Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Eurovision Song Contest 2006
Country	Russia
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	7 March 2006
Selected entrant	Dima Bilan
Selected song	"Never Let You Go"
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (3rd, 217 points)
Final result	2nd, 248 points
Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2005 • 2006 • 2007►

Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece. The Russian entry was selected internally by the Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia (C1R). Dima Bilan represented Russia with the song "Never Let You Go", which qualified from the semi-final and placed 2nd in the final, scoring 248 points.^[1]

Internal selection

On 26 January 2006, C1R officially announced it would be accepting entries from interested artists and composers until 1 March 2006. C1R aired television advertisements calling for entries that conformed to the official contest rules and that the selection would be internally decided by a professional jury.^[2]

Following the 1 March submission deadline, several artists were reported as main contenders in the media. Those artists included Dima Bilan, who submitted two songs: "Never Let You Go" and "Lady Flame", Jasmine with the song "Desperate Foreigner", Varvara with the song "We'll Be There" and Ariana with the song "Don't Go". On 7 March 2006, C1R held a press conference that announced Dima Bilan as the selected representative for Russia.^[3] Out of Dima Bilan's submitted entries, the selection panel decided to keep "Never Let You Go" as a backup entry while requesting that Bilan's writing team compose a new song for the contest. Only 10 days were left until the official entry had to be submitted to the European Broadcasting Union and efforts to compose a new entry were eventually dropped and "Never Let You Go" was selected as the Russian entry.^[2]

The jury panel that selected the Russian entry included Konstantin Ernst (general manager of C1R), Yuriy Aksyuta (music director of C1R), Ilya Bachurin (MTV Russia), Alexander Polesitskiy, (Europa Plus), Vladimir Matetsky (composer), Viktor Drobysh (composer) and Larisa Dolina (singer).^[4]

At Eurovision

Since Russia did not place in the top 10 countries (excluding the Big Four) in the 2005 Contest, Russia was required to compete in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 on 18 May 2006. On 21 March 2006, Russia was drawn to perform 13th in the semi-final, following Poland and preceding Turkey.^[5]

For the Russian performance, Bilan was joined on stage by two ballerinas and two backing vocalists as well as a hollow white piano where a third ballerina emerged from a rose covered opening later in the performance.^[6] Russia qualified from the semi-final, placing 3rd and scoring 217 points. Since Russia was the first national announced as a qualifying country during the semi-final broadcast, Russia took the first available qualifier spot in the final running order. In the final, Russia performed 10th, following Denmark and preceding Macedonia.^[7] After the voting concluded, Russia scored 248 points and placed 2nd. Since Russia was among the top 10 countries, excluding the nations that constitute the Big Four, Russia pre-qualified to compete directly in the final of the 2007 Contest.

The semi-final and final were broadcast on Channel One, with commentary by Yuriy Aksyuta and Tatyana Godunova. The voting spokesperson for Russia was Yana Churikova.^[8]

Points awarded to Russia

Points awarded to Russia (semi-final)^[9]

12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Armenia  Belarus  Bulgaria  Israel  Latvia  Lithuania  Moldova  Ukraine	Cyprus  Estonia	Malta  Poland	Portugal  Romania  Sweden	Finland  Iceland  Serbia and Montenegro
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Germany  Greece  Macedonia	Andorra  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Ireland  Norway  Slovenia  Turkey	Croatia	Belgium	Denmark  Netherlands

Points awarded to Russia (final)^[1]

12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Armenia  Belarus  Finland  Israel  Latvia  Lithuania  Ukraine	Bulgaria  Estonia  Moldova  Poland	Cyprus  Greece  Macedonia  Romania	Croatia  Portugal  Spain  Sweden	Andorra  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Germany
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Iceland  Ireland  Malta  Serbia and Montenegro  Turkey	Albania  Slovenia	Belgium  Norway	Denmark  France  Netherlands	United Kingdom

Points awarded by Russia

Semi-final Points awarded in the semi-final:[9] 12 points  Armenia 10 points  Ukraine 8 points  Finland 7 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 6 points  Belarus 5 points  Poland 4 points  Lithuania 3 points  Sweden 2 points  Albania 1 point  Ireland

Final Points awarded in the final:[1] 12 points  Armenia 10 points  Ukraine 8 points  Finland 7 points  Norway 6 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 5 points  Lithuania 4 points  Romania 3 points  Moldova 2 points  Sweden 1 point  Latvia

See also

• Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 2006

References

1. "Eurovision Song Contest 2006 Final". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
2. Mikheev, Andy. "Russia 2006". ESCKaz. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
3. Bakker, Sietse (7 March 2006). "Dima Bilan to represent Russia!". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
4. Mikheev, Andy. "Eurovision 2006 Dima Bilan". ESCKaz. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
5. Bakker, Sietse (21 March 2006). "Running order decided!". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
6. Roxburgh, Gordon (12 May 2006). "Russia first on stage today". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
7. Bakker, Sietse (18 May 2006). "ATHENS 2006: 10 QUALIFIED FOR THE FINAL!". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
8. Bakker, Sietse (20 May 2006). "Meet the spokespersons for tonight's voting!". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
9. "Eurovision Song Contest 2006 Semi-Final". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 18 July 2013.