Russia

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In the 2009 Eurovision competition Anastasia Prikhodko is representing the host nation, Russia. Born in Kiev, Ukraine on April 21, 1987, she is a young performer on the rise. Prikhodko has a background in musical training and not only is her dad a producer, but the young lady plays several different instruments. The [|Eurovision site] says she graduated from a music academy in the folk department with background in the flute, guitar and piano. She not only plays her own instruments and sings, but she writes her own music. Some people have been quoted saying she is a “kind, smart, friendly, independent girl.” The independence was shown when she began supporting herself at the age of 15. This growth in character played a part in her music as well. Anastasia Prikhodko would self- critique her style and voice, she learned from her mistakes as a songstress. Anastasia is no stranger to the stage, she has appeared on the show “Star Factory.” She won the competition in December of 2008. One of her most successful international experience was being crowned third place in a competition in Bulgaria. She is unique to the competition in which she sings folk songs in both Russian and Ukrainian languages. =====

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The song that Anastasia Prikhodko is performing in the 2009 Eurovision is a song called “Mamo,” which viewers of Eurovision and experts picked for her to perform. This is the first time a non-Russian singer will be selected for Russia. Anastasia was originally from the Ukraine, but is highly popular among Russian speaking countries and won the American Idol equivalent called “Star Factory” in Russia. The song is written and sung in the Ukrainian and Russian language because as she put it, “I'm convinced, when representing one's country, one should sing in the native language.” That quote represents her as a songstress because if you were entering a contest based in a country, why would you not want to sing it in the national language, she has a multi-nation appeal. The composer of the song is **Konstantin Meladze** and the lyrics are written by **Konstantin Meladze** and **Diana Golde**. The song is a dedication to her mother, and after reading an English translation of the lyrics I realized that it was about a man breaking her heart and how her mom told her those things would happen. So it is just a tribute to how much she appreciates her mom’s guidance. In the song the vocals are clearly the dominant part, along with electric guitar, drums and percussion instruments to make this song a very “poppy” song. Comparing this song to something in America I would say it sounds something like Ricky Martin, it is very catchy.====== 

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Russia is the largest country in the world and covers much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic comprised of 83 federal subjects, subjects are the Russian equivalent of a state with in a nation. As you can see in the map below Russia has a more concentrated population, smaller states, and greater economic development to the west of the republic. This uneven distribution is not due to resource issues, as Russia has the largest natural gas reserves, the second largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves. This large portfolio of national assets creates a large GDP output for the country, although this wealth is not distributed evenly; As the page for Russia on the Eurovision website says, "despite a per capita GDP of EUR11,000 per year Russia has the most billionaires in the world." This can be contributed to the power grab that occurred during the break-up of the Soviet Union. A little known fact is that the "true" Communist state the USSR, upon dissolving, attempted to distribute the peoples wealth in the form of printed stocks that represented ownership of the large public utilities that existed. What resulted was a calculated move on the part of many powerful players to collect and concentrate the equity into the hand of the powerful and elite. The ramifications of this show up in the fact that almost 90% of the private sector is now controlled by the Russian mafia.=====

Russia’s contestant, Anastasia Prikhodko, comes into the contest surrounded by controversy. She won the nomination to get into Eurovision by a vote of 6 to 5 and the contestant whom she beat immediately claimed that the vote was rigged. There does not seem to be any actually evidence behind such a claim, but many Russians across the country were outraged that a Ukrainian woman would be representing Russian with a Ukrainian song. Just before Anastasia won the nomination, a socalled “gas war” broke out between Russian and Ukraine when Russian turned off gas lines to Ukraine in an apparent payment dispute (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment). The runner up to Anastasia and her agent demanded a recount of sorts claiming that “a song performed in Ukrainian can’t have anything to do with Russia” (entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment). There was no redo of the qualifying contest, but Russian citizens remain upset about the matter. One might ask, why didn’t Anastasia just compete for Ukraine? Well, she did and was disqualified because her song was too long and was not new enough. Yana Rukovskaya, producer of last year’s winning Russian entry to Eurovision was quoted as saying, “A Ukrainian song will represent Russia in Eurovision! It’s a shock. I fear we won’t even make it into the Top Ten.” Hopefully Anastasia will be able to ignore the controversy and do her best in the competition. 

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Russia has participated in Eurovision 12 times, and consecutively since 2000. The first year that they entered the contest was in 1994, after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union. Russia won the contest in 2008, with a song by Dima Bilan called "Believe". This win brought the contest to Russia for the 2009 Eurovision contest. The contest has been broadcasted on two different stations sometimes on Channel One, and sometimes on Channel Russia. The 2009 contest will be broadcasted on Channel One National pride is a key component to the Russian experience, and now with the contest staged in Russia you can assume that this is now becoming a stage that Russia is determined to shine on. The current contestant for Russia is singing the song in russian, this is a reflection of the strong national pride that exists. Russian involvement in the contest is part of a much bigger topic in world history. The term that is commonly associated with the dynamic of interest is the Iron Curtain, which was the huge barriers to cultural, political, social, economic exchange across Eurasia. Although the Iron Curtain was a manifest of the cold war, a war of words and arms escalation between the former Soviet Union and the United States. It effectively shut down any cultural or musical exchange between Russia and its neighbors in europe. The fact that Russia is now participating and interacting culturally with the rest of europe is important and beneficial to humanity. This benefit is derived from the reality that religions and governments drive people around the world apart, music is a powerful force that brings humans together. Even if it is not a huge bridge between what was split apart, Eurovision in its own way is helping to knit europe back together. Bringing europe together for music is something that allows different cultures to see that no matter what group you belong to everybody is all under the same class; Human.===== (Колыбельная для вулкана) || 17 || 17 ||
 * ~ Year ||~ Artist ||~ Title ||~ Final ||~ Points ||~ Semi ||~ Points ||
 * [|1994] || [|Youddiph] || [|Vyechniy stranik] (Вечный странник) || 9 || 70 ||
 * [|1995] || [|Philipp Kirkorov] || [|Kolibelnaya dlya vulkana]
 * [|1997] || [|Alla Pugacheva] || [|Primadonna] (Примадонна) || 15 || 33 ||
 * [|2000] || [|Alsou] || [|Solo] || 2 || 155 ||
 * [|2001] || [|Mumiy Troll] || [|Lady Alpine Blue] || 12 || 37 ||
 * [|2002] || [|Prime Minister] || [|Northern Girl] || 10 || 55 ||
 * [|2003] || [|t.A.T.u.] || [|Ne ver', ne boysia] (Не верь, не бойся) || 3 || 164 ||
 * [|2004] || [|Julia Savicheva] || [|Believe Me] || 11 || 67 || X || X ||
 * [|2005] || [|Natalia Podolskaya] || [|Nobody Hurt No One] || 15 || 57 || X || X ||
 * [|2006] || [|Dima Bilan] || [|Never Let You Go] || 2 || 248 || 3 || 217 ||
 * [|2007] || [|Serebro] || [|Song #1] || 3 || 207 || X || X ||
 * [|2008] || [|Dima Bilan] || [|Believe] || 1 || 272 || 3 || 135 ||
 * [|2009] || [|Anastasiya Prikhodko] || [|Mamo] (Мамо) ||  ||   || X || X ||

media type="youtube" key="mM4tA0V_tYU" height="344" width="425" Sources for History: [] t [] [|http://esckaz.com/russia/indexe.htm] = =