Little Big member Ilya Prusikin has revealed that their Eurovision entry “Uno” wasn’t originally intended to take part in the contest. The song was due to be released as an album track in late 2021. Little Big were set to represent Russia at the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, before it was cancelled.
In a recent interview, Prusikin talked about Little Big’s short-lived Eurovision experience, after they decided not to return in 2021. He said their decision not to participate was so another artist was given a chance to represent Russia at the contest. After winning Russia’s first national final since 2012, Manizha was selected to represent Russia in this year’s contest.
Not the expected decision
Speaking on the Bez Dushi video podcast, Prusikin revealed that the group was really surprised that “Uno” was selected by Channel One for the contest. They had also submitted their single “Tacos”, which was released last August, for the channel to consider. Little Big had hoped they would select “Tacos” as they thought it would be more “idiotic” for the Eurovision stage.
On the subject of the 2021 contest, the Little Big frontman said that they made the decision not to participate in the contest early on after the cancellation, in order to give another Russian artist a chance to take to the stage in Rotterdam.
Listen, we said already from the start in 2020 that we don’t want to. Not just wanting to, but also thinking that a different artist should go.
– Ilya Prusikin, speaking on Bez Dushi
This does however contradict an interview with the group back in November where they revealed that they had submitted songs to Channel One for consideration for the 2021 contest. There were also rumours in late February that Russia would return to selecting their entry via a national final format, featuring Little Big. When the national final went to air, Little Big appeared to perform “Uno” but did not compete with a new entry.
Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020
After revealing in 2019 that they were interested in representing Russia, Little Big were announced as Russia’s Eurovision representatives for 2020 last March. Their song “Uno” was released a week later. Shortly after, the contest was cancelled as a result of the pandemic. This meant that “Uno” was never performed on the Eurovision stage.
However, it didn’t fail to become a hit. In July, “Uno” overtook Eurovision 2018 winner Netta as most-viewed video on the official Eurovision YouTube channel. The song was later featured on the Just Dance 2021 video game – the second time the group had been featured in the Just Dance game series after “Skibidi” in 2020.
Would you have liked to see “Tacos” as the Russian entry in 2020? Was you a fan of “Uno”?
Let us know in the comments below and on social media @ESCXTRA.
