Member station Channel One
Russia-1 First appearance 1994 Worst result 17th: 1995 | Appearances 20 (20 finals) Best result 1st: 2008 | |
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National selection events National Selection
1994
1996
2005
2008–2010
2012
Internal Selection
1995
1997
2000–2004
2006–2007
2011
2013–2017 | ||
Russia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 20 times since their debut in 1994 and has participated every year since 2000. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". Russia co-holds (with Sweden) the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st century; finishing second with Alsou in 2000, Dima Bilan in 2006, Buranovskiye Babushki in 2012 and Polina Gagarina in 2015; third with t.A.T.u. in 2003, Serebro in 2007 and Sergey Lazarev in 2016, and fifth with Dina Garipova in 2013, for a total of nine top five results.
Contents
Russia is the only country that has never missed the final since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004.
Contest history
Their debut was in the 1994 contest after Russia became a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). In 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2015 Russia came second in the contest with Alsou's song "Solo", Dima Bilan's "Never Let You Go" and Buranovskiye Babushki with "Party for Everybody", Polina Gagarina's "A Million Voices" song, respectively. In 2003, 2007 and 2016 Russia placed 3rd, with t.A.T.u.'s "Ne Ver', Ne Boysia", Serebro's "Song #1" and Sergey Lazarev's "You Are the Only One"
In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinski with the song "Me is me", but on the eve of competition (for the second time in its history), he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round and therefore missed the final.
In 1998, because Russia did not participate in the contest (due to lower average scores in participating in previous competitions), Russia refused to broadcast the competition and the European Broadcasting Union in return forbade the country to participate the following year. According to unconfirmed information, Russia was required to submit Tatyana Ovsiyenko with the song "My Sun".
Since the introduction of the semi-finals, Russia is the only country that has never missed a final.
Russia won their first Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, when Dima Bilan, participating for the second time in the contest, won with the song "Believe", bringing the contest to Russia for 2009.
Russia was the most successful country in Eurovision in 2000-2009, with one win, two second places, and two third places. However, in 2010 they finished 11th, and in 2011 they were 16th, which was the worst place for Russia since 1995. Interest in the competition fell, but in 2012 Buranovskiye Babushki finished in second place, increasing Russia's interest in the show. Russia holds the record for the most top five finishes in the 21st century, with nine, most recently with Sergey Lazarev, who was third in 2016 with 491 points, which is the highest score of any Russian contestant.
Broadcast
The contest has been broadcast irregularly on two different public state channels in Russia, both EBU members: for the 1994 and 1996 it was broadcast on Russia-1 of VGTRK, while in 1995, 1997 and from 1999 to 2007 the contest was broadcast on Channel One. Since 2008, there is an alternation on broadcast and selection, with Russia-1 on even years, and Channel One on odd ones.
Contestants
Voting history
As of 2016, Russia's voting history is as follows:
Marcel Bezençon Awards
Press Award