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Russia’s Junior Eurovision Journey so far

Next November 25th, Minsk Arena will host the sixteenth Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It will be the second time that the event takes place in the venue in Belarus’s capital. With Ukraine’s last minute confirmation, a record-breaking 20 countries will participate. Therefore, it is the perfect time to look back at the journeys of all of this year’s participating countries in the contest. Today, let’s take a look at the journey of the reigning winner: Russia! 

Quick facts

  • Country: Russia
  • Broadcaster: Carousel
  • Debut appearance: 2005
  • Number of appearances: 13
  • Highest finish: 1st (2006, 2017)
  • Lowest finish: 9th (2005)

Back to the very beginning…

Russia made its Junior Eurovision debut back in 2005. The first to fly the country’s flag at the contest was Vladislav Krutskikh with his entry “Doroga k solntsu“. He ended up in 9th place with 66 points. To date, this is Russia’s worst result at the contest.

Russia’s journey so far

Despite the underwhelming start, Russia’s fortunes turned around quickly at the contest and the country never missed out on a single top 10 finish. In fact, victory came in 2006 with the Tolmachevy Twins who won with their entry “Vessenniy Jazz”. Of course, we all know them for later representing Russia at Eurovision in 2014 where they finished 7th. The second victory came last year in Tbilisi with Polina Bogusevich and her song “Wings“. She won just 3 points ahead of runner-up Georgia. Besides their victories, Russia also finished second twice in 2009 with Katya Ryabova and in 2010 with Sasha Lazin and Liza Drozd. They also enjoyed multiple top 5 finishes throughout the years and never missed out on a top 10.

Looking ahead to 2018

Just like last week’s country Georgia, Russia has already picked the entrant for Minsk. However, they are one step further as they already selected the song too! 13-year-old Anna Filipchuk won Akademiya Eurovision on June 3rd with her song “Nepobedimy“.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCbX4BJxPU

My favourite Russian entry!

If for the past two weeks I had liked most of the featured countries’ entries, I am afraid I can’t quite say the same about Russia as I only like 4 of the songs they sent to Junior Eurovision. Maybe I just don’t get the songs but I find them very underwhelming. Among those 4, it wasn’t hard picking my favourite and we don’t need to go far in time. In fact, my favourite is last year’s rightful winner Polina Bogusevich!

I am such a piano lover and the start is enough to sell the song to me. Although I am not a big fan of the sofa, the dancers do such an amazing job and add a great deal to the performance. Now, can we talk about Polina’s vocals? How amazing were they? As I said before on this feature, I prefer when the song is entirely in the country’s language, but in this case too it works well to have a mix of English and Russian. It was a show of mesmerizing beauty and I am so glad she won. I do like the 2018 song but Polina can safely hold on to the crown of my favourite. At least until 2019 🙂

Our countries’ journeys so far: 

  1. FYR Macedonia
  2. Armenia
  3. The Netherlands
  4. Israel
  5. Ukraine
  6. Georgia

My favourite was 2017, but what is your favourite Russian entry at Junior Eurovision? Do you like their 2018 entry?

Don’t forget to come back next Tuesday for another journey down another country’s Junior Eurovision memory lane! 

Let us know in the comments below or on social media @ESCXTRA.

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