Da Russophile´s last blog post..Victory Day Special: The Poisonous Myths of the Eastern Front

Da Russophile´s last blog post..Victory Day Special: The Poisonous Myths of the Eastern Front

I have to say with regret that none of the Russian entries since Alla Pugachova have had any sort of decent singing voice (with the possible exception of Dima Bilan). Best by far is Russia’s first entry, Youddiph.

Best of luck in Moscow next week!

SEMI FINAL:
http://hippotizer.blogspot.com/2007/05/all-eurovision-2007-semi-final-videos.html

GRAND FINAL:
http://hippotizer.blogspot.com/2007/05/all-eurovision-grand-final-videos.html

Russia a has a history of picking great pop groups but poor songs.

You’re definitely right that for at least a few of these performers (the ones whose bodies of work I know) the songs picked were questionable. But I’m not sure about “great pop groups,” although I’m not super-familiar with all of the more recent years’ entrants. I’d say Mumii Troll is really more than just a pop group, whereas Pugachova and Kirkorov probably qualify as pop icons, and the rest generally seem to be in the little-to-no-talent popsa genre. I think the weakness that is revealed for a lot of these acts is indeed live singing, which is not typically done at pop concerts in Russia – I don’t think you are allowed to lip-synch at Eurovision, which puts acts like Tatu (although I loved their first album) and even Pugachova out to sea.

That performance by Kirkorov is far from his best, either. Interesting story about Filya – I once ran into him in the Starlite Diner in Moscow and decided the proper way to approach him would be to speak English to him. Turns out his English is quite good, and he was delighted to have a foreign fan. He gave me a goofy autographed postcard that had a whole text on the back (in English) all about how he is “Russian superstar Filip Kirkorov.”

Actually something strange has happened at home -because of our recent thumpings, the Irish have gotten a bit upset and decided we want to win it again! There’s a train of thought that its past us now though because of Eastern Europe entering the fray. Instead of tasteless Irish songs sung by has-beens, the majority audience want tasteless Slavic songs sung by women wearing as little as possible or novelty acts. It could be a long time before Dublin hosts it again.