Although the rules describes the festival as ‘apolitical’This important decision comes after Russia and Ukraine showed their confidence. strained relationship within the framework of the festivalBoth wanted to push the politics between music, performance and pyrotechnics on the event stage. Yotele examines the political history and tensions of Ukraine and Russia in the context of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Anthem of the orange revolution
The year it won its first festival, Ukraine plunged into the orange revolution protesting the presidential election that seized Maidan square and was marked as fraudulent and whose main face was Ruslana, who won with ‘Wild’. Dance’.
To celebrate its 2005 festival, Ukraine chose Greenjolly as host and the song ‘Razom nas bagato’ (“Together we are many”), which has become one of the most popular songs. protest chants which took place in the Ukrainian capital.
‘Goodbye’ to Russia
After the orange revolution that left its mark on the country, in 2007 Ukraine took second place in the Eurovision Song Contest with Verka Serduchka played by actor Andriy Danilko and her phonetic song ‘Dancing Lasha Tumbai’. Subliminal message understood as ‘Goodbye Russia’ in English (‘Goodbye Russia’).
Moscow censorship
After the victory of Dima Bilan in 2008, Moscow became the venue for Eurovision 2009, which was marked by LGTBIphobia in public institutions. In fact, the mayor of the Russian capital at the time, Juri Lushkov, warned the LGTBI people that they could not hold public demonstrations:The city does not allow gay parades“.
That wasn’t the only relevant thing to mark the selection in question. According to Malena Ernman, mother of activist Greta Thunberg, Russian professional jury ‘punishes’ him and Soraya for defending the rights of LGTBI people placing it in the last place during the development of the festival.
Georgian withdrawal
The geopolitical conflict in the separatist South Ossetia region also left its mark on the Eurovision organized by Russia in 2009. Georgia had to withdraw from the festival when she wanted to change the lyrics of her song ‘.We don’t want to be put in wordplay with the Russian president..
Russia booed in 2014
In 2013, Putin was recognized anti-propaganda laws gayIt worries much of the international community, even within the organization of the Eurovision Song Contest. At that time, the Festival’s Reference Group, headed by Jon Ola Sand (executive supervisor of the competition from 2010 to 2020), asked the participating Russian channels how they could influence a hypothetical celebration of the festival on their territory, even reaching to sign an agreement. Open letter denouncing discrimination in all his classes.
Months later, the audience of the competition at the 2014 Festival Significantly booed the Tomachevy twins, representatives of Russiaand at that time the spokesperson of the eastern country gave his points. At the end of the demonstrations, incidentally or deliberately, the performance focused on a few waving LGTBI flags as public protest was conspicuously heard.
Ukraine withdrew in 2015
The results of the Russian occupation of various Ukrainian territories also affected the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Eurovision. In 2015, the Ukrainian public broadcaster unexpectedly announced his withdrawal from the European festival due to the political and military situation in the country due to the said conflict and the financial bankruptcy of the channel.
In 2016, a year after its withdrawal, Ukraine made a stylish return to the Eurovision Song Contest despite some controversy. The eastern country, in the framework of the conflict with Russia over the annexation of parts of its territory, won the European competition with ‘1944’, sung in Tatar and English, reminiscent of the mass exiles suffered by the Tatars during the Jamala and Tatars. Stalinism.
“As for the strangers… they come to your house, they kill you all, and they say, ‘We are not guilty, we are innocent.’ Where is your head? Humanity is crying, you think you are god, but everybody dies. Don’t swallow my soul, our souls‘ refers to the lyrics of the 2016 Eurovision winner song, which was revived in 2022 after the Russian invasion.
I veto the Russian representative
Following Jamala’s victory in Stockholm, Ukraine attempted to hold the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev amid rumors of cancellation due to funding issues and tensions with Russia. Even the eastern country had to give up participating in the European competition. Ukrainian authorities vetoed the entry of their representative Yulia SamoylovaFor performing without permission in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014.
The EBU, on the other hand, tried to save Russia’s participation in this edition of Eurovision by suggesting that Samoylova act via satellite on a set in Moscow, but this proposal did not materialise.
Politics and Junior Eurovision
If Eurovision hasn’t gotten rid of politics, there’s no Junior contest either. In 2018, the little artist Darina Krasnovetska represented Ukraine at the European competition with a song “Say Love”, which she justified with a megaphone. said ‘no’ to war in the power of love and words. In a way, the composition handles a universal theme in the music world, but the fact that the festival is held in Belarus, a satellite country of Putin’s Russia, makes it particularly relevant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQgujj_TAQo
Ukraine filmed in 2019
One of the most memorable Eurodramas starring Ukraine in recent years has also been produced in part by geopolitics. Maruv was not the representative of Ukraine after he failed to reach an agreement with the public television of the eastern country on the hard contract that forced him, for example, Canceling their concerts in Russia, giving up all rights to their songs and/or not speaking to journalists without your express consent.
In fact, many European fans still remember this preselection because of the question Jamala asked Maruv after her performance in the middle of one of the premieres:I have a very disturbing question for you: Is Crimea Ukraine?“.
Hours after this decision and seeing that none of the pre-selection finalists wanted to fill the vacancy for Ukrainian state television Maruv (UA:PBC) withdrawn from the competition It is organized by the European Broadcasting Union, although it has confirmed its participation. The decision came the day after the Ukrainian government announced the creation of a blacklist of artists performing in Russia.
The Maruv case is repeated
Ukraine has recently revived the Maruv debate over Crimea. Just four days after winning its national final, Alina Pash voluntarily resigned from carrying the Ukrainian flag The Turin 2022 stage was unofficial, as it was not issued by the State Border Service under Ukrainian law, after Ukrainian state television announced that the certificate of entry from Ukraine to Crimea, which his team had given to join Vidbir, was not official. .
“I am an artist, not a politician. I don’t have an army of PR, administrators, lawyers to withstand all these attacks, pressures, threats, attacking my social networks… And also absolutely unacceptable reactions that people allow themselves without understanding the situation and forgetting their dignity. Every citizen from Ukraine. I don’t want this virtual war and hate. Now the real war is the foreign war that came to my country in 2014. I don’t want to be a part of this dirty story. I wholeheartedly withdraw my candidacy for the representative of Ukraine in Eurovision,” the artist assured in the broadcast on his Instagram profile.
Russia deported in 2022
The final chapter in this chronology of geopolitical tensions arrived last Friday. The European Broadcasting Union decided Exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest due to Russia’s invasion of UkraineHe had demanded that his neighbor be removed from the body and from the music competition himself. Following this request, other countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have expressed their rejection of Russia’s presence at the festival.
“This decision reflects our concern that, due to the unprecedented crisis in Ukraine, the inclusion of a Russian nomination in this year’s contest could damage the contest’s reputation,” the EBU said in a statement. He dismissed the possibility of Russia being excluded from the competition, despite its attacks in Ukraine. “a non-political cultural eventHowever, the organization acknowledged that it would “monitor the situation closely”.
Source: Informacion
