RUSSIA

The Russian song was released on March 12th via the premiere of the video on the C1R channel and and available to download the next day. On March 2nd the broadcaster had announced that punk-rave band Little Big had been internally selected and the song would be known in due course. Their entry is called "Uno" (One)

The setting of this song is very simple and although this might lack imagination it does mean lifting this hook line and sinker onto the Eurovision stage would have been very easy indeed. Sonya and Ilich are centre stage with thee backing singers on one side, a keyboardist behind them and a dancer to the other side. They are all dressed very individually, all have their own microphones and spend most of their time looking down the camera and there is not very much interacting at all. There are some dance moves for the instrumentals and the chorus which would have gone down a storm.

The song as synthy-latino feel stretching to the fact that the chorus is a list of numbers in Spanish. After a small piano intro Sonya and Ilich take it in turns to sing the lines in verse 1. A beat is introduced during the pre-chorus and then goes straight into the repetitive chorus. This is followed by a dance break filled with synth sounds. Verse 2 is just Ilich by himself and is almost more spoken than sung. We then hear the pre chorus and chorus twice through. The song then quitenes back down to just piano with Sonya singing the last line of the chorus on repeat before beefing up once more for 2 more choruses. The song then sounds like it is about to go for a third repetition but stops abruptly instead

A couple of years ago, Little Big had a viral hit with their dance along song "Skibidi" (and the video challenge this then inspired) and their Eurovision song fits in well with this legacy. This is certainly a 'Eurovision song' with the odd looks to camera, strange outfits, dance routine and repetitive lyrics. I think that people watching this would see this as the stereotypical fun and kitschy Eurovision song and would vote for it because of that. I think the juries may have been more split about it. Some will've seen this as a 'millennial' entry and know that this is the kind of thing that goes viral but some may have disliked the genre and their style of performance and looking more for something more 'grown up' and contemporary. Either way I think with the publicity of the contest under their belts this could have been a summer hit. Hopefully they will be asked back next year for some more fun !


Artist - Little Big
Song - Uno (one)
Composers - Ilia Prusikin, Viktor Sibrinin, Denis Tsukerman
Lyricists - Ilia Prusikin, Denis Tsukerman