Andrej Danilko, in Eastern Europe, Germany, Israel and other countries with large Russian population also known as drag queen Verka Serduchka, has withdrawn from the Ukrainian preselections for the Eurovision Song Contrest 2005. His official reason to withdraw is the difficulty to match the dates of the preselection with his tour, but…
The Ukrainian jury has expressed its critics regarding Danilko's participation in the Ukrainian preselections. They doubt Danilko's vocal skills and fear that his image of talkative and humorous Ukrainian aunt would not be accepted by the European audience. The jury's opinion states that such acts should be performed in pubs and not on the stage of this international contest.
Danilko's managment suggested him as an appropriate entrant to represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005 and claims that Ukraine needs a bright, colourful and unforgetable performance at the contest, organized in Kiev. “Verka would be a perfect choice, also taking into consideration that 'she' could win a lot of points in many countries thanks to 'her' popularity.”
Andrej Danilko is not only known as a performer and stand-up comedian who sold more than 3.000.000 albums, but he is as well a composer of instrumental and film music. As a patriotic Ukrainian, he would have prefered to represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest next year. Despite the current situation and convinced of his talents to impress the audience, Danilko is still looking forward to participating as Verka Serduchka in Kiev and now considers representing Russia.
