Russia: Return of Dima Bilan to the Eurovision stage?
Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan has stated in a interview to Russian media that he wants to return to the contest for the third time after finishing 2nd in 2006 in Athens and his victory two years later in Belgrade.
Talking to a Russian television show, Bilan referred to the issue and argued that if Russian public broadcaster would organize a national final, he would be fully interested in representing his country once again. In contrast to the current system of internal selection, the Russian artist was openly in favor of conducting a national final with the public choosing the song and artist to represent the country at the institution.
The Russian state-run Channel One is expected to follow once again this year the tactics of the last years by internally selecting the artist to represent the country through direct assignment. The last time Russia held a national final was in 2012. Dima Bilan had also claimed his third appearance at the Eurovision competition, along with singer t.A.T.u. Julia Volkova. The duo, however, came in second place and Buranovskiye Babushki represented Russia in Baku.
Last year in Tel Aviv, Sergey Lazarev represented Russia with “Scream” for the second time, where he finished 3rd with 360 points, 6th ahead of 4th Switzerland.
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