Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Eurovision Song Contest 2014
Country	Russia
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 15 March 2014 Song: 19 March 2014
Selected entrant	Tolmachevy Sisters
Selected song	"Shine"
Selected songwriter(s)	Philipp Kirkorov Dimitris Kontopoulos John Ballard Ralph Charlie Gerard James Borg
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (6th, 63 points)
Final result	7th, 89 points
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2013 • 2014 • 2015►

Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Russian entry was selected internally by the Russian broadcaster Russia-1 (RTR). The Tolmachevy Sisters, winners of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, represented Russia with the song "Shine", which qualified from the first semi-final and placed 7th in the final, scoring 89 points.

Internal selection

The Russian entry for the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest was selected through an internal process.^[1] On 15 March 2014, RTR announced that The Tolmachevy Sisters, who previously won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, were selected to represent Russia – a choice made internally by an expert jury.^[2] The Russian entry, "Shine", was premiered on 19 March 2014.^[3] The song was composed by Philipp Kirkorov (1995 Russian contest entrant and composer of the 2007 Belarusian entry and the 2008 Ukrainian entry) and Dimitris Kontopoulos (composer of 2009 Greek entry and the 2013 Azerbaijani entry). The lyrics were written by John Ballard (lyricist of the 2013 Azerbaijani entry), Ralph Charlie (lyricist of the 2013 Azerbaijani entry) and Gerard James Borg (lyricist of the 2000, 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2008 Maltese entries).^[4]

Originally, the broadcaster had planned a national final format titled Kto? to select their entry. On 1 September 2013, RTR opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their applications for the selection. Between September and October 2013, it was planned that a special jury would shortlist the applicants to 25 finalists for a televised show on 31 December 2013.^[5] However, in December 2013, RTR announced that the selection would be postponed until March 2014 and that the application deadline would be extended until 28 February 2014.^[6] Plans for the national final were later abandoned by the broadcaster.^[1]

At Eurovision

The Tolmachevy Sisters at the first semi-final dress rehearsal

The Tolmachevy Sisters with their moving platform stage prop

During the semi-final allocation draw on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall, Russia was drawn to compete in the first half of the first semi-final on 6 May 2014.^[7] In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Russia would perform 7th, following Albania and preceding Azerbaijan.^[8] Russia qualified from the first semi-final and competed in the final on 10 May 2014. During the winner's press conference for the first semi-final qualifiers, Russia was allocated to compete in the second half of the final.^[9] In the final, the producers of the show decided that Russia would perform 15th, following France and preceding Italy.^[10] Russia placed 7th in the final, scoring 89 points.

At the contest, the Tolmachevy Sisters were joined on stage by four backing vocalists: Anna Nilsson, Jenny Tärneberg, Anna Strandberg and Rui Andrade.^[11] The Russian performance featured the Tolmachevy Sisters performing with long translucent sticks and interacting with a platform that moved like a balance and eventually opened into a white sun-like canvas.^[12]

Following the revelation of Russia's qualification into the final during the broadcast of the first semi-final, the announcement was met by an audible booing from the venue audience contrasting the warm reception received during the performance of the song. The negative reaction was believed to be a response to Russia's involvement in the crisis in Ukraine and its stance on LGBT rights.^[13]

In Russia, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on Russia-1 with commentary by Olga Shelest and Dmitriy Guberniev.^[14][15] The Russian spokesperson revealing the result of the Russian vote in the final was 2000 Russian contest entrant and Eurovision Song Contest 2009 final co-presenter Alsou.^[16]

Points awarded to Russia

Points awarded by Russia

Semi-final 1 Points awarded in first semi-final: 12 points  Armenia 10 points  Azerbaijan 8 points  Hungary 7 points  Ukraine 6 points  Sweden 5 points  Montenegro 4 points  Belgium 3 points  San Marino 2 points  Netherlands 1 point  Moldova

Final Points awarded in the final: 12 points  Belarus 10 points  Azerbaijan 8 points  Armenia 7 points  Ukraine 6 points  Hungary 5 points  Austria 4 points  Greece 3 points  Netherlands 2 points  Sweden 1 point  Iceland

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Russian jury:^[17]

• Sergey Zhilin – Chairperson – conductor
• Margarita Mitrofanova – radio DJ, television host
• Leonid Rudenko – DJ, musician, label producer
• Dominik Joker – musician, singer, poet, composer
• Yulia Nachalova – singer

Semi-final 1

The Russian votes in the first semi-final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.^[18]

Semi-final 1 – Russian Results
Draw	Country	S. Zhilin	M. Mitrofanova	L. Rudenko	D. Joker	Y. Nachalova	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Armenia	4	1	4	2	3	3	1	1	12
02	Latvia	14	8	15	10	8	11	11	12
03	Estonia	2	7	10	7	5	5	14	11
04	Sweden	11	11	11	6	9	9	6	5	6
05	Iceland	15	13	13	12	11	15	10	13
06	Albania	13	14	8	11	15	13	15	15
07	Russia
08	Azerbaijan	3	2	3	1	2	2	3	2	10
09	Ukraine	7	5	5	5	6	4	2	4	7
10	Belgium	8	10	2	8	4	7	9	7	4
11	Moldova	5	4	9	4	10	6	12	10	1
12	San Marino	9	15	12	9	12	12	5	8	3
13	Portugal	12	9	14	13	13	14	13	14
14	Netherlands	10	6	7	15	14	10	7	9	2
15	Montenegro	6	12	6	14	7	8	8	6	5
16	Hungary	1	3	1	3	1	1	4	3	8

Final

The Russian votes in the final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.^[19]

Final – Russian Results
Draw	Country	S. Zhilin	M. Mitrofanova	L. Rudenko	D. Joker	Y. Nachalova	Average Jury Rank	Televote Rank	Combined Rank	Scoreboard (Points)
01	Ukraine	9	5	7	8	2	6	4	4	7
02	Belarus	2	1	3	2	1	1	2	1	12
03	Azerbaijan	1	7	1	1	3	2	5	2	10
04	Iceland	13	17	16	16	18	13	11	10	1
05	Norway	10	18	12	3	12	10	15	11
06	Romania	19	19	24	18	20	22	21	23
07	Armenia	6	9	10	10	5	8	1	3	8
08	Montenegro	24	11	19	12	16	15	20	19
09	Poland	16	25	23	19	19	24	13	20
10	Greece	3	2	6	5	7	3	12	7	4
11	Austria	7	10	9	21	9	11	3	6	5
12	Germany	21	12	20	25	23	23	14	21
13	Sweden	14	24	11	22	13	17	6	9	2
14	France	18	21	22	13	24	21	23	24
15	Russia
16	Italy	23	22	25	20	25	25	25	25
17	Slovenia	15	14	18	14	22	16	17	17
18	Finland	22	20	14	11	14	14	16	16
19	Spain	17	23	21	15	17	19	18	22
20	Switzerland	20	15	17	24	21	20	7	12
21	Hungary	4	4	5	6	8	5	8	5	6
22	Malta	5	3	4	7	4	4	24	15
23	Denmark	11	16	2	17	10	12	22	18
24	Netherlands	8	6	8	9	6	7	10	8	3
25	San Marino	25	13	15	23	11	18	9	13
26	United Kingdom	12	8	13	4	15	9	19	14

See also

• Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 2014

References

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)