Russia Angry Over Ukraine’s Eurovision Win
Russia’s upset because people dare to expose the truth.
A few Russian officials have demanded a Ukraine boycott after singer Jamala won Eurovision with her song “1944,” which is about the USSR deportation of the Crimean Tatars.
Well, maybe if Russia did not invade east Ukraine or annex Crimea, people would not hate them so much.
Jamala, a Crimean Tatar, drew inspiration for the song from her great-grandmother. USSR dictator Josef Stalin deported over 200,000 Crimean Tatars to central Asia on suspicion of corroborating with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.
The 72nd anniversary of the deportation falls on May 18.
Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev watched Jamala win the contest in person.
2 #Ukrainians. 2 #Tatars. @jamala & Crimean Tatar Leader Mustafa Dzhemilev. Tonight, he was at #Eurovision. #Crimea pic.twitter.com/yUtCFODh1i
— Glasnost Gone (@GlasnostGone) May 15, 2016
So cool! Legendary CrimeanTatar Leader Mustafa Dzhemilev at #Eurovision to see @jamala win for #Crimea, for #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/Lpz0azzuku
— Paula Chertok? (@PaulaChertok) May 14, 2016
Officials went nuts and tried to find any excuse to blame everyone for the loss From The Telegraph:
Russian lawmaker Yelena Drapeko blamed Russia’s loss on the “information war” being waged against the country, a claim that was echoed by Russian television channels.
“Partly, this is a result of the propaganda and information war that is being waged against Russia. We are talking about the general demonization of Russia – about how everything with us is bad, about how our athletes are all doping, our planes are violating airspace – all of this, of course, shows (in Eurovision),” Ms Drapeko said in comments to Russia’s TASS news agency.
Alexei Pushkov, the head of the State Dumas Foreign Affairs Committee, lamented that Eurovision had “turned into a field for political battles” on Twitter, a thinly veiled criticism of organizers for allowing Jamala to perform a song with political themes.
Jamala, whose real name is Susana Jamaladynova, told The Guardian her parents and family still live in Crimea. She has not returned home since the Kremlin annexed Crimea in March 2014, which “have added so much sadness” to her. She can only Skype with her 90-year-old grandfather.
Ukraine’s parliament ousted Russian-backed President Viktor Yanukovych on February 22, 2014, after three months of protest in Kyiv’s Independence Square. Crimea, which is home to over 58% ethnic Russians and the Russian Black Fleet, pledged allegiance to Russia and kicked out their Kyiv-appointed officials and elected pro-Russians. In less than a month, Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea. However, the West has not recognized the votes or bill.
The invasion immediately sparked fears and bad memories to the Tatars who eventually made it back to the Black Sea peninsula. Russia threw promises at the Tatars, but they quickly broke all of them.
A few days before the finale, Jamala said if she won “it will mean that modern European people are not indifferent, and are ready to hear about the pain of other people and are ready to sympathise.”
Many thought Russian Sergei Lazarev would win the competition. He placed third, but even more surprising are his views on Crimea.
Сергей Лазарев: «Для меня Крым – это Украина. Крым наш – я все это не поддерживаю»
Пропущу Евровидение в этом годуhttps://t.co/GUGBeCosfE— Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) May 12, 2016
Translation: “For me, the Crimea – it is Ukraine.”
Two years ago, Lazarev told Ukrainian television that he considers Crimea a part of Ukraine. He also said he “‘won’t take part’ in concerts where Russian performers chant from the stage that Crimea and Russia are one nation.” He even turned down invitations to tour Crimea.
[Featured image via YouTube]
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Comments
I’t does seem like Eurovision is trolling Russia. Last year they picked the tranny, and this year they picked the Tatar.
The Norwegians picked Obama. As it turns out, it was a desperate act of legerdemain.
some pretty good music in this contest.
not really a fan of this years winning song but whatever.
they did change rules on scoring for this year so no idea if that was issue or not,
but if interested they usually have lot of song videos posted and there are some really good ones.
Oh, that’s wonderful! Eurovision affirmative action! This is the good life!
maybe one day Ukaraine will vet a President not mentioned in Panama papers or a Rada Speaker who is not a neo-Nazi. And maybe one day it will be as diverse as it was 100 years ago, as in 10% Jewish and 5% Polish – now it’s nearly uniform Russians and Ukrainians.
If you had even spent 30 minutes, at most, watching the show, you would have seen a whole lot more. I watched the whole deal, from beginning to end. All three-to-four hours of it, on Logo – because the direct feed from TV Europe was blocked to make way for the exclusive deal with Viacom to broadcast it on Logo. And one part of the deal was, get this, blocking an entire segment of a first-time performance ever by Justin Timberlake.
Let me tell you the bottom line here, to save you a watch on YouTube: on the ESC popular vote, which accounts for half of the total European vote, RUSSIA WON.
Yes, that is a fact. Russia won the popular vote, fair and square. However, it was the JUDGES from Europe’s music industry which sank him. They gave their top votes to Australia (an amazing Dami Im, which you should give a listen to: she won The X Factor Australia.) Ukraine was in SECOND PLACE in both categories.
On the chatter online leading up to the Grand Final, people were pointing out in many forums that “the fix was in” against Russia, because the EBU would not allow that win. I had suspected that as well, considering how past Russian contestants had been treated. You should have seen last year’s. A nice young woman who would have given Frozen’s Idina Menzel a run for her voice and money walked away with second place. But Saturday night, all suspicions Russians might have had were confirmed beyond any doubt whatsoever.
Furthermore, there is a cardinal rule in that contest that must be followed: NO POLITICS. In previous years, contestants who tried their shots at Putin with their songs, among other things to other countries, were scolded strongly by the EBU, with some softening their lyrics to pass muster (Armenia did so last year, with a song commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide by the Turks) to ditching the contest altogether (Georgia had a song castigating Putin. ESC said “Change the lyrics.” Georgia responded, “Go to hell. See you next year.”) But apparently, knowing the events in Crimea and the war going on right now, the EBU conveniently forgot that the rule even existed, and let Ukraine pass. Thus, these results. No wonder Russia cried “Foul!”
If the Russian delegation chooses to skip next year’s contest in Ukraine; or summarily tell the EBU, “You may all go to Hell, we will go to Asia”; or chooses to return, after finding their inner Alinsky and forcing the EBU to live by their own book of rules, I would not blame them one bit. Imagine if that had been US. Think about it: the US winning the popular vote but having Mexico or even Cuba win the trophy.
Eurovision is not my cup of tea although I’m kind of curious about this one. My understanding is that popular vote doesn’t really matter that much and that the “experts” decide what the masses are supposed to like. Concita (or whatever his name) was not a popular vote winner either.
This win is kind of like a curse to Ukraine who will now have to host the next Eurovision competition, which is expensive. Last year they were considering not entering a performer at all due to the financial strain associated with participation.
Last year Mustapha Dzhemilev teamed up with neo-Nazis of Pravy Sektor to blockade Crimea whose residents they despise for overwhelmingly supporting the annexation.
this year ton of videos on the site (and youtube) getting blocked due to country codes.
thought Sergey Lazarev – You are the only one was good song personally.
vids blocked here too
https://www.theconservativevoices.com/forums/topic/8921-ukraine-wins-eurovision-2016-russia-upset/
got both self hosted is people want to see the 2