So he's not Alex Sparrow, as billed here all week. Back to his 'real' name. Lots of Russians are 'Russian around' the media hall here. No other country bothered to do that. The start of this song is a waste of thirty seconds. It has nothing to do with the rest of it. Is this not Russia's dullest entry in years?

Qualifying? Yes, but doesn't really deserve to.

Labels: Eurovision 2011, Russia

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So, Russia finally won Eurovision last night, with their twelfth appearance in the final (and thirteenth entry overall, due to their failure to get through the oddity of the 'pre-contest' in 1996). They started entering Eurovision in 1994.

Dima Bilan wins on his second attempt and becomes first male soloist to win Eurovision since Toto Cotugno for Italy in 1990. Coincidentally, this was also the last time the contest was held in what was Yugoslavia at the time, in Zagreb (now in Croatia).

Russia becomes another new winner and the fourteenth different winner in fourteen years, which is great.

It's not the most popular winner here amongst the fans and the press pack though. Part of that stems from the cost of Moscow, which is the most expensive city inEurope, according to a report I read in the paper on the plane over here. It said the averaga hotel room in Moscow is 237 pounds per night, and that's average, when there's nothing special on. I simply can't afford to go. Some people wonder if the Russians might hold the contest in a more Western Russian time zone, to avoid the contest starting at 23:00 and fisnishing at 02:20, but I can't see any country winning Eurovision for the first time and not wanting to show off its capital city to Europe. It wouldn't make sense. We shall see.

The real reason Russia won was the ice-skater, I feel. Evgeny Plushenko is even more famous than Diva Bilan himself and I'm convinced that's what swung it. He (and the Hungarian violinist) turned a fairly dull song into a good performance and it was enough to get votes from all over the ex-Soviet parts of Europe.

My time here is done. Sightseeing beckons. It's amazingly hot again, as it was yesterday. Before I go, here's some proof that I have been eating. It's the delicious 'vegetable plate'. Yum. Bye for now.

Labels: Eurovision 2008, final, Russia

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Russia - 'Believe' - Dima Bilan

Everything but the kitchen sink. International megastar. Overrated song. Possible winner.

Labels: Dima Bilan, Eurovision 2008, Russia

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Here's the song singer I would have preferred Russia to send to Eurovision, for obvious reasons. Sergey came fourth with the jury on Sunday and fourth with the SMS vote, making him fourth overall (oddly enough).

Flyer - Sergey Lazarev

Labels: Eurovision 2008, Russia, Sergey Lazarev

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Here we go again. For the second year in three, Dima Bilan will represent Russia at Eurovision and my visitor numbers are about to go through the roof again! I'm watching the webcast of the Russian final now, while chatting on Messenger to friends in Moscow and, er, Coventry. (The one is Moscow is Ukraininan and is pretending not to be interested in what the Ruskies are doing, but failing.) Dima won the jury vote and the televote with his Timbaland-produced song, which is called 'Believe', 'Believe Me' or 'Believing', depending where you read it. Two weeks ago, he lost the right to use the name Dima Bilan, when a court ruled it belonged to his former management company. His real name is Derek Bloggs, so he will have to use that from now on.*

More people come to this blog because I wrote about him in 2006 (when I inadvertently also became 'big in Russian media' for a few days too, through something I wrote in a magazine about him) than through any other searches, so I would just like to say, again, 'Privyet' to my Russian visitors.

Dima's crying now, doing a Halle Berry. He has a nice goatee today and has removed those horrible tendrils from his haircut too. Very nice. However, I have fallen in lust with another competitor, Sergey Lazarev, so Dima is old news, sorry. Mr Lazarev should have won tonight with his disco stomper, which obeyed the Eurovision fire/desire rule and extended the genre with its title 'Flyer'. Sergey previously came to my attention as 50% of Russian pop duo Smash!! (two exclamation marks), but I didn't recognise him tonight at first. He looks pretty good shirtless (below) but in a black shirt, black tie and tight, black leather trousers tonight, he made me come over all unnecessary.



It gets better! Here is Sergey Lazarev on Russian TV earlier in the week, rehearsing 'Flyer' in a sweaty white vest. Swoon.



It was a good show from Moscow tonight, with 27 songs but the bare minumum in padding and waffling. Other countries could learn from that. Cough. Spain. Cough.

*It's Viktor Belan really.

Labels: Dima Bilan, Eurovision 2008, Russia

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