Word: russia
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...their own country's representative. Yet this has led controversial bloc voting in an effort to prevent others from winning. Says Alexander Panaiotov, a Russian pop star: "It's the biggest musical event of the year. Of course it's politicized." A case in point, he says, is Russia and Ukraine. "Russia doesn't care if, say, Bosnia wins, but if Ukraine wins, it's a scandal." Ukraine and Russia have been scrapping ferociously over gas and oil for two winters in a row. (In a slight rule change, Eurovision is re-introducing a pool of judges...
...winner, Russia gets to host this year's finale and preparations are already underway in Moscow for the big show in May. The walkup to the competiton already has spawned several controversies for organizers and politicians to deal with. Russia's large contingent of gay Eurovision fans is feuding with Yuri Luzhkov, Moscow's notoriously homophobic mayor. Russian gay rights groups are threatening to schedule a parade during the contest, despite being warned not to by Luzhkov. If the march does take place, it will most likely be met with violence and arrests, which have taken place every time...
...then there's the sticky case of Russia's entrant this year. The winner in the national finals was Anastasia Prikhodko with her song "Mamo," sung in a combination of Ukrainian and Russian. Some of the lyrics were written by an Estonian, the music was written by a Georgian and the song is performed by Prikhodko, who is Ukrainian. This combination horrifies Russian patriots, as Russia has had major political conflicts with Georgia, Estonia and Ukraine in the last two years. Prikhodko's producer Konstantin Meladze insists, however, that her song should inspire friendship between the four countries...
...Prikhodko brings more baggage with her. She was the winner of Star Factory, Russia's version of American Idol; and, in 2007, she was filmed on the show telling another contestant that she doesn't like Chinese people or blacks. She apologized about this shortly after the incident. Then the Moscow tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets charged her with being a Hitler supporter, printing pictures of her brother Nazar wearing an arm band with what appears to be a Swastika. Nazar has denied it was the notorious Nazi sign, saying it was a patriotic symbol; he has threatned legal action against...
...second in Ukraine and was disqualified from the Russian contest for "not being patriotic enough"). "The fact that she won is a farce," he says. "I have nothing against her personally, but her performance is nothing to applaud." He says he won't be cheering for either Ukraine or Russia. "I will be voting for Norway. Their entrant, Alexander Rybak, is phenomenal. If talent matters at all in this contest, then he will definitely...