A little bit of history…
Recently, Russia
have fared very well at Eurovision – with a good run of positions far from the bottom of the leader board. In 2000, they saw their highest result to date when the popular Alsou performed ‘Solo’ (one
of my all time fave songs) and finished an impressive 2nd place. In
2001 they came 12th with a rather bizarre entry in 2001, 10th in 2002, 3rd with t.A.T.u.
in 2003, 11th in the 2004 Final, and 15th in the 2005 Final. Due
to their unfortunate result last year, Russia
find themselves in the Semi-Final for the first time.
Singer & Song
Dima Bilan Never Let You Go
This is a really good entry. Most male ballads that make their way to Eurovision tend to be rather dreary and dull (see Eurovision 2004
in general) and can lower the upbeat, enjoyable tone of the contest as a whole – but not this. Dima’s a really good looking boy, with lots of sex appeal (some of his photo galleries aren’t
that dissimilar to other rude material you might find on the web…) and the song’s a corker, melodic and catchy.
Russia has depended on votes from neighbours, and politically have done
very well, so aside from their soviet neighbours this could pick up a good smattering of votes across Europe
and could be the surprise package this year.
Prediction
Definite Qualifier: 4th-6th
in Semi, 8th-12th in Final
Russia should get through the Semi easily
– political voting should manage that, but they will pick up a lot more votes across the board. I think they will face difficulty when it gets to the Final, it has big competition ballad wise from Greece and Norway – even Germany to an extent, and could either be forgotten about
or adored furthermore than it was. I’d say 8th-12th
in the Final’s a fair suggestion of how this will do. It could do better,
but I can’t see it faring badly.
Prediction after Semi-Final
13th-15th in Final
I wasn't impressed with Dima's performance
at all. He looked like he was going crazy and certainly wasn't dancing to the same song he was performing. At
some points his croning at the cameras was scary and I thought it all looked a bit of a mess. Although I had
predicted its qualification, I surprised to see it happen after the performance. On a positive note, the girl in the
piano was great and if anything, she was a calming influence on Dima. I think he needs to tone his performance down
a bit.
Review of the Eurovision
Performance
I think all that Dima really proved was
that being previously famous throughout Europe and having lots of friendly neighbours really can help at Eurovision.
Despite coming second, I don't think Dima deserved it, and even now I wouldn't class him as one of the contenders for victory.
Call me fickle but had this have won it would have been a travesty - I have very little positive to say about Dima's performance.
Some things did work well - the girl in the piano was an interesting gimmick, and it certainly gave a more positive note to
everything that was happening on stage, but that didn't really make up for Dima's grimacing at the camera's, his dodgy dance
moves, and his really rather unprofessional and unimpressive vocal. The song is quite a good one, but I still think
this was an entire shambles on stage despite coming second. I do like the song though, I just don't think Dima deserved
such 'success'. As for my prediction... Well, I said he'd make it through, but he didn't get lost like I thought he
would, is that close or a little bit of both?
