RUSSIA – In 2022 RTR is back on the game and gets the Eurovision project on their hands. Many estimate that Kirkorov will be fully behind it again (as if Russia has no other person to deal with it) and the first indications of who should represent the country in Eurovision, seem – somehow – clear.

In the meantime, we are looking for your suggestions for the other participating countries. Have a say and help us form the national poll for each country by submitting your proposals here…

WHO SHOULD DO IT IN 2022?

🇷🇺 Who should represent Russia in Eurovision 2022?#oikotimes #eurovision #esc2021 #esc2022 #jesc #sanremo #festivaldacanção #icardeurovisionbg #nrkmgp #melfest #songvakeppnin #eurovisiongr #umk #euroviisut #eestilaul #pabandomišnaujo #dmgp

— OIKOTIMES (@theoikotimes) June 8, 2021

First of all, we consider a potential candidate the 2020 participants due to represent Russia in Eurovision, LITTLE BIG. They seem to have a huge audience inland and abroad while the lead singer’s latest support to Manizha open doors for ethical succession. After all, it is clear that they are ought to be in Eurovision. In March 2020, Little Big band was announced as Russia’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, where they would have performed “Uno”. The music video for the song, released at the same time, features Yuriy Muzychenko from The Hatters and Florida Chanturia from Leningrad, both of whom were to join the band on stage during the contest. However, on 18 March 2020, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the band won the Most Trashy category with their video ”Go Bananas” at the Berlin Music Video Awards. The same year, they also placed 3rd for the Best Music Video. In October 2020, Little Big’s cover version of “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” was used over both the trailer and the closing credits of Borat Subsequent Movie film. On 1 March 2021 Little Big announced on Instagram that founding member Anna Kast had died. On 8 March 2021, Little Big released a new single, “Sex Machine,” along with a video that referenced the video to “UNO” the year prior. However, they subsequently posted on Instagram, “We are not going to the Eurovision 2021. We think that Russia has many talented and unique artists, each one of them deserves the chance to be seen out there.”[31]

Little Big band has been nominated for Best Art Director with their music video ”S*ck My D*ck 2020” at the Berlin Music Video Awards 2021. The team calls itself a satirical art collaboration, which relies on the music, visuals, and the show. Little Big mocks various national stereotypes about Russia. All the videos are filmed by co-founder Alina Pasok. The band shoots and produces all of their music videos. Since the first concert took place as the opening act for Die Antwoord, the band was dubbed “The Russian Die Antwoord”, and is often compared with this band. Vice also called Little Big “a Russian mental patient’s answer to Die Antwoord”. Other critics point out that while Little Big has an identity of its own, it also exposes the listener to Russian folk songs and Russian culture. The band was influenced by a variety of musicians from Cannibal Corpse, NOFX, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rammstein, and The Prodigy to Mozart and Vivaldi.

Yulia Zivert has been mentioned as a good choice by Sergey Lazarev himself several times. Yulia Zivert was born on 28 November 1990 in Moscow. She described music as her childhood dream since she used to make home concerts almost every day. In 2017 Zivert signed with the Russian label First Music Publishing (FMP). Her debut single called “Чак”, which she presented on her YouTube channel on April 1, 2017. On 17 June she released the video clip of the song. Her second single “Анестезия”, was released on 15 September, with video being released on 17 January 2018.

On April 6, 2018, she presented her first mini-album, called «Сияй». A total of 4 tracks were listed: “Еще хочу”, “Зеленые волны”, “Сияй” and “Океан”. On March 12, 2019, a video for the song “Life”, was presented on YouTube, by then already three and a half months had been popular on various digital platforms. The video was filmed in Hong Kong. The track “Life” became the most searched single in Shazam for 2019, and also took the first line of the most popular tracks of 2019 according to Yandex Music and second place in the ranking of the most listened to tracks in Russia according to Apple Music. On September 27, 2019, she released her debut album Vinyl #1.

Elena Vladimirovna Temnikova, a Russian singer, television personality and fashion designer, came to prominence as a contestant in the talent show Star Factory and as one of the three members of the Russian girl group Serebro, which represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Temnikova started to study music when she was five years old; she was playing the violin and singing in the choir. She came to media prominence as a contestant on the Channel One talent show Star Factory in 2003. She was spotted by Maxim Fadeev, the main producer of Star Factory, and signed a recording contract with Fadeev’s recording company Monolit Records.

Although Temnikova released two disco singles, “Begi” and “Taina”, she did not continue her solo career and did not release a solo album. She instead joined Serebro, a girl group formed by Fadeev. In an interview for the magazine InStyle, in February 2008, Temnikova said: “After Star Factory, Maxim Fadeev offered me a new job. He offered me to be the lead singer in a girl band. I decided to do it, and we together found second and third member”. Olga Seryabkina and Marina Lizorkina also joined the group.

Serebro – consisting of Temnikova, Olga Seryabkina and Marina Lizorkina – represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 with the song “Song #1” and won 3rd place, behind Serbia and Ukraine.

JONY was born in Azerbaijan but moved to Moscow with his family when he was four years old. Since 2018 JONY started doing covers and by end of the year, he published his first single Пустой стакан (Empty glass). After that, his popularity has been rising all over former Soviet countries. JONY seems talented and you can’t say he’s not attractive. With “the dream team” behind his back we can surely expect something big lined up for him, maybe a full Eurovision 2022 package?