Russia announces its candidate for Eurovision 2017 in Ukraine
Singer Yulia Samoylova will represent Russian in the singing contest Eurovision 2017, which will be held in the Ukrainian capital in May. This was reported on Sunday, March 12, on Channel One Russia. Samoylova will sing the song “Flame is Burning.” Because she is disabled, the singer is confined to a wheelchair.
Disabled performers have participated before in Eurovision. In 2015, Polish singer Monika Kuszynska, confined to a wheelchair like Samoylova, sang in Vienna. Before that, in 2008, blind singer Diana Gurtskaya represented Georgia in Belgrade.
Russia was among the last to announce the name of its participant in Eurovision. Earlier, there were discussions about Russia boycotting the event because of tense relations with Ukraine.
The 62nd edition of Eurovision will take place in Kyiv from May 9th to 13th. Ukraine won the right to hold the event after Ukrainian singer Jamala won the competition in Sweden last year with the song “1944.” Ukraine hosted Eurovision previously, in 2005, after Ruslana won the previous year. In 2016, Sergey Lazarev represented Russia in the contest with the song “You Are the Only One.” Lazarev came in third losing to Jamala and a “guest” performer from Australia.