Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Russia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 23 times from its debut in 1994 to 2021. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". In 2018, the country failed to qualify for the final for the first time in its history. The Russian entry was chosen through both internal selections and a televised national final titled Evrovidenie.

Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
Former participating broadcaster	All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR) Channel One Russia (C1R)
Participation summary
Appearances	23 (22 finals)
First appearance	1994
Last appearance	2021
Highest placement	1st: 2008
Host	2009
Participation history 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 – 2025
Related articles
Evrovidenie
External links
Russia's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Following its exclusion from the 2022 contest due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 26 February 2022, the Russian broadcasters VGTRK and Channel One announced that they would suspend their membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU made effective the suspension on 26 May, preventing Russia from participating in further Eurovision events unless its membership is resumed.^[1][2]

Contest history

Russia debuted in the 1994 contest after becoming a member of the EBU. Russia came second at four contests; in 2000 with the song "Solo" performed by Alsou, in 2006 with Dima Bilan's song "Never Let You Go", in 2012 with the song "Party for Everybody" performed by Buranovskiye Babushki, and in 2015 with Polina Gagarina's song "A Million Voices". They also achieved four third-place finishes; in 2003 with t.A.T.u's song "Ne ver', ne boysia", Serebro in 2007 with their entry "Song #1", and in 2016 as well as 2019 with Sergey Lazarev's entries "You Are the Only One" and "Scream" respectively.

Russia has failed to qualify for the final on two occasions. In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinsky with the song "Ya eto ya", but he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round, while in 2018 Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song "I Won't Break", failed to qualify from the televised second semi-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 intended to send Tatyana Ovsienko with the song "Solntse moyo" (My Sun), which turned out to be a false rumour as the song was officially released in mid-1997 on Tatyana's album "Za Rozovym morem". Tatyana herself, during an interview, said that she did not go to Eurovision because she was "Either afraid or not very sure, besides, I knew that there were stronger guys and girls, and I thought that I would still have time [to go to Eurovision]."^[3]

Russia won their first and so far only 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 between 2000 and 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 placing 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. Sergey Lazarev holds the record of the highest score of any Russian contestant, who finished third in 2016 with 491 points.

In February 2019, Sergey Lazarev was once again confirmed as the Russian representative for the 2019 contest, becoming the second returning artist in Russia's Eurovision history after Dima Bilan, who participated in 2006 and 2008 respectively. This time he represented his country with the song "Scream", with which he brought Russia back to the final for the first time since 2016 and achieved the country's 10th top 5 result, by finishing third once again.

For the 2021 contest, Russia opted to return to a national selection, after Little Big declined to return following their intended participation in the later-cancelled 2020 contest with "Uno". "Russian Woman" performed by Manizha emerged as the winner of the selection, which then went on to finish in 9th place in the final.

Russia had originally planned to participate in the 2022 contest, but was excluded from participating by the EBU due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.^[4][5] In response, the Russian broadcasters VGTRK and Channel One announced their intention to suspend their membership in the EBU.^[1] The suspension was made effective by the EBU on 26 May, preventing Russia from participating in further Eurovision events unless its membership is resumed.^[2]

Broadcast

The contest has been broadcast irregularly on two different public state channels in Russia, both EBU members: in 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 duties, with Russia-1 on even years, and Channel One on odd years. This alternation was disrupted when Russia withdrew from the 2017 contest, after which Channel One assumed broadcast and selection duties in 2018, 2020 and 2021, and Russia-1 in 2019.

Participation overview

Table key

1	First place
2	Second place
3	Third place
X	Entry selected but did not compete

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1994	Youddiph	"Vechny strannik"[a] (Вечный странник)	Russian	9	70	No semi-finals
1995	Philipp Kirkorov	"Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" (Колыбельная для вулкана)	Russian	17	17
1996	Andrey Kosinsky	"Ya eto ya" (Я это я)	Russian	Failed to qualify[b] X		26	14
1997	Alla Pugacheva	"Primadonna" (Примадонна)	Russian	15	33	No semi-finals
2000	Alsou	"Solo"	English	2	155
2001	Mumiy Troll	"Lady Alpine Blue"	English	12	37
2002	Prime Minister	"Northern Girl"	English	10	55
2003	t.A.T.u.	"Ne ver', ne boysia" (Не верь, не бойся)	Russian	3	164
2004	Julia Savicheva	"Believe Me"	English	11	67	Top 11 in 2003 contest[c]
2005	Natalia Podolskaya	"Nobody Hurt No One"	English	15	57	Top 12 in 2004 final[c]
2006	Dima Bilan	"Never Let You Go"	English	2	248	3	217
2007	Serebro	"Song #1"	English	3	207	Top 10 in 2006 final[c]
2008	Dima Bilan	"Believe"	English	1	272	3	135
2009	Anastasia Prikhodko	"Mamo" (Мамо)	Russian, Ukrainian	11	91	Host country
2010	Peter Nalitch and Friends	"Lost and Forgotten"	English	11	90	7	74
2011	Alexey Vorobyov	"Get You"	English, Russian	16	77	9	64
2012	Buranovskiye Babushki	"Party for Everybody"	Udmurt, English	2	259	1	152
2013	Dina Garipova	"What If"	English	5	174	2	156
2014	Tolmachevy Sisters	"Shine"	English	7	89	6	63
2015	Polina Gagarina	"A Million Voices"	English	2	303	1	182
2016	Sergey Lazarev	"You Are the Only One"	English	3	491	1	342
2017	Julia Samoylova	"Flame Is Burning"	English	Withdrawn X
2018	Julia Samoylova	"I Won't Break"	English	Failed to qualify		15	65
2019	Sergey Lazarev	"Scream"	English	3	370	6	217
2020	Little Big	"Uno"	English, Spanish	Contest cancelled[d] X
2021	Manizha	"Russian Woman"	Russian, English	9	204	3	225

Related involvement

Conductors

Year	Conductor	Notes	Ref.
1994	Lev Zemlinski
1995	Mikhail Finberg
1997	Rutger Gunnarsson

Heads of delegation

Broadcaster	Year(s)	Head of delegation	Ref.
Channel One	???–2003	Elena Arkhipova	[6][better source needed]
	2004–2021	Yuri Aksyuta	[7][better source needed]
RTR	2008–2019	Ekaterina Orlova	[8]

Commentators and spokespersons

For broadcasts within Russia when part of the Soviet Union, see List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest § Soviet Union.

The contest was also aired on radio stations and alternative channels, including Radio 101 [ru], commentated by Olesya Trifonova, in 1995.^[9] From 2008 until their suspension, Channel One and Russia-1 switched roles to broadcast the contest.

Year	Channel	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
1992	RTR	Unknown	Did not participate	[10]
1993				[11]
1994		Sergey Antipov [ru]	Irina Klenskaya	[12]
1995	ORT	No commentator[e]	Marina Danielyan	[9][14][15]
1996	Unknown		Did not participate
1997	ORT	Philipp Kirkorov, Sergey Antipov	Arina Sharapova	[16][17][18]
1998	Unknown		Did not participate
1999	ORT	Olga Maksimova and Kolya MacCleod		[19][20][21]
	Jewish Channel	Unknown		[22]
2000	ORT	Tatyana Godunova, Aleksey Zhuravlev	Zhanna Agalakova	[23][24][25]
2001		Alexander Anatolyevich [ru], Konstantin Mikhailov [ru]	Larisa Verbitskaya	[26][27]
2002		Yuriy Aksyuta [ru], Yelena Batinova [ru]	Arina Sharapova	[28][29][30]
2003	Channel One		Yana Churikova	[31][32]
2004	Channel One (Final)			[33][34]
2005	Channel One			[35][36]
2006		Yuri Aksyuta, Tatyana Godunova		[37][38]
2007		Yuri Aksyuta, Yelena Batinova		[39][40]
2008	Telekanal Rossiya, RTR Planeta	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest [ru]	Oxana Fedorova	[41][42][43]
2009	Channel One	Yana Churikova (All shows) Aleksey Manuylov (Semi-finals) Philipp Kirkorov (Final)	Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė	[44][45]
2010	Russia-1	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Oxana Fedorova
2011	Channel One	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Dima Bilan	[46][47][48]
2012	Russia-1	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Oxana Fedorova	[49]
2013	Channel One	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Alsou	[50][51]
2014	Russia-1	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest		[52][53][54]
2015	Channel One	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Dmitry Shepelev	[55]
2016	Russia-1, Russia HD	Dmitry Guberniev, Ernest Mackevičius	Nyusha	[56]
2017	No broadcast		Did not participate
2018	Channel One[f]	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Alsou	[57]
2019	Russia 1, Russia HD	Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest	Ivan Bessonov	[58][59][60][61]
2020	Not announced before cancellation
2021	Channel One	Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova	Polina Gagarina	[62][63][64][65]
2022–2024	Suspended from broadcasting		Did not participate	[66]

Costume designers

Year	Costume designers	Ref.
1994	Pavel Kaplevich	[67]
2000	Maria Grachvogel	[68]
2002	Valentin Yudashkin	[69]

Viewing figures

Year	Region(s)	Share	Rating	Ref.
1997	All of Russia	53.8%	N/A	[70][better source needed]
2001	All of Russia	31.1%	5.5%	[71]
2004	All of Russia	51.6%	16.1%	[71]
2005	All of Russia	40.2%	11%	[71]
2007	All of Russia	53.6%	17%	[72]
2008	All of Russia	47%	8.4%	[72]
2009	All of Russia	64.2%	17.6%	[71]
2010	Rest of Russia	37.2%	N/A	[71]
	Moscow	46.5%	N/A
2011	Rest of Russia	33%	5.4%	[71]
	Moscow	35.5%	8%
2012	All of Russia	47.7%	12.1%	[73]
2013	All of Russia	32.5%	6%	[74]
2014	All of Russia	31.5%	5.2%	[74]
2015	All of Russia	31.6%	6.8%	[75]
2016	All of Russia	37%	6.8%	[75]
2018	All of Russia	11.6%	2.2%	[75]
2019	All of Russia	28.2%	4.6%	[75]
2020[g]	All of Russia	11.7%	3%	[76]
2021	All of Russia	23.1%	3.8%	[76]

Hostings

Year	Location	Venue	Presenters	Ref.
2009	Moscow	Olympic Indoor Arena	Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov (semi-finals) Alsou and Ivan Urgant (final)	[77]

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Further information: Marcel Bezençon Awards

Year	Category	Song	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2016	Press Award	"You Are the Only One"	Sergey Lazarev	3	491	Stockholm	[78]

Barbara Dex Award

Further information: Barbara Dex Award

Year	Performer	Host city	Ref.
2003	t.A.T.u.	Riga	[79]

Photo gallery

• 
  Julia Savicheva in Istanbul (2004)
• 
  Serebro in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Dima Bilan in Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Anastasia Prikhodko in Moscow (2009)
• 
  Peter Nalitch and Friends in Oslo (2010)
• 
  Alex Vorobyov in Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  Dina Garipova in Malmö (2013)
• 
  Tolmachevy Sisters in Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Polina Gagarina in Vienna (2015)
• 
  Sergey Lazarev in Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Julia Samoylova in Lisbon (2018)
• 
  Sergey Lazarev in Tel Aviv (2019)
• 
  Manizha in Rotterdam (2021)

See also

• Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Russia in the Eurovision Dance Contest – Dance version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• Russia in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Russia in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.