Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000, held on 13 May 2000 at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden. Public Russian Television (ORT) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a two-year absence following their relegation in 1998. ORT first announced that the Russian entry for the 2000 contest would be chosen through a televised national final. However, the broadcaster later opted to choose the nation's representative internally. The song "Solo", written by Andrew Lane and Brandon Barnes and performed by Alsou, was internally selected to represent the nation. Prior to the contest, the entry was promoted by a music video and live performances in Riga, Tallinn and Saint-Petersburg. Russia performed ninth out of the 24 countries competing in the contest and finished in second place, receiving 155 points and full marks from four countries, marking nation's highest placement in the contest to this point.

Eurovision Song Contest 2000
Country Russia
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 6 March 2000
Song: April 2000
Selected entrantAlsou
Selected song"Solo"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Final result2nd, 155 points
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1997 • 2000 • 2001►

Background
Main article: Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2000 contest, Russia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest three times since its first entry in 1994.[1] Russia missed the 1996 contest when its selected song "Ya eto ya" by Andrey Kosinsky failed to qualify from the qualifying round, was relegated from the 1998 contest due to a poor average score from the preceding contests, and was unable to partake in the 1999 contest after ORT didn't air the previous contest on television, which was a requirement for participation in 1999.[2][3] To this point, the country's best placing was ninth, which it achieved in 1994 with the song "Vechny strannik" performed by Youddiph. Russia's least successful result was in 1995 when it placed 17th with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" by Philipp Kirkorov, receiving 17 points in total.[1]

The Russian national broadcaster ORT broadcasts the event within Russia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry.[4] ORT confirmed their intentions to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 on 18 December 1999. Along with their participation confirmation, it was announced that a national final will be held to select the Russian entry.[5] However, this aspect was discarded and the broadcaster opted to choose the artist via an internal selection.[6][7][8]

Before Eurovision
Alsou (pictured in 2009) was selected to represent Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Internal selection

On 18 December 1999, ORT announced that a national final would take place on 19 February 2000 to select the Russian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 and opened a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until 15 February 2000.[5][9] The broadcaster received over 2000 submissions at the conclusion of the deadline.[10][11] Plans for the national final were later abandoned by the broadcaster due to the financial problems.[6][7][8]

On 6 March 2000, ORT announced that they had internally selected Alsou to represent Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with the song "Solo".[11] Alsou's selection as the Russian representative was decided upon by musical editorial board of ORT.[12] Written by Andrew Lane and Brandon Barnes,[10] the song became Russia's first entry to be performed in the English language at the Eurovision Song Contest.[13]

"This is a great opportunity for us to introduce Alsou to Europe. She has already reached No. 1 in Russia with several songs, and now she has a chance to captivate European audiences."

— Konstantin Ernst – President, ORT[10]

Promotion

To promote "Solo" as the Russian Eurovision entry, a music video for "Solo", directed by Debbie Bourn,[14] was presented to the public in April 2000.[15] Alsou also embarked on a promotional tour, performing at Vernisazh Club in Riga, Latvia on 8 April 2000, Dekolte Club in Tallinn, Estonia on 9 April, and Oktyabrsky Concert Hall in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 10 and 11 April.[16][17][18]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2000 took place at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, on 13 May 2000.[19] According to the Eurovision rules, the 24-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the previous year's winning country and host nation Sweden, the "Big Four" countries, the thirteen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1999 contest.[20] Russia was one of the eligible countries which did not compete in the 1999 contest, and thus were permitted to participate.[21] The running order for the contest was decided by a draw held on 21 November 1999;[20] Russia was assigned to perform 9th at the 2000 contest, following Norway and preceding Belgium.[22] Eurovision Song Contest 2000 was televised in Russia on ORT live on 13 May and in delay on 9 June.[23][24][25] The contest broadcast on 9 June had a market share of 3.0% and a rating of 15.8%, according to Gallup Media.[26]

Prior to the contest, Russia was considered by bookmakers to be the sixth most likely country to win the competition.[27][28] The Russian performance was choreographed by Sandra Dukes[29] and featured Alsou, dressed in a pink glittery outfit designed by Maria Grachvogel,[30] performing a choreographed routine with two male dancers.[31] The stage featured LED screen projections of blue smoke.[31] During the performance, Alsou and the dancers were also accompanied by three backing vocalists.[31][32] After the voting concluded, Russia scored 155 points, including 4 sets of the highest score of 12 points, from Croatia, Cyprus, Malta and Romania,[33] and placed 2nd.[22] At the time this result was the Russia's best placing in its competitive history, and was the nation's first finish in top 3.[1] Following the contest, the Russian delegation petitioned for Denmark's disqualification due to the use of a vocoder during their performance, however, this was not upheld by the EBU.[19]

Voting
See also: Voting in the Eurovision Song Contest

The same voting system in use since 1975 was again implemented for 2000 contest, with each country providing 1–8, 10 and 12 points[34] to the ten highest-ranking songs as determined by a selected jury or the viewing public through televoting, with countries not allowed to vote for themselves.[20] Russia opted to assemble a jury panel,[27] consisting of Andrey Makarevich, Maria Katz, Erik Chanturia, Irina Slutskaya, Mihey, Andris Liepa, Valeriya and Elena Yakovleva, to determine which countries would receive their points.[35][36] The Russian spokesperson, who announced the points awarded by the Russian jury during the final, was Zhanna Agalakova.[31][37]

After Eurovision

"Alsou's second-placing was seen by many as a triumph for her homeland, after recent Eurovision contests had brought humiliation for top flight Russian singers at the annual event - broadcast around the world to an audience estimated at 100 million viewers. Even though Alsou calls England home for now, her success caused a major splash in the national newspapers here. Several papers said the Eurovision result was sweet balm for national pride, wounded by the national hockey team's disastrously low 11th place at the world championships, which finished last Sunday in St. Petersburg."

—Alexander Bratersky from The Moscow Times on result's reception in Russia.[39]

Russia's success at the contest was greeted with positive reactions in the Russian press; Komsomolskaya Pravda stated that the result was a "sensation" and Vechernyaya Moskva proclaimed it "a matter of national pride", while Argumenty i Fakty commented that song's triumph is "the first glimpses of the success of domestic performers in the West."[40][41][27] In regards to the result, Alsou herself stated that she was "immensely happy that [she] was able to support the musical glory of the country."[42] Following the contest, "Solo" was released as a CD single,[43] which went on to become a success in Russia; having sold over 64,000 copies by August 2000, "Solo" become the best-selling single in Russia to this point.[44][45] "Solo" failed to impact any national chart, except in Russia, where it peaked at number 10 on the InterMedia CD chart[46] and number 11 on the Airplay chart.[47] In December 2000, Alsou's dress was sold at charity auction for $3,500.[48]

Impact and legacy

In their book Performing the 'New' Europe: Identities, Feelings and Politics in the Eurovision Song Contest, Karen Fricker and Milija Gluhovic credited Russia's success in the contest that year for starting the nation's "more focused and concerted pursuit of Eurovision gold", which included "consciously modeling their singers and musical material on Europop."[30] Oliver Lepold from Prinz.de opined that "it was from that time that Russians began to take the competition very seriously, investing really big money in it."[49] Vitaly Gizzatulin from Argumenty i Fakty wrote that Alsou's result "returned the interest of the domestic public to this song contest".[50] Aleksey Kryzhevsky of Expert noted that Alsou's success "strengthened the foreign reputation of Russian pop",[51] while Alexander Bratersky from The Moscow Times stated that "Alsou has set a precedent, showing that a Russian artist can really be an export."[39] Leonid Pavlyuchik from Trud noted that Alsou's second-place finish "brought her unprecedented popularity".[52]

Various Eurovision participants cited the performance as an influence for their own participations in the contest; in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets, 2011 Eurovision winners for Azerbaijan Ell & Nikki have cited inspiration towards Alsou's performance: "Both Eldar and I almost simultaneously, since 2000, began to dream of performing at the competition. For example, I was very inspired by Alsou, her second place in 2000, but Azerbaijan did not participate in Eurovision at that time, and it seemed like a distant dream."[53] 2018 Russian representative Yulia Samoylova has also stated that "[her] dream to get to the Eurovision Song Contest was born when [she] saw the performance of the wonderful singer Alsou at this contest".[54]

A number of publications have retrospectively listed the Alsou's performance as one of the best Russian Eurovision performances; it has been included in unranked lists of the best Russian Eurovision Song Contest performances by Voice, Glamour and TV Centre.[55][56][13] MTS included the performance on their list of "Most Iconic Eurovision performances."[57] In 2021, music critic Artem Makarsky, in an article for The Village, ranked the performance as the ninth-best Russian Eurovision performance.[58] In a Wiwibloggs poll, "Solo" was chosen the third-best Russian Top 5 Eurovision song.[59]

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Further reading
  • Napier-Bell, Simon (2022). Sour Mouth, Sweet Bottom: Lessons from a Dissolute Life. Unbound. p. 275-278. ISBN 9781800181892.
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