Maria Chugunova
Hi! I’m Maria from Moscow, Russia. My life goes around languages, cultures and getting to know amazing people and places. Eurovision seems to be a perfect match for such lifestyle as well. I joined ESCXTRA in June 2020 and I can’t wait to see how this journey would turn out for me 🙂
Twitter/Instagram: @acoller_amargo (in case you’re interested 🙂 )
Your first Eurovision memory?
If you remember Dima Bilan’s epic jump while singing “Never Let You Go” in 2006, so that’s it 😀 My cousin and I were so impressed that we practiced it a little and even made a competition who jumped it better!
Your Eurovision journey?
The real passion started in 2009 when Russia held the first and the only for now Eurovision in its history. That year I watched the whole final for the first time and then I discussed it a lot with my friends at school. Our English teacher noticed that spark of interest so we sang along “Fairytale” of Alexander Rybak during several lessons.
Since then I find myself more engaged in the Eurovision stuff every year. Starting from just staying up late till the end of the final voting to find out who was the winner, I proceed by googling and rating the entries in advance and then I discovered a couple of special news sources like ESCXTRA and got some interest in Junior Eurovision, national selections and new music releases.
My dream is to watch Eurovision show live and catch these vibes but, to be honest, it doesn’t seem really possible in the nearest future. However, I managed to join the Pre-party 2019 in Moscow: it was amazing and definitely worth visiting next time!
Why is Eurovision special to you?
Eurovision combines so many great things that make my life better and way more interesting: languages, cultures, good music of different genres, diversity, creativity. There’s always some room to surprise and impress as you’ll never know for sure what song or country would win. Moreover, I can get to know so many artists and so many songs in various languages which is a real benefit for me. And yes, that excitement I get every year right before and during Eurovision can’t be compared to anything 😀
What attracted you to ESCXTRA?
Interesting features and people behind them. I’ve been following ESCXTRA on Twitter and Instagram for more than a year and this team never failed to make my day better with their content. Once I saw a recent announcement there’s a search for new members, I decided to give it a try and here I am 🙂
And finally, your top 5 Eurovision songs of all time?
Hardest question ever. Really. I love so many songs from different years that there’s no way I will give the same answer every time 😀 But here we go! No rating, just listing, okay?
Fai rumore by Diodato. Powerful and charming at once. Not to mention the fact that the arena performance struck me completely!
La Venda by Miki. A cheerful song that never fails to keep my spirits up!
Molitva by Marija Šerifović. I discovered this gem for myself much later but I still come back to this song in my playlist. This is everything.
We Could Be The Same by maNga. I won’t believe there can be anyone who never misses Turkey on the show. Especially these guys 🙁
You Are The Only One by Sergey Lazarev. Well, I feel I should sum this up by adding one of my favourite entries Russia ever sent to Eurovision. I always root for my country no matter who was chosen but Sergey made us proud in 2016, that’s for sure 🙂
Thanks for reading! It’s a big pleasure for me to join the ESCXTRA team. I hope the article helped you to learn something about me and my Eurovision side of life. See you later 🙂
