It’s Julia Samoylova’s time to shine today as the official Russian entry for the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest has been unveiled and released! How will Russia’s returning entry fare in Lisbon?
Back in January, the Russian national broadcaster – Channel One – officially confirmed that Julia Samoylova has been selected to represent the largest competing country at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, finally embarking on her dream of competing on the Eurovision stage.
The artist was internally selected following the debacle of Russia’s 2017 bidding participation, which saw the nation eventually withdraw from the competition.
Samoylova to Lisbon with I won’t break
Samoylova together with her songwriting husband, Alexei Taran, have been busy over the past number of months preparing for the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest, having written a number of potential entries for the upcoming competition.
Earlier this year, Samoylova released information in dribs and drabs ahead of the official participation confirmation, revealing the themes of 2 of her bidding entries; whilst one bidding song focussed on a space theme, the second was confirmed as a story surrounding a fairy tale.
Which entry did Samoylova select? Or did the singer decide to opt for a completely different entry? Check out Russia’s 2018 Eurovision entry, entitled I won’t break.
About I won’t break
The international team behind Russia’s bidding 2017 entry has returned for 2018 to write and produce Samoylova’s competing entry, the team of which comprising of Leonid Gutkin, Netta Nimrodi and Arie Burshtein.
Gutkin, who has also worked on Russia’s Eurovision entries in both 2013 and 2015, spoke of Russia’s latest song for the competition:
This is a very personal song. This is a song about Julia’s strength that inspires so many people. The song mentions a castle built of sand that looks very fragile but in fact is rock-solid.
Speaking of her 2018 entry, Samoylova revealed:
This is a song about me. It’s as if the authors did their very best to set my own thoughts and feelings to music. It’s not so much a tender ballad as a song about strength.
This was followed by a comment by Yuri Aksyuta, Head of the Russian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest and Head of Music Programming at Channel One Russia:
We have a great performer, a great song and a beautiful show full of meaning. As always, we expect a lot from the contest that is very popular in our country. Russia is back!
Russia will compete in the first half of the second semi-final on the 10 May, hoping to continue their successful streak in the competition with yet another qualification to the final of the contest on the 12 May.
