“From politicized” to “gay catwalk”: Eurovision causes rivers of ink in Russia despite its veto on television

The Eurovision Song Contest, a phenomenon that for almost three decades has mobilized tens of millions of Russians in front of the screen, was not broadcast this year by any channel in the Slavic country.

"Politized", "homosexual catwalk" and "Western propaganda" have been some of the vituperations poured against the contest after the final.

The reason, Russia and Belarus had been expelled a day after their artillery opened fire on Ukraine, winner of that European party in 2022.

This edition could only be seen through its official channel on YouTube.

Until 2018, even after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the 2014 Donbas war, the program had a very strong loyalty.

Its audience figures exceeded 33% of viewers each year, and sometimes reached peaks of around 50%.

There was only one similar precedent, in 2017, when Ukraine prevented Russian singer Yuliya Samoilova from participating because she had performed on the Black Sea peninsula once she was taken by the Kremlin.

Slavia Simonova, the singer chosen by Russia to represent them at Eurovision 2022 before the European Broadcasting Union eliminated them from the contest, in a 2019 performance. Maillard.

Lucy

Despite the alleged disinterest of the ruling party and the censorship —the last independent television that broadcast openly, Dozhd, was blocked at the beginning of the conflict due to its coverage—, the Eurovision final caused rivers of ink to flow in Russia.

On the one hand, many Russians, including some personalities close to the Kremlin who said they were not interested in the contest, criticized the Ukrainian victory and in some cases advocated creating a parallel contest for the former Soviet republics that remain within the Russian sphere of influence.

On the other, the fans enjoyed it as always regardless of its politicization.

Smear campaign from the Kremlin

The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajárova, charged against the festival on her Telegram profile with a snapshot of the performance of the winning band, Kalush Orchestra.

“Without Ukraine's victory at Eurovision, the picture of what has happened to that country would not be complete.

Traditional costumes and musical instruments, two Baba Yagá on the strings (of the cellos),

and chants about Azovstal.

Europe applauds standing up.

The curtain falls”, said the representative of Russian diplomacy, alluding on the one hand to the witch of Slavic folklore shared by both nations, and on the other to the Ukrainian combatants from the Mariupol steel mill who have resisted for almost three months of fighting.

More information

Eurovision confirms that there were "unprecedented irregularities" in the voting and that is why it will not change its scores

Leonid Slutski, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs and new leader of the populist PLDR after the death of Vladimir Zhirinovski, the third party in parliament, was not short either.

"Finally, it is shown that Eurovision is not a tool to promote "cultural values", but all Western standards and their unilateral approaches," lamented the politician on his social networks.

In addition, he criticized that Ukraine obtained the highest score from Poland, Latvia, Romania and Lithuania, countries that Moscow wants out of NATO, and from Moldova, which they have threatened to cut off gas and take over its separatist region of Transnistria after turning towards the European Union.

The last Russian Eurovision winner was Dima Bilan, winner of the 2008 edition. "Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest for the third time thanks to the public vote, but honestly, their boys are great," said Bilan's producer, Yana Rudkovskaya.

Her favorite country, however, was Spain.

His praise was in stark contrast to the tirades heaped on him by various celebrities who have openly shown support for the Kremlin in the past.

“I had no doubt that the Ukraine would win, not one iota,” said famous Russian producer Yósif Prigozhin, who said Eurovision had ceased to exist for him, but spoke about the festival over and over again throughout the week. .

“I am a mega-tolerant person, not homophobic, but I don't want to see a gay parade in the Eurovision format either.

I am not against these people, but against being prevented from thinking in our own way, ”was one of the rants said by one of the signatories in 2014 of a cultural manifesto in support of Putin and his intervention in Donbas.

Numerous media echoed the debate opened by Prigozhin and the Belarusian musician Dmitri Koldun on the creation of an alternative festival to Eurovision.

The latter, who owes his fame to his victory in the television contest

, affirmed that there are already numerous festivals like this in their countries and they don't need more.

"You can live without Eurovision and its copies," he said.

Another public voice was that of the director of the popular entertainment channel TNT, Tina Kandelaki, who described the contest as a “farce”.

"They can give Ukraine all the prizes in advance, from the Oscar to Zelensky to the victory in the Olympics," she said on Telegram.

"It doesn't matter who wins, it's just fun"

Some Russian media also approached the Eurovision final exclusively from the political side.

“No sensations: instead of being disqualified, Ukraine was awarded the victory in Eurovision”,

, the telechannel of the Izvestia group, titled on its website;

“How Ukraine tried to politicize Eurovision”, remarked another article from the Regnum agency.

In general though, the coverage in many newspapers was perfunctory, with coverage of a few paragraphs.

Several newspapers emphasized, like the Western ones, the alleged irregularities of the contest, and some took advantage of the current situation to make jokes about the fighting taking place in Ukraine.

“The next time it will be held in Azovstal”, headlined a piece of the

newspaper , which collected opinions from social networks in a totally biased way by only including those closest to the ruling party.

“Ukrainians will not talk about victory” and “Luckily Russia will not participate anymore”, were others.

Despite the invective in the propaganda war against Ukraine, many Russians enjoyed a good evening and nothing more.

“Ukraine's performance was good, but not by much.

Last year I saw them as winners”, says a spectator, Vera Konistratenko.

“We have known for decades that the contest is politicized.

In any case, politics has not been excluded from other places either: from sports, from art, from the Sputnik vaccine...”, she adds, referring to the censorship that some Russian artists have suffered in other countries after the entry of the Russian troops in Ukraine.

“I watched most of the performances in the final, as I always do, and I liked it,” another loyal viewer, Ruben Bunyatyan, tells us.

“I would be lying if I said that I was expecting a winner other than Ukraine, it was obvious, but personally I don't care who wins Eurovision.

It's just fun to watch and listen to all those songs.

I don't care about these accusations of political bias”, he emphasizes before emphasizing that Russian television itself uses the festival “to try to demonstrate the decadence of a Europe mired in homosexuality and all that nonsense”.

However, the Russian reality is that many citizens do not think the same in a country that passed the so-called "law against homosexual propaganda" nine years ago.

“As a child I liked him, but he has become too gay.

Now it's a stupid contest and I haven't seen it for a long time," says Nina, whose vision is shared by many more people in the Slavic nation and who repeats the same arguments: "I'm not against gays, but I am against their propaganda."

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