The production director at Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv, Sergei Prosurnya, explained to DW that Jamala’s passage along the red carpet before the opening ceremony of the competition was not included in the script. “This format of participation was not discussed with members of her team,” Proskurnya said on Tuesday, May 9, in Kyiv. The talk, according to him, was only about the performance of the winner of last year's Eurovision at the opening ceremony, which is what happened.

Context

Previously, representatives of Jamala were indignant at in social networks because the singer was not allowed on the red carpet, along which the participants walked in the Mariinsky Park in Kyiv on the opening day of the music competition on Sunday, May 7. The organization of the opening ceremony itself at the Euroclub also caused dissatisfaction among Jamala's representatives. To this Sergei Proskurnya objected: “If the guests and participants went out onto the terrace with a glass of champagne, I won’t call the firefighters to drag them into the hall.”

The first pancake of Eurovision 2017 is lumpy?

As a rule, the opening ceremony of Eurovision takes place in the town hall or city hall of the host city. Only after this the participants of the competition come to the Euroclub - a meeting place for journalists and accredited Eurovision fans. This time the organizers decided to do something different and laid out the longest carpet in the history of the competition. As a result, the passage of participants along it lasted more than two hours and the opening ceremony was delayed.

There is also active discussion on the Internet that the first semi-final of Eurovision 2017 on Tuesday evening, May 9, will be opened not by Jamala, the winner of last year’s competition, but by Ukrainian performer Dmitry Monatik (stage name Monatik). But this is far from the first precedent at the competition. Thus, in 2009 in Moscow, Dima Bilan, who “brought” Eurovision to Russia, appeared on stage only in the final, as did Lena in Dusseldorf in 2011. A year earlier, this singer from Germany won a competition in Oslo. And Jamala will perform twice in the first semi-final of Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv - during the voting of television viewers and during the counting of votes. First, she will perform a new interpretation of “1944,” with which she won in Stockholm, and then the ethnic composition “Lured.”

See also:

• Jacques Hudek (Croatia)

  Ukraine is experiencing now hard time. Something similar happened in my homeland 25 years ago, when I was 10 years old. Memories of the war are very difficult. Ukraine has done an excellent job organizing Eurovision in such a difficult time. I congratulate her. Now Kyiv for me - the best place in the world, because a big holiday awaits us.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Dihaj (Azerbaijan)

I got very involved. The weather in Kyiv is great, very green. I am an artist, a musician, and I try not to delve into political strife. If I wanted to be a politician, it would be a different matter.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Slavko Kalezic (Montenegro)

Kyiv is a beautiful city, a lot of greenery and parks. It is very important for me. Despite the fact that I am a vegetarian, I still tried borscht. It's still National dish.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Tamara Gachechiladze (Georgia)

I feel at home. My father lived in Kyiv for almost 10 years. The people are very warm and good. It is wrong that Yulia Samoilova was not allowed to participate in Eurovision. Politics and music are two different things. But Ukraine has its own laws, they must be respected.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Nathan Trent (Austria)

Cool city, cool people, well, borscht is something I advise everyone to try.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Levina (Germany)

Kyiv is truly a wonderful city. I really liked its architecture, the houses in pastel colors, and the delicious food.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Naviband (Belarus)

Our favorite place in Kyiv is the botanical garden. The people of Kiev support us very much, they recognize us on the street and wish us good luck.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Brendan Murray (Ireland)

I didn’t think that I would ever find myself in Kyiv. But it's a great city. And borscht is something amazing.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

Christian Kostov (Bulgaria)

I won’t lie, I’m upset that Yulia Samoilova couldn’t come to Kyiv. But nothing depends on me. I'll see her in Moscow.



Borscht and a little politics: Eurovision 2017 participants about Kyiv

O. Torvald (Ukraine)

Chestnut trees are now blooming in Kyiv. And the city itself blossomed for the whole world. But politics doesn’t concern us, we are musicians.

Russia was to be represented at Eurovision 2017 by 27-year-old singer Yulia Samoilova, who has been using a wheelchair since she was 13 years old. However, the Security Service of Ukraine added Samoilova to the list of persons who are prohibited from entering Ukraine.

In the summer of 2015, Samoilova performed in Crimea, having entered the peninsula from Russian territory. The SBU considers Crimea an occupied territory, and everyone who visited it without passing through Ukrainian customs and without special permission is a violator of the law.

The European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the song competition, expressed disappointment with the decision of the Ukrainian authorities, but noted that the laws of the host country must be respected. At the same time, the organizers will try to persuade Kyiv to change its decision. For such an outcome conflict situation The Kremlin also hopes.

“We also consider this decision to be extremely unfortunate, and in fact we would certainly expect that this decision would be revised before the competition and the Russian participant would be able to take part in this competition,” said Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. In his opinion, “the decision of the Ukrainian side seriously devalues ​​the upcoming competition, this is a blow to the prestige of Eurovision.”

Context

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While we are waiting for Russian tanks...

Eurovision under martial law

What did Samoilova bring to Eurovision?

Options for the development of events are now widely discussed in the Russian media, and many are inclined to believe that Russia should follow the principle - refuse to participate in the competition this year if the decision on Samoilova is not revised, and not broadcast the competition on Russian channels.

For example, Philip Kirkorov believes that “Russia should not take part in the competition until all those responsible for such a decision leave their posts, and the competition returns to what it was intended for.”

Producer Joseph Prigozhin suggested not risking members of the Russian delegation in territory “where we are not welcome.”

“I believe that now we should send letters to the entire workshop to Western artists, Western media and tell the whole world that they should have a tolerant attitude not only towards bearded women, but also towards people with disabilities. I know that Europe is especially sensitive to this, which means they must rise up and make all sorts of claims, and we - if the European Broadcasting Union allows Eurovision to take place in this form, we must refuse to participate completely in the near future,” Prigozhin said in a commentary for RIA Novosti.

Music critic Dmitry Shavyrin believes that Russia needs to refuse to participate in Eurovision “once and for all.”

“There will still be provocations against Yulia, Europe will still vote against it. In general, we need to forget about this competition once and for all, it has outlived its usefulness, the time of ABBA has passed,” Shavyrin said in a commentary for RIA Novosti.

On March 22, the Rossiya TV channel reported that in 2017 at Eurovision Russian Federation will not be presented, since the decision was made not to look for a replacement for Yulia Samoilova. The girl will represent her country at Eurovision in 2018. It was also stated that all Russian TV channels refused to broadcast Eurovision from Kyiv as a sign of protest.

However, the administration of Channel One, which is supposed to broadcast Eurovision 2017, did not confirm to the Gazeta.Ru correspondent their intention to refuse to broadcast the competition.

Russia is scheduled to compete in the second semi-final on May 11. The representative of Belarus, the group Navi, will also perform in the same semi-final. The final will take place on May 13.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

No one will broadcast Eurovision from Kyiv in 2017 on Russian territory. This decision was made after the Security Service of Ukraine on March 22 banned Russian contestant Yulia Samoilova from entering the country for three years.

All Russian TV channels protest against the decision of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) to ban Russian singer Yulia Samoilova from performing at international competition pop song in Kyiv refused to broadcast Eurovision in 2017. A VGTRK correspondent reported this on air.

He assured that after the refusal of the SBU, Russia will boycott Eurovision in Ukraine, and is not going to replace the participant, and now no one from our country will definitely go to the competition, therefore, in order not to upset Russian TV viewers, the Ukrainian show will not be shown by any Russian TV channel .

At the same time, in 2018 it has been decided not to change its position - Russia will once again nominate Yulia Samoilova for Eurovision - regardless of the country where the competition is held.

On Wednesday, the SBU made a cynical decision, banning disabled person Yulia Samoilova from entering Ukraine for three years because, according to Kyiv, she illegally visited Crimea. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) expressed “deep disappointment” at the decision. The Eurovision organizing committee promised to defend European interests and seek the participation of contestants from all countries.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has already called the decision of the Ukrainian authorities political. In addition, Moscow is expecting a reaction from the West.

In Russia, the SBU's decision caused a flurry of criticism. IN musical environment called for a boycott of Eurovision in Kyiv. And in Crimea they even called Ukraine a “weak and flawed country” that only knows how to mock people with disabilities. The head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, called the SBU ban “exorbitant disgusting” and demanded that Ukraine be deprived of the right to host Eurovision.

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Eurovision is one of the largest European competitions. The competition is vocal, although many consider it too politicized. How true this is is another question, but the fact remains: for the country that hosts it, this is a chance to show its authority, to “boast,” so to speak, to the fullest. Not everyone uses this so actively, but, nevertheless, no one objects to the influx of tourists during the days of this event.

This year Eurovision was held in Ukraine. It managed to turn into a scandal even before the onset of 2017: the song of the Ukrainian singer Jamala “1944” had a pronounced political overtones, and her victory was awarded precisely based on the results of the jury’s vote, which, as many believed, condemned the Russian participant Sergei Lazarev, who was chosen by the majority spectators as a winner.

Further new proceedings: this time also in connection with the political situation in Ukraine. Yulia Samoilova, who was chosen to represent Russia at Eurovision 2017, was refused entry into Ukraine, arguing that the singer violated Ukrainian legislation, since when she performed in Crimea, she arrived there through the Russian border, and not through Ukrainian. As a result, our country decided not to participate at all, and Channel One did not broadcast the competition.

May 7 – Eurovision opening ceremony in Kyiv and new scandals. For unknown reasons, there was no free water, which, as stated, was purchased for an amount of more than 200 rubles, translated into Russian money, per bottle, and the wife of the President of Ukraine Marina Poroshenko, having given a speech, was, according to Internet users who watched it the performance itself, she was drunk and too clearly showed her lack of command of the English language, making a speech in it. Also, residents of the Ukrainian capital were not happy that they were not allowed into the territories related to Eurovision 2017, arguing that it was only “for fans and participants.” The only advantages found in the organization were a well-made Eurovillage and a long red carpet (although the latter advantage seemed dubious - there was no particular point in the 256 meters of this very track).

Eurovision is over, the final took place on May 13th. Ukraine, as the country that hosted the competition, ended up in the finals, but the group O. Torvald took 24th place - the lowest position in the entire history of Ukrainian participation in this event. It is significant that in 2005 the group “Grinjoly”, in the same situation, when Kyiv hosted the competition after Ruslana’s victory, she ended up in 19th place. This is despite the fact that the above mentioned group performed with a composition that caused controversy among the organizers - it was a call song for the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine of those years, from which some political slogans were only removed. Actually, the reason can be found in this: there is a version that, in general, the host country of the competition is trying to send a “worse” participant, so as not to win two or three times in a row and not spend money on the event.

Thus, vocally there was a complete failure. According to some, at Eurovision, the Ukrainian guest stars who “entertained” the people – Jamal, Ruslana and Onuka – performed better than the participating group. True, there were also scandals regarding their performances: the amounts paid to these artists seemed astronomical. So, Jamala received almost a million.

Actually, the main share of the failure of the competition concerns the financial part. Ukraine spent 30 million euros on Eurovision, ending up in fourth place in terms of how much money was spent on this event. However, judging by the analytical materials, this in no way paid off. The main calculation of the benefit of the competition is, as noted above, tourists.

They came to Ukraine, but much less than expected. According to Anton Taranenko, head of the tourism department of the Kyiv administration, in total there were about 20 thousand people from other countries and 40 thousand from different regions of Ukraine itself.

Accordingly, the situation with ticket revenue was not encouraging. They were sold for only around 1.2 million euros. Although the cost was reduced by more than half, this did not save the situation: empty seats remained, and it was clearly clear that there was no expected interest in the competition.

There was no success in terms of trade either. Ukrainian restaurateurs expected that there would be more revenue, since, in general, food and drinks, when compared by European standards, are quite cheap, and this should have encouraged European tourists to leave large sums in cafes and restaurants, despite the fact that prices did not increase.

However, no miracle happened. In economic terms, Ukraine completely failed the competition, unable to “recoup” even a tenth of what was spent. Against the backdrop of the vocal loss and a number of the scandals described above, this seems like a complete tragedy and generally inappropriate for holding Eurovision in this country.

Why did it happen? Various reasons can be given. From in general high level corruption in Ukraine, which did not make it possible to provide proper conditions for guests (for example, it was noted that even Kiev was not properly fully decorated, leaving only the center, and not the whole, decorated, while, for example, Oslo at one time was decorated like this for 9 million , that it sparkled with Eurovision symbols from the airport to the outskirts) to political reasons.

Military conflicts associated with this country, and also related to other countries, often published in the press, clearly could not contribute to the increased interest in Ukraine not of world-class politicians, but of ordinary Europeans. In the Ukrainian media, conducting journalistic investigations, they openly admitted that the first association of a resident of, say, Germany, associated with Ukraine, is the “Maidan”.

This year, Channel One will not show the Eurovision song contest due to the refusal of the host country, Ukraine, to allow a Russian performer onto its territory. I figured out why negotiations with the Ukrainian side failed, what the loss of the Russian audience means for the competition, and why Channel One is in no hurry to sound the alarm.

What happened?

On Thursday, April 13, Channel One received a letter from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) stating that the EBU was unable to resolve the issue of Samoilova’s participation in Eurovision. banned the singer from entering the country on March 22 due to the fact that in 2015, after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, she visited the peninsula, which the Ukrainian authorities consider occupied.

The President of Ukraine called the decision to send Samoilova to the competition a provocation. In his opinion, what Moscow needed was not participation in Eurovision, but a scandal. On Channel One, which was selecting performers for the competition, they retorted: Samoilova was chosen solely because she is a talented singer and sings a good song.

How Eurovision organizers tried to convince Ukraine

The European Broadcasting Union, which owns the rights to host the event, immediately intervened in the situation. They stated that they were disappointed by Ukraine’s gesture and would try to do everything possible to allow the Russian participant into the competition. The SBU insisted that it was impossible to allow Samoilova to enter Ukraine, and therefore Channel One was offered two options: replace Samoilova with another performer or broadcast her performance remotely, transmitting the performance via satellite from a studio in Moscow.

Channel One immediately rejected the option lobbied by the ERU with remote participation. And later, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine announced that showing Samoilova on local television, even remotely, was the same violation of laws as her entry into the country.

Photo: Alexey Filippov / RIA Novosti

Why didn’t we reach an agreement with Ukraine?

The Broadcasting Union did not abandon attempts to resolve the conflict until the last moment. However, the SBU did not change its position, and Channel One insisted that both proposed compromise options were unacceptable. Finally, on April 13, the TV channel accused Kyiv of “an attempt to politicize the competition, the purpose of which throughout its 62-year history was to unite people.”

Photo: Ekaterina Chesnokova / RIA Novosti

A source close to the management of Channel One told Lenta.ru that the television company was surprised by the zeal with which the Eurovision organizers defend the interests of the Russian side.

At the end of March, the EBU even addressed a separate letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine. The message spoke of the extreme dissatisfaction of the competition organizers with the current situation and the threats of some European broadcasters to organize a boycott of Kyiv. However, this did not help either.

Losses of the parties

Who and what will lose if Russia does not show Eurovision on television? Ukraine - more than five million viewers (that’s how many Russians, according to Mediascope, watched the show’s finale in 2016). The organizers are the former coverage that they have been so desperately striving for in recent years.

"Eurovision" different ways sought to win the attention of the audience with the help of increasingly grandiose shows and a viral effect on social networks, as well as expanding the geography of participants and broadcasters. So, in 2016, even Australia, far from Europe, took part in the competition, which, by the way, expressed a serious intention to organize its own version of the show - “Eurovision-Asia”. Australian television crews have calculated that the Asian Eurovision can interest more than a billion people. There is indeed interest in the competition in Asia. For example, Eurovision has been broadcast in China for four years now.

Against the backdrop of such sky-high indicators, the five million viewership from Russia seems like a drop in the ocean. However, Mediascope measures the audience of only five thousand households, so some experts believe that Eurovision in Russia is looking where more people. But even if more than 20 million Russians watch the competition, this is only 10 percent of the total audience. After all, according to the EBU, Eurovision 2016 was watched by 204 million viewers.

What risks does Channel One risk? Lose income from advertising sales, which, as you know, cost much more when we're talking about about rating projects, which is what Eurovision is considered to be. However, in 2016 the program’s rating was not outstanding and barely exceeded eight percent.

According to some experts, advertising revenue only covers 80-90 percent of the fee that the broadcasting channel annually pays to the European Broadcasting Union for the opportunity to show the show. Channel One does not comment on what damage the refusal to broadcast Eurovision 2017 will cause to the company’s economy. However, Lenta.ru’s source at the television company says that the channel prefers not to dramatize the situation and hopes to “recoup” the loss of Eurovision with the help of other, higher-rated shows.