Last weekend, Russia won the 2006 Junior Eurovision Song Contest with a landslide victory. Their neighbours, and last year's victors, Belarus, finished in second place. It marks a highly successful year for Europe's largest country, after their second place at the Eurovision Song Contest in Athens. Many commentators and fans speculate that it is only a short matter of time before Russia wins 'The Big One', and many believe that they will become as dominant in the 21st Century as Ireland became in the 1990s. A snapshot of results since 2000 points towards the same conclusion. Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine have won the Eurovision Song Contest in the last five years, Belarus and Russia have won the last two Junior Competitions, so this week, we ask the readers of esctoday.com: 'Has the Eurovision Song Contest gone East for good?'
The new deomographics of Europe and the expansion in competing nations at the Eurovision Song Contest have seen many competing countries that until recently shared one government, one flag, one language and one voice. In recent weeks, our 'Have Your Say' editorial articles have looked at neighbourly and political voting in detail. Consensus seems overwhelmingly to suggest that there is an impact on the results table at the Eurovision Song Contest, even if it does not effect the eventual winner.
Russia is the largest competing country geographically, and in 2007, another former member of the Soviet Union / CIS joins her biggest neighbour. How many people would be against Georgia adding another 12 points to Russia's points tally in 2007? Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus alone can provide 84 points to Russia, approximately one third of a winning points total required.
Russia has a large population and a fast developing music talent base. The 2006 Eurovision Song Contest representative, Dima Bilan, sees his star rising steadily, winning international acclaim and appearing last month at the World Music Awards. Varvara, a blonde bombshell with a hugely popular voice is strongly tipped to represent the nation in 2007, having appeared at the official Russian party in Athens in support of Dima. She is already popular in Russia's neighbouring countries and many believe that she can win the Eurovision Song Contest.
There is a counter argument here, Belarus are part of this group but have in three attempts, failed to qualify from the Semi-final. Are they simply seen as a 'poor neighbour', have their entries really been too poor to qualify, or are they simply too far down the pecking order to receive enough votes? Are they the exception that proves a new Eurovision rule? Certainly not at the Junior Eurovison Song Contest, where they were winners last year and second this time.
Had Finland not provided such a different act in 2006 with Lordi, appealing to voters from Iceland to Israel and everywhere in between, would anyone realistically deny that victory would have gone to Russia in 2006? It would have been the former Soviet countries' fourth win in five years. So in your opinion, has the Eurovision Song Contest gone East for good? Have your say in the reactions below!
