World of Chig   

8.5.03

11 Russia – Ne Verj, Ne Boisja – t.A.T.u
It means ‘Don’t Believe, Don’t Fear’, and frankly that’s about as sensible as the English lyric gets, so we can all be grateful it’s in Russian. How about this verse? “Someone will wind wire onto terminals. Someone will confuse new themes, someone’s a psycho and someone’s a maniac. Someone’s like you, someone’s like me.” Quite. I don’t think that singing in their native tongue will matter one little jot for the faux lesbo duo. The song is utterly fabulous – the most contemporary pop song we’ve had at Eurovision since ooh, 2000, when Alsou appeared – and that was Russia too. Even last year’s Russian entry was a contemporary-sounding boyband thingy. They clearly know their pop in Russia. A breathy intro, which leads very quickly into a shouty chorus which grabs you by the throat and says ‘Listen to me!’ In the middle, a techno break which will have grannies reaching to turn down the volume, but which will give them precious time to do whatever outrageous shenanigans they're planning, like (gasp!) kissing. Can t.A.T.u win? Sure. More countries than ever are televoting this year, and if ever there was a song that would have been ignored by juries but scored highly by televoters, it’s this one, so they should do well. But is it a foregone conclusion? Certainly not. It could, in the end, be something easier on the ear that wins, like Latvia again, or even Ireland. But these three minutes sure will be fun, and the chances of an already-famous winner have never been higher.

· link

Home