Sloppy Seconds for Russia

It was a case of second time lucky for singer Anastasia Prykhodko when she won the Russian Eurovision national finals with her song Mamo, the same song that had just been rejected by the national broadcaster of her native Ukraine. The music to the song Mamo was written by a Georgian and the song is performed partially in Russian, Ukrainian and Estonian.

Any country participating in the Eurovision is free to send nationals of any country they choose, most notable examples being Canada's Celine Dion who once represented Switzerland and Australian-born Johnny Logan who won for Ireland three times.

However the fact that the host country Russia chose a foreigner to represent them in Moscow has raised eyebrows and caused storms of protest in the Russian press, particularly because Georgia, Estonia and Ukraine have not had the warmest relationships with Russia in recent years.

Some have even gone as far to speculate the vote was rigged, with the many interconnections and cross-ownerships of the Russia's television, telecom and music industries being held up as a possible motive.

A more positive interpretation is that citizens of Russia are demonstrating that their country is more multicultural and accepting of diversity than their newspapers believe and the recent actions of their Government might show.

Prykhodko who won the Russian TV equivalent of Australian Idol, Star Factory, is already well known in Russia. She sings a medium tempo song let down by repetitive lyrics with a very basic stage show.
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As host country, Russia does not need to quality through the Semi-Finals as it has an automatic place in the Finals.