Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Russia
Member station	Channel One Russia-1
National selection events	National Selection 1994 1996 2005 2008–2010 2012 Internal Selection 1995 1997 2000–2004 2006–2007 2011 2013–2016
Appearances
Appearances	21 (21 finals)
First appearance	1994
Best result	1st: 2008
Worst result	17th: 1995
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 2016

Russia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times since their debut in 1994 and has participated every year since 2000. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". Russia co-holds (with Sweden) the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st century; finishing 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, for a total of nine top five results.

Russia is the only country that has never missed the final since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004.^{[note 1]}

Contest history

Their debut was in the 1994 contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2015 Russia came second in the contest with Alsou's song "Solo", Dima Bilan's "Never Let You Go" and Buranovskiye Babushki with "Party for Everybody", Polina Gagarina's "A Million Voices" song, respectively. In 2003, 2007 and 2016 Russia placed 3rd, with t.A.T.u.'s "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", Serebro's "Song #1" and Sergey Lazarev's "You Are the Only One"

In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinski 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".

Since the introduction of the semi-finals, Russia is the only country that has never missed a final.

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.

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.

Act selection process

Commentators and spokespersons

Voting history

As of 2016, Russia's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Ukraine 93 2  Armenia 91 3  Azerbaijan 88 4  Greece 59 5  France 58 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  Azerbaijan 147 3  Ukraine 116 4  Moldova 112 5  Greece 102 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Estonia 227 2  Belarus 199 3  Moldova 195 4  Latvia 186 5  Armenia 181

Hostings

Other awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Press Award

Photogallery

• 
  Serebro at Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Dima Bilan at Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Anastasiya Prikhodko at Moscow (2009)
• 
  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)

See also

• Russia in the Eurovision Dance Contest
• Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Russia in the Türkvizyon Song Contest

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

• Points to and from Russia eurovisioncovers.co.uk

Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participation 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 to 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Artists 1990s Youddiph Philipp Kirkorov 1996 Alla Pugacheva 1998 1999 2000s Alsou Mumiy Troll Prime Minister t.A.T.u. Julia Savicheva Natalia Podolskaya Dima Bilan Serebro Dima Bilan Anastasiya Prikhodko 2010s Peter Nalitch Alexey Vorobyov Buranovskiye Babushki Dina Garipova Tolmachevy Sisters Polina Gagarina Sergey Lazarev
Songs 1990s "Vyechniy stranik" "Kolibelnaya dlya vulkana" 1996 "Primadonna" 1998 1999 2000s "Solo" "Lady Alpine Blue" "Northern Girl" "Ne ver', ne boysia" "Believe Me" "Nobody Hurt No One" "Never Let You Go" "Song #1" "Believe" "Mamo" 2010s "Lost and Forgotten" "Get You" "Party for Everybody" "What If" "Shine" "A Million Voices" "You Are the Only One"
(Note: Entries scored out are when Russia did not compete)