Victory Could Bring Eurovision Contest to St. Petersburg

By Francesca Mereu

Staff Writer

Published: May 27, 2008 (Issue # 1376)

Marko Djurica / Reuters Violinist Edvin Marton (l), singer Dima Bilan (cr) and producer Yana Rudkovskaya (r) celebrate on stage after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade on Saturday.

With his Eurovision victory Saturday night, Dima Bilan provided the country with its first win in the song contest and his hometown in the republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia with a street and a school bearing his name.

Bilan may also have given St. Petersburg the opportunity of hosting next year’s competition after his producer Yana Rudkovskaya expressed support for the idea in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s victory at the contest, which is often ridiculed as a freak show for its descent into camp and kitsch.

Bilan defeated contestants from 24 other countries at the pop extravaganza with the ballad “Believe,” backed by Hungarian violinist Edvin Marton and, in a nonmusical role, Olympic champion figure skater Yevgeny Plyushenko, who pirouetted around him on a small patch of synthetic ice.

Political leaders were quick to praise the victory as important for the country — something that has become a habit in recent weeks. Zenit St. Petersburg won the UEFA Cup football final on May 14, and Russia won the World Ice Hockey Championship four days later, with both victories being treated as signs of the country’s resurgence.

President Dmitry Medvedev called Bilan to congratulate him from China, where he was on an official state visit, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sent a telegram, saying the victory was “not only a personal success for Dima Bilan, but yet another triumph for all of Russia,” Interfax reported.

Bilan received 272 points in a telephone voting system tabulating calls from voters in 43 countries, ahead of Ukraine’s Ani Lorak with 230, and Greece’s Kalomira with 218.

Russia will host the contest next year, and Putin immediately instructed Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov to start organizing a committee to prepare for the 2009 event. Bilan’s producer Rudkovskaya said that St. Petersburg’s Sport and Concert Complex (SKK) could be the venue for the contest next year, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Monday.

Kommersant Daily reported that Rudkovskaya brought up the idea after being congratulated by Medvedev, who was born in St. Petersburg. Typically, the Eurovision host country stages the event in its capital city.

The speaker of St. Petersburg’s Legislative Assembly, Vadim Tyulpanov, also voiced support Monday for hosting the contest in Russia’s “Cultural Capital,” according to Ekho Moskvy radio.

Eurovision fans from across Europe will likely not have visa problems coming to the contest, as the State Duma passed a bill earlier this month allowing the president to wave visa requirements temporarily for foreigners coming to major events in Russia.

The legislation, originally designed for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was pushed ahead for the Champions League final in Moscow last week.

The show, which started at 11 p.m. Moscow time, was broadcast live on Rossia television. When it concluded four hours later, the channel broadcast a panel discussion to dissect the implications of the outcome with celebrities such as pop singer Boris Moiseyev, dethroned beauty queen Oksana Fedorova and music critic Artemy Troitsky.

Russia had never placed higher than second in the contest, which has been held since 1956 and has developed a strong following in Eastern Europe and Scandinavian countries.

Although he sang in English in the contest, Bilan thanked the people at home and performed a shortened version of the song in Russian at a news conference after the show, to “express in the best way the intense feelings,” he said.

“Dreams can come true,” he said. “I’m so happy.”

Hailed as a victory for Russia, Bilan’s winning song was in fact written by American producer Jim Beanz with the help of major producer and rapper Timbaland, also from the United States.

It is not unusual, however, for artists recruited for Eurovision competitions to come from other countries. Canadian star Celine Dion represented Switzerland in the 1988 contest, and won it.

Meanwhile Bilan was ecstatic at the victory.

“Dima is happy to come back a winner and that all of Europe supported him,” the singer’s agent, Alexandra Tityanko, said by telephone Sunday from Belgrade, Serbia, where the contest took place this year.

Tityanko said Bilan, 26, was confident he would win the competition, as the numbers had fallen in place.

“He was born on the 24th [of December], and the contest was held on May 24, and he was contestant number 24,” she said. “These were good omens.”

Boris Barabanov, a music critic for Kommersant, said that despite the fact the competition’s content was “something that you wouldn’t call musical,” the victory was likely to please many in the country.

“It is the third Russian triumph this month, and it is important for the country,” Barabanov said. “It helps to change the attitude Russians have toward themselves.”

“It is good that people voted for us, even it is clear that they voted according to geographic principle,” he added.

Barabanov said most of the votes Bilan received came from countries such as Ukraine, Serbia and other East European countries.

The most positive reaction to Bilan has come from the region where he was born.

The president of the republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Mustafa Batdyev, said one of the streets in the town of Ust-Dzhegut, where Bilan was born, would be given the singer’s name.

The head of the town’s administration, Anzor Laipanov, said the town would soon also have a music school named after Bilan.

“Everyone in the republic was cheering for Dmitry, and when we won, we congratulated each other,” Batdyev said, Interfax reported.

“We will [name the school after Bilan] because we want our students to know that even if you were born in a small corner of Russia, you always have the chance to reach the peak of your profession and become a star,” Laipanov said, the news agency reported.

Laipanov said the town’s Duma was due to hold an extraordinary meeting Monday to discuss inviting Bilan back to the republic for a big party in his honor.

“Dima is proud that he was born and grew up there,” said his agent, Tityanko.

Named best artist at the country’s MTV Awards for the past three years in a row, Bilan finished second in Eurovision in 2006. He lost to a Finnish heavy-metal band that dressed up in monster costumes — a result that prompted outraged headlines and accusations of biased voting in Russia.

There were also strong protests in 2003 when the country’s most commercially successful export act, the faux lesbian duo t.A.T.u., came third.

The group, which had hit singles around the world, received “suspiciously low points” from countries like Britain and Ireland, national broadcaster Channel One said at the time. Channel One declared at the time that Eurovision “was all about politics.”

The contest, held in Belgrade after Marija Serifovic’s ballad clinched victory for Serbia in its debut as a solo nation in 2007, was broadcast live across Europe to an estimated audience of 100 million people.

Other artists previously representing Russia have included the country’s top pop icon, Alla Pugachyova, who took 15th place in 1997, and Bulgarian-born pop star Filipp Kirkorov, Pugachyova’s ex-husband, who ranked 17th in 1995.

Kirkorov wrote the song performed by Ukraine’s Lorak in this year’s contest.

Staff Writers Irina Titova and Matt Brown contributed to this report.