To illustrate the impact of the conflict on the Eurovision Song Contest, let’s go back to a time when there was relative calm in both Russia and Ukraine.
Malmö 2013
Malmö 2013 was a great year for both countries as Zlata Ognevich managed third place with ‘Gravity’ and Dina Garipova managed fifth place with ‘What If’. If we look at the voting between the two countries 2013, Ukraine awarded 4 points to Russia and Russia 1 point to Ukraine. To the majority of viewers, this seemed like the kind of competitive result that would have signified positive momentum between the nations; but back in Ukraine, there were more complicated issues affecting citizens.
Ever since Ukraine gained its independence following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country has been caught both ideologically and geographically between two different cultural identities. To the west, the European Union and all of the potential economic benefits that closer diplomatic relationships with other European nations would bring; to the east, a long-standing cultural link with Russia not only represented in the similarity of their language and culture but also in the fact that 17 percent of the country self-identifies as Russian. It’s also worth noting Ukraine’s reliance on Russian coal, gas and oil.
In March 2012, the Ukrainian government establishing an Association Agreement with the European Union, the first step on the road towards full EU membership. This did not please the Russian state, which imposed restrictions on exports into Russia from Ukraine. In addition, it threatened Ukraine that signing the Agreement would have consequences for the country. In November 2013, then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych publicly announced that he would not be signing the agreement. This directly led to Pro-European protests on the streets of Kyiv against the administration starting in Kyiv’s Independence Square, Maidan, on November 21st and continuing into 2014.
Crowds gather at Maidan Square, Kyiv, Nov 27 2013 (photo: Ewan Spence)
As the pro-European protests waged on in Kyiv, the government increasingly cracked down on the protestors which in turn led to more people protesting in Maidan. These protests claimed the lives of over 100 civilians but did ultimately result in the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych. This in turn provoked pro-Russian protestors in Southern and Eastern Ukraine to take action by occupying government buildings and of more concern, the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russian troops.
Meanwhile, two miles to the south of Maidan, the public broadcaster NTU and the EBU were preparing for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision 2004 winner Ruslana was set to perform the interval act at the live show on November 30th, but withdrew following her address to the crowds in Maidan the night before.
Copenhagen 2014
Amidst these political occurrences, Russia and Ukraine both pressed ahead with their participation at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. Ukraine held its National Selection early in the season (December 21st) with a one-shot national final in which jury and televote both selected Maria Yaremchuk as the 2014 Ukrainian act.
After the initial Russian announcement of a National Final to run on December 31st 2013, the show was pushed back to March 2014, then turned into an internal selection that saw Junior Eurovision 2006 winners The Tolmachevy Sisters selected.
Copenhagen 2014 itself brought impressive results for both nations. ‘Tick-Tock’ earned Ukraine sixth place and ‘Shine’ earned Russia seventh. Despite the conflict, Ukraine would award Russia 4 points whilst Russia would award Ukraine 7 points.
During and after the Contest, the conflict wore on in the Donbass region between the Ukrainian army and Pro-Russian separatists. Ukraine and America claimed to have evidence of Russian state backing of these separatists, a claim denied by Moscow. This conflict has led to some terrible tragedies, personified by a Malaysian Airlines flight being shot down over Eastern Ukraine on July 17th 2014 killing all 283 passengers on board, and the 13,000 people that have been killed in the conflict as of February 2020.
Vienna 2015
Given the conflict, it was unsurprising when Ukrainian broadcaster NTU announced in September 2014 that they would not participate in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest as a result of “the unstable financial and political situation caused by the conflict in east Ukraine”. The statement announcing this news noted that a deal had been done with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) that the absence would only be for a year with a return pencilled in for 2016. Whilst it is not unusual for a broadcaster to sound optimistic about a future return to the Song Contest when announcing its absence, it is interesting to read this was preceded by talk of a deal being struck with the EBU.
Russian broadcaster C1R opted for an internal selection, putting a call out for the song and artist separately. It is interesting and perhaps unsurprising to note that ‘A Million Voices’ was chosen as Russia’s competing song before Polina Gagarina was chosen as its singer, a potential hint at Russia’s strategy to win Eurovision following the events in Copenhagen. It nearly worked too, Russia won its Semi Final before putting up strong televote and jury scores to place second in the Grand Final, being pipped to the post by Polina’s future duet partner Måns Zelmerlöw.
Stockholm 2016
By the time Stockholm 2016 came around, both Russia and Ukraine looked hungry to win Eurovision for very different reasons. Russia had learned how to play the modern Eurovision game and after a fourth consecutive Top Ten finish they were raring up to win the Contest and bring it back to Russian soil. Unsurprisingly, their answer to this was the ever-impressive Sergey Lazarev who was paired up with the Kirkorov-Kontopolous-Ballard-Charlie ‘Dream Team’ and sent to Sweden with the dark banger ‘You Are the Only One’.
Ukraine on the other hand was in need of national pride following two years of a conflict that had decimated the country’s ability to become part of the European community. They were keen to use their National Selection and participation at the Song Contest to find the best people and give the Ukrainian act the best chance of succeeding. Step forward Jamala and ‘1944’, the first song at Eurovision to include lyrics in Crimean Tatar and the first to tell the story of the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Joseph Stalin in 1944. This was not looked on favourably by many Russians, some of whom suggested that the song was a thinly veiled political dig at the 2014 annexation of Crimea. On March 9th 2016, the EBU cleared the song and ‘1944’ went on to Stockholm to square up against ‘You Are the Only One’.
As happens at every Eurovision Song Contest, once rehearsals begin and the cards are laid on the table, the community starts to see the competitive entries and artistic decisions. Sergey brought a rubber climbing wall which allowed him the chance to interact with graphics (as Måns had done the year before) but also climb the wall doing gravity-defying stunts. Jamala brought an emotional purity that felt extremely honest and raw with soaring vocals that caused goosebumps throughout the viewing audience.
Eurovision 2016 was the first year with a new voting system; the jury points would be announced first, followed by the televote points which would see each country handed all their points in a single announcement. When Australia took a comfortable jury lead, many could be forgiven for thinking Dami Im had won before the televote scores were announced.
In the end, it came down to the top four televote-scoring nations, Ukraine, Russia, Poland and Australia. Australia scored the fourth highest televote points total leaving them top on 511 points. Poland scored the third highest televote points total (but paired with a weak jury vote this handed Michal Szpak a solid mid-table result). That was the moment when the crescendo suddenly clicked; we were looking at a head-to-head for victory between Russia and Ukraine.
It was a moment where it was impossible to deny that the political landscape was part of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Ukraine took the second highest televote points total and hit the front with a whopping 534 points but just as you think it’s over, you realise that Russia are yet to receive their televotes points total and that it will be higher than Ukraine’s 323 points… but would it be enough? Måns Zelmerlöw appropriately quotes the chorus of ‘You Are the Only One’ as the screen splits to show the scoreboard, Måns and Petra ready to give the final result and a nervous Sergey Lazarev looking up to the Globen screen clearly more than aware of the socio-political ramifications of this moment.
Whatever you thought of the two songs it was hard for your mind not to wonder about the history of the countries, Ukraine’s absence from Vienna, the annexation of Crimea, the conflict in the Donbass region, the investment put in by RTR to Sergey’s performance that night, the parallels between ‘1944’ and the 2014 Crimean occupation, and how in the space of a few seconds, a war taking place on the other side of the continent fought by guns and shells was about to experience the climax of a proxy battle fought in Stockholm by national broadcasters and musicians.
It’s unlikely that a similar mix of socio-political issues, warring nation states, and competing media entries will ever line up with as much force and impact as those moments in Stockholm. In one sense it’s a perfect encapsulation of the Song Contest by presenting artists on the same international stage, but it also shows how soft politics will never be far from the surface of some of the entries.
The voting breakdown would reveal that neither jury gave each other points… yet the Ukrainian televoters awarded 12 points to Russia and the Russian televoters awarded 10 points to Ukraine.
Kyiv 2017
Jamala’s victory saw Ukraine hosting the next Contest, and the Song Contest was faced once more with political conflicts.
Russian broadcaster C1R was put in charge of selecting the Russian entrant. On March 12th 2017 it announced the selection of Julia Samoylova, an artist described by the broadcaster as “an independent singer, an enchanting girl and a successful competition participant”. The following day, it was announced that Samoylova was under investigation from Ukraine’s intelligence agencies after learning that she had performed in the Crimean city of Kerch in 2015 without entering the peninsula via Ukraine. The Ukrainian government had passed a law that anybody entering the peninsula without passing through Ukrainian border controls would be banned from entering Ukraine. The Ukrainian stance was made clear early on, no exceptions were planned for Samoylova. Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately selecting Samoylova as a political provocation, which Russia denied.
Nine days later, Samoylova was officially banned from entering Ukraine, a move that “deeply disappointed” the EBU and caused senior Russian politicians to call for a boycott of the Contest. The EBU continued to work with the Ukrainian hosts and the Russian broadcaster to find a solution including one suggesting in an official statement that Samoylova could perform live via satellite at an external venue outside of Ukraine. In the end, neither side budged on their position and despite the attempts of the EBU to resolve the issue peacefully, many member broadcasters expressed disappointment at Ukraine and Russia continuing to use the Song Contest as a political platform. In the end Russia withdrew from the Contest, and Vidbir 2017 winners O. Torvald could only manage a disappointing 24th place finish on home soil.
Lisbon 2018
The antagonism continued to cool as the Eurovision Song Contest moved to Lisbon in 2018
Keen that Julia Samoylova was visibly given her opportunity to perform on the Eurovision stage, C1R decided to send Samoylova again in 2018. She would finish a disappointing 15th, becoming the first Russian act to fail to qualify out of a Semi Final in Eurovision history.
Ukraine would fare better with Melovin pulling off an unforgettable performance which sailed through the Semi to qualify for and then open the Grand Final. Melovin managed a strong televote score before being let down by a poor jury score. Ukraine would award Russia 3 points from their televote and none from their jury in the Semi FInal, whilst Russia would award Ukraine 8 points from their televote and none from their jury in the Grand Final.
Tel Aviv 2019
We may never know exactly what happened behind the scenes in the build up to Ukraine’s 2019 National Final but suffice to say, Vidbir was a wild ride for everybody involved. Our biggest clue as to the type of conversations being had come in the form of Vice Prime-Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko suggesting that it would be better for Ukraine to withdraw from the Song Contest altogether rather than send an act who continued to perform in Russia.
Nevertheless, nobody could foresee the way that politics took over the show during its Grand Final,with Jamala in particular asking questions about nationality, who Crimea belongs to, and individual political leanings. But a National Final that had already taken an ugly turn, was about to become even more controversial. Just before the voting lines opened, host Serhiy Prytula read out a note from broadcaster UA:PBC reminding everybody that it reserved the right to reject the winner of the show as that year’s Eurovision entrant.
Maruv would eventually win the selection but that was only half of the drama complete. Maruv was then asked to sign a contract which strictly governed what she would be able to say or do publicly in the build up to the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv.
Ukraine would go on to withdraw from the Song Contest. Soon after the broadcaster announced its withdrawal, it announced that Ukraine would return in 2020… unless Russia’s Sergey Lazarev (who had been internally selected for Tel Aviv) won the Contest. This was in line with Ukrainian broadcasters refusing to broadcast the 2018 FIFA World Cup (which was taking place in Russia), but it was to the displeasure of the EBU who demanded that UA:PBC would still pay the full participation fee and broadcast the show live (including the Russian performance).
Sergey performed well on his return to the contest for Russia in Tel Aviv, but could only match his third place finish in Stockholm with his ballad ‘Scream’.
Rotterdam 2020 and 2021
That brings us finally to the most recent Contest in Rotterdam and the first Contest since Malmö when the conflict didn’t visibly impact the Eurovision process for either nation.
Both UA:PBC and C1R chose strong artists in Go_A and Little Big through their usual avenues of choice (Vidbir and internal selection respectively) who each brought songs that would have competed right at the top for the 2020 victory had it not been cancelled due to COVID. Both broadcasters returned to compete the following year with Ukraine sticking with Go_A and C1R organising a National Final to select a fresh, new act, coming out with Manizha.
Both artists managed strong results at the 2021 contest in Rotterdam with ‘Shum’ placing fifth for Ukraine and ‘Russian Woman’ placing ninth for Russia. What was impressive about these results was that not only were they good, but both seemed to offer a new, fresh face to what music and artists from both of these countries could be like, not only in how they performed on stage but how they conducted themselves off it. The voting breakdown would reveal that for the third consecutive time, neither jury gave each other points but the Ukrainian televoters awarded 4 points to Russia and the Russian televoters awarded 7 points to Ukraine.
The Future, And Turin 2022
Both nations have given the Song Contest some of its most unforgettable moments Rotterdam proved that the Eurovision Song Contest can be a platform for both nations to peacefully co-exist on an international stage and that despite the politics of the juries, televoters will continue to vote based on their aesthetic tastes.
Yet Ukraine and Russia have intermittently been absent at several recent contests, depriving talented artists from both countries of the opportunity to showcase their talent and music to the rest of the world as a result of the conflicts between the two countries. We are already seeing an impact on this year’s contest in Ukraine’s selection.
Once again, the intense political situation between Russia and Ukraine is casting a long shadow over the Contest.
an excellent summary and analysis of the difficult path the performers of these two countries have had to walk whilst competing. we are reminded that both sides have produced some really good contributions throughout the years which makes this situation especially sad. hopefully these two countries can dive deep into their truly brilliant creative capabilities and use them to set a course for something new at Turin in 2022.