RUSSIA 2021

The Russian Final was held on March 8th at the Channel One TV Studios in Moscow, hosted by Yana Churikova. The winner was chosen by SMS voting. The winner was Manizha with "Russian Woman".

At the start of the song Maneza is wearing a large coat which is grey and has what looks like ethnic patterns on it. Part way through which she takes this off  revealing a red jumpsuit with the words 'Russian Woman' in Cyrillic on the back. She is also sporting a very lovely head scarf which gives her an air of Rosie The Riveter. She is joined on stage by  backing singers who surround her like a box. There are occasional fire blasts from the side while the backdrop changes between patterns, signs of nature and words from the text.

The track starts with an unusual chirping beat which definately already has that Eastern European quality. Manizha  starts the singing over this in a slightly low talky tone. The backing track then oomphs up a bit with brass tones and the choral singing. From here the verse goes a bit free form and you start to wonder what is going on. The backing track then changes into a different breakbeat with a Slavic tone which ushers in the English based chorus. This then goes straight into another verse which again is a bit freeform - although he body language is very entertaining! We then have a rather grand orchestral/anthemic bridge which has a choral Russian feel to it. After this comes a slightly elongated English chorus before another rendition of the choral part. The song ends with an energetic dance break over the instrumental

Manizha was born in Dushanbe, Tajakstan but the family fled to live in Moscow in due to the Tajikistani Civil War, subsequently settling in Moscow. As a teenager, Manizha took part in singing competitions such as Rainbow Stars, the Ray of Hope festival and the Five Stars music competition. She has joined a number of musical groups over the years such as Ru.Kola, Assai and Krip De Shin. When she finally decided to do solo projects, Manizha began studying gospel music in both London and New York City. She has two albums to her name, released in 2017 and 2018.

From what we know, this national final was produced in a very short amount of time and for her and the team to create such a good show is impressive - with an extra 2 months what else could she come up with? Manizha has great stage presence and moves well on the stage. We already know that she is planning to rewrite parts with a bit more English to get over the meaning of the song a bit more. At times I feel like there are too many 'bits' and that a little more flow and connection between them is needed, especially as the chorus is so different. Maybe by keeping those bits in a tidier order might help. That said the overall beat and the instrumentation is absolutely gorgeous and is a bop in itself. I wonder if the title of ‘Russian Woman” is going to put people off voting, just like finding a song called a song called “I love Belarus” a bit of a push to vote for. I am not sure this this is going to be troubling the top of the leader board but is certainly a different genre to make this years mix a lot more interesting.

ARTIST - Manizha
SONG - Russian Woman
WRITING CREDITS - Ori Avni, Ori Kaplan, Manizha