RUSSIA

The Russian entry was revealed on March 19th. Rossija 1 initially planned national final in March called Kto? (Who). However this was postponed until after the Sotchi Olympics. It was then announced that they had scrapped this selection procedure and were now looking at an internal selection. With just a week to go, they announced that the 2006 Junior Eurovision winners, The Tolmachevy Sisters would be going to Copenhagen. The song they are singing is "Shine"

The presentation is the studio version of the song over what feels like a very rushed and/or cheap video. The video is a mashed together selection of the twins' pictures since their success in Junior Eurovision. Ironically the video also contains subtitles - is this a subliminal message that maybe you can't understand what they are saying?

This is not a live performance which is a shame as I always like to see how voices sound under pressure. You also have the added influence of having two voices which sound very similar. I would guess that the girls will sing the song with little fuss in the middle of the stage, possibly singing to each other with 4 backing singers off to one side.

The song is a mid tempo song with a rocky chorus. The girls sing the song together, initially singing the same tune and then shining in harmony, both of which could show up any flaws. Their voices are quite low in the mix in the song which sounds quite odd. Their pronunciation is OK. the instrumental is odd as the voices doing the vocal gymnastic doesn't sound like them at all.

I have many issues with this song. Firstly it's not a strong song or melody and I think it may well get lost amongst the emotional ballads and strong beats of semi-final one. I also predict that the song won't have a string visual aspect either. Added to this that there voices (at least in this version) seem very small and weak and I seriously wonder it they have the power to carry off the song live. Finally, I feel that the emotions of the crowd will mean this will get a very poor reception.

One also has to bear in mind the political situation Russia is in at the moment. I suspect that although the juries may judge this song fairly, many of the televoters will not. They twins may well ahve won Junior Eurovision but there will be no repeat in proper ESC. Normally I would say that as it is Russia, they will qualify. I feel this *may just* qualify and bomb in the final but I would be very happy to see this very DNQ. I know that Eurovision should not be used for political protests but I think this would be a very public platform for Russia to see what other countries think of them.

I hope the girls know what they've let themselves in for and their presence may not be warmly welcomed...

Artist - Tolmachevy Sisters

Song - Shine

Music - Philipp Kirkorov, Dimitris Kontopoulos

Lyrics - John Ballad, Ralph Charlie, Gerard James Borg