Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995

Eurovision Song Contest 1995
Country	Russia
National selection
Selection process	Evrovidenie - Pesnya '95[1]
Selection date(s)	30 April 1995
Selected entrant	Philipp Kirkorov
Selected song	"Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana"
Selected songwriter(s)	Ilya Bershadskiy Ilya Resnik
Finals performance
Final result	17th, 17 points
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1994 • 1995 • 1996►

Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 in Dublin, Ireland. Initially,  [ru] was to be responsible for the selection of a participant from Russia for Eurovision 1995, however, "The events connected with the corporatization of Channel One, which gave rise to the Russian Public Television (ORT), pushed the problems of the Eurovision Song Contest to a far corner. When it was required until March 15 [1995] to confirm its contribution - 40 thousand dollars, there was no money in Ostankino. The situation was saved by ORT. The new TV company agreed to cover the travel expenses of a Russian representative to the competition in Dublin and to organize a national final"^[2] Ultimately, the Russian entry was selected through a national final, organised by the Russian broadcaster Russian Public Television (ORT). Philipp Kirkorov represented Russia with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana", which placed 17th and scored 17 points at the contest.^[3]

Before Eurovision[]

Evrovidenie - Pesnya '95[]

Evrovidenie - Pesnya '95 (retroactively often referred to as Nacionalny Otbor na Evrovidenie 1995) was the second edition of Evrovidenie, the music competition that selects Russia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The competition consisted of a nine-song final which was held on April 30, 1995 at the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow and broadcast on ORT.

Format[]

The competition featured nine entries where the Russian entry for Dublin was selected by a jury panel consisting of members of the management of the ORT.^[4] Each juror gives 1 point to their favorite entry. The summation of the jury points determined the winning entry.

Competing entries[]

For the national final, broadcaster reserved the right to directly inviting certain artists to compete, instead of opening a public call for submissions. 3 days before the selection, nine artists were directly invited to compete in the national final by the broadcaster.^[5]

Final[]

The final was held on April 30, 1995 at 22:45 UTC+3 at the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow. Name of the host of the national final is currently unknown. The winner was chosen by a jury panel. After the votes of the jury panel have been counted, there was a tie for the first place between "V sinem sne" performed by Oksana Pavlovskaya and "Epitaphia" performed by Viktoria Vita. The tie was to be resolved, however, in the end, jury "came to the conclusion that none of the selection participants [with the exception of Philipp] deserves to represent Russia" and decided to send Philip Kirkorov to the contest instead of Viktoria or Oksana.^{[6][7][1][8][9]}

At Eurovision[]

Russia performed 6th at the 1995 Contest, following Norway and preceding Iceland. After the voting concluded, Russia scored 17 points and placed 17th.^[10]

The Russian conductor at the contest was Mikhail Finberg.^[8] The voting spokesperson for Russia was Marina Danielian.

After the contest concluded, it was discovered that "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" was previously released by Moldovan singer Anastasia Lazariuc. The song was released in 1985 with Romanian lyrics under the title "Buna seara stelelor".^[8]

The contest was shown in the recording and without a commentator due to the fact that "The editorial office of Ostankino music and entertainment programs failed to allocate an hour and a half of the prime time airtime of ORT for showing competitive video clips [sic]"^[11]

The following members comprised the Russian jury:^[12]

• Yuri Saulsky - composer, producer of ORT music broadcasting
• Igor Krutoy - songwriter, head of the company "ARS”
• Marina Khlebnikova - singer
• Lora Kvint - composer
• Andrey Bill - musician
• Natalia Shemankova - presenter of the "Zolotoy Shlyager" programme
• Ninel Yakovenko - Head of the Department of External Relations of Ostankino
• Roman Karasev - Director of the Organizing Committee of the Eurovision Song Contest
• Konstantin Smertin - commentator of the radio station "Mayak”
• Andrey Boltenko - television director
• Vladimir Polupanov - Correspondent of Argumenty i Fakty
• Irina Bogushevskaya - host of Radio 101
• Ekaterina Alekseeva - correspondent of the InterMedia agency
• and three non-professionals - representatives of the audience jury.

Voting[]

Points awarded to Russia[13] Score Country 12 points 10 points  Norway 8 points 7 points 6 points  Croatia 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point  Cyprus

Points awarded by Russia[13] Score Country 12 points  Norway 10 points  Denmark 8 points  Israel 7 points  Slovenia 6 points  Sweden 5 points  Ireland 4 points  Cyprus 3 points  Iceland 2 points  Hungary 1 point  United Kingdom

Notes[]

References[]