebrity guests
This year's Eurovision contest was graced by the presence of such stars as Patricia Kaas of France and the British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. The composer of popular musicals came to support the British entry Jade who performed his song. At the same time, the composer of "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera" gave a press conference in Moscow to announce that he is interrupting his work on the musical based on Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" (which he started in late 2006) because he does not know how to end it. The novel, he said, had no ending.
The appearance of stars of the first magnitude is not something out of the ordinary.
At various times the European Broadcasting Union's song contests have been attended by singers Sandy Show, Mary Hopkin, Olivia Newton-John, Ofra Haza and Celine Dion, the groups ABBA, Teach-In, The Shadows, Silver Convention, Ricchi e Poveri, Matia Bazar, New Seekers, the singers Cliff Richard, Riccardo Fogli and Johnny Logan. In 1995 the list was joined by Filipp Kirkorov, who by that time had won the World Music Awards prize as Russia's most commercially successful artist, in 1997 by Alla Pugacheva, in 2000 the Latvian group Brainstorm, in 2001 Mumiy Troll, two years later, by t.A.T.u. and in 2008 by the famous French electronic musician Sebastien Tellier. But no stars have won the contest in the 21st century, and sometimes they even failed to make the top ten.
By Alexei Lipatov