Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Russia
Member station	Channel One Russia-1
National selection events	National Selection 1994 2005 2008–2010 2012 Internal selection 1995 1997 2000–2004 2006–2007 2011 2013–2016 2018
Participation summary
Appearances	21 (20 finals)
First appearance	1994
Best result	1st: 2008
Worst result	15th SF: 2018
External links
Channel One page Channel Russia page
Russia's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Russia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 21 times since their debut in 1994. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". One of the most successful countries in the contest in the 21st century with a total of nine top five placements, Russia finished second with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006, Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012 and Polina Gagarina in 2015; third with t.A.T.u. in 2003, Serebro in 2007 and Sergey Lazarev in 2016, and fifth with Dina Garipova in 2013.

Contest history

Their debut was in the 1994 contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Russia came second at four contests; in 2000 with the song "Solo" performed by Alsou, in 2006 with Dima Bilan's song "Never Let You Go", in 2012 with the song "Party for Everybody" performed by Buranovskiye Babushki, and in 2015 with Polina Gagarina's song "A Million Voices". They also achieved three third-place finishes; in 2003 with t.A.T.u's song "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", Serebro's in 2007 with their entry "Song #1", and in 2016 with Sergey Lazarev's song "You Are the Only One"(But this song won in the "televoting").

In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinsky with the song "Me is me", but on the eve of competition (for the second time in its history), he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round and therefore missed the final.

In 1998, because Russia did not participate in the contest (due to lower average scores in participating in previous competitions), Russia refused to broadcast the competition and the European Broadcasting Union in return forbade the country to participate the following year. According to unconfirmed information, Russia was required to submit Tatyana Ovsiyenko with the song "My Sun".

Russia won their first Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, when Dima Bilan, participating for the second time in the contest, won with the song "Believe", bringing the contest to Russia for 2009.

Russia was the most successful country in Eurovision in 2000-2009, with one win, two second places, and two third places. However, in 2010 they finished 11th, and in 2011 they were 16th, which was the worst place for Russia since 1995. Interest in the competition fell, but in 2012 Buranovskiye Babushki finished in second place, increasing Russia's interest in the show. Russia holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st century, with nine, most recently with Sergey Lazarev, who was third in 2016 with 491 points, which is the highest score of any Russian contestant.

In 2018, for the very first time, a Russian contestant failed to reach the final. Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song "I Won't Break", failed to qualify to the Grand Final from the second semi-final.

Broadcast

The contest has been broadcast irregularly on two different public state channels in Russia, both EBU members: for the 1994 and 1996 it was broadcast on Russia-1 of VGTRK, while in 1995, 1997 and from 1999 to 2007 the contest was broadcast on Channel One. Since 2008, there is an alternation on broadcast and selection, with Russia-1 on even years, and Channel One on odd ones.

Contestants

Table key

NOTES:

a. ^ In 1996 Russia failed to qualify from the audio only pre-qualification round. The official Eurovision site does not count 1996 in Russia's total list of appearances.

b. ^ Russia was forced to sit out another year in 1999, as the EBU only allows countries which had broadcast the previous year's contest to enter the next year's contest.

c. If a country won the previous year, they did not have to compete in Semi Finals. In addition, back in 2005-2007, countries who done well did not have to compete in Semi Finals the following year. The top ten non-Big four along with the Big four countries automatically qualified, for example, if Germany and France placed inside the top 10, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with everyone within the top 10.

d. ^ Russia withdrew from the 2017 contest, after Julia Samoylova was banned from entering the host country Ukraine but was allowed to perform. The official Eurovision site does not count 2017 in Russia's total list of appearances.

Voting history

As of 2018, Russia's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Ukraine 101 2  Armenia 91 3  Azerbaijan 88 4  Moldova 64 5  Norway 60  France Most points received in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Estonia 163 2  Belarus 153 3  Latvia 148 4  Israel 122 5  Ukraine 116

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Armenia 171 2  Moldova 160 3  Ukraine 148 4  Azerbaijan 147 5  Greece 102 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Estonia 227 2  Moldova 210 3  Belarus 199 4  Latvia 198 5  Armenia 181

Act selection process

Commentators and spokespersons

Conductors

• Lev Zemlinski (1994)
• Mikhail Finberg (1995)
• Rutger Gunnarsson (1997)^[1]

Hostings

Other awards

Photogallery

• 
  Serebro at Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Dima Bilan at Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Peter Nalitch and Friends at Oslo (2010)
• 
  Alex Vorobyov at Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  Dina Garipova at Malmö (2013)
• 
  Tolmachevy Sisters at Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Polina Gagarina at Vienna (2015)
• 
  Sergey Lazarev at Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Julia Samoylova at Lisbon (2018)

See also

• Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Russia in the Eurovision Dance Contest – Dance version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Russia in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Russia in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.
• Russia in the Türkvizyon Song Contest – A contest for countries and regions which are of Turkic-speaking or Turkic ethnicity.

Notes and references

External links

• Points to and from Russia eurovisioncovers.co.uk