This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: – ···scholar·JSTOR(October 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Russia attempted to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 in Oslo, Norway. The Russian entry was selected through a national final, organised by the Russian broadcaster Rossiya Channel (RTR). Andrey Kosinsky was chosen to represent Russia with the song "Ya eto ya". However, Russia was one of seven countries which failed to qualify for the Eurovision final from a pre-qualifying round, so they were not present in Norway.
Pesnya dlya Evropy (retroactively often referred to as Nacionalny Otbor na Evrovidenie 1996) was the national final format developed by RTR in order to select Russia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1996.[2] The final was held on 2 March 1996 at Shabolovka Studios in Moscow, hosted by 1994 Russian entrant Youddiph and broadcast on RTR. The winner was chosen by an "expert" jury - one of whom was Alla Pugacheva, who would later represent Russia in the 1997 contest.[3]
Format[]
The competition featured fourteen entries where the Russian entry for Oslo was selected by a sixteen-member jury panel (eight professionals and eight representatives of the public). Each juror represents a specific profession and age category. Each juror gives 1 point to his/her one, two or three favorite entry/entries. The summation of the jury scores determined the winning entry.
The jury panel consisted of:
Tatyana Nikolayeva - head of the entertainment programs association of RTR channel (jury chairperson, non-voting)[a]
Galina Golubova - editor-in-chief of the information and music agency "Turne"
Roman Prygunov - director of video clips
Irina Otieva - singer, composer
Yuri Yagudin - arranger, sound engineer
Tatyana Cherednychenko - Professor of the Moscow State Conservatory, Doctor of Art History, musicologist
Pavel Ovsyannikov - People's Artist of Russia, artistic director and conductor of the Presidential Orchestra of the Russian Federation, composer
Alla Pugacheva - singer, composer, People's Artist of the Soviet Union
Alexey Rybnikov - Honored Art Worker of Russia, Commander of First Class of the Order of the Eagle, composer
Galina Masharova - Student of the law faculty of a Modern Humanitarian University
Mikhail Sevastopolsky - interpreter
Inga Voronovskaya - Leading Specialist of the Control Accounts Chamber of Moscow
Igor Stepanov - commercial director of the real estate agency "Amalgam"
Nadezhda Kobryzhenkova - housewife
Petr Gorovoy - officer
Natalia Samoylova - pensioner
Gennady Videnko - builder
Competing entries[]
On 28 February 1996, RTR opened the submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries until the deadline on the same day. Artists and composers were required to be Russian, possess Russian citizenship or have permanent residency in Russia. All submitted songs were required to be performed in Russian. A panel of experts appointed by RTR selected 14 entries for the competition from the received submissions.[4]
Final[]
The final took place on 2 March 1996. Fourteen songs competed and the winner, "Ya eto ya" performed by Andrey Kosinsky, was selected solely by a jury voting. Prior to the competition, a draw for the running order took place on 1 March 1996. In addition to the competing entries, Youddiph, Gilles Apap, Tamara Gverdtsiteli and cabaret-duo "Akademiya" (Lolita Milyavskaya and Alexander Tsekalo) performed as guests and a music video for Philipp Kirkorov's "Zayka" was premiered.[5]
In 1996, for the only time in Eurovision history, an audio-only qualifying round (from which hosts Norway were exempt) was held on 20 March as 29 countries wished to participate in the final but the European Broadcasting Union had set a limit of 22 (plus Norway). The countries occupying the bottom seven places after the pre-qualifier would be unable to take part in the main contest.[6] After the voting, Russia was not among those to qualify, placing joint 26th with 14 points and bringing Russian participation in 1996 to a premature end.[7][8]
Voting[]
Points awarded to Russia (Qualifying round)[9][10]
^Roxburgh, Gordon (2020). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Four: The 1990s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 255–261. ISBN978-1-84583-163-9.
^ abRoxburgh, Gordon (2020). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Four: The 1990s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. p. 259. ISBN978-1-84583-163-9.
Russia
