The virus is gaining votes – Kommersant

On May 13, Liverpool will host the final concert of the 67th Eurovision Pop Song Contest. Igor Gavrilov is going to watch the duel of musicians and tiktokers together with the whole of Europe.

As a result of two semi-finals, 20 countries entered the last stage of the song contest. Five more participants in the final are the founding countries of the competition: Great Britain, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. Also, last year’s winner Ukraine automatically passed to the final.

Fans of headlines like “Eurovision Scandals” have little to gain this year. Perhaps the most heated debate was caused by a purely procedural decision of the directors regarding the announcement of the voting results. It was assumed that this time all the participants of the semi-finals and the final at the time of the announcement of the number of points scored will be on stage. There was a negative reaction from both “Eurofans” and the artists themselves. If we shed tears because of the decision of the professional and spectator jury, then it is better in our own cell of the “green room”, together with friends, producers and dancers, and not shoulder to shoulder with the lucky winner. As a result, the decision was canceled, everything happens as before.

Russia this year does not have the opportunity to vote for the contestants, as it has not participated in the contest for the second year. The only chance she had was to join the Rest of the World. This is the name of a virtual country that has existed since this year and only within the framework of Eurovision. For a small fee, you can vote on a special website, and the vote will be counted along with other votes of citizens of non-participating countries. At a press conference on May 10, Eurovision Executive Supervisor Martin Osterdahl said that Russia would not be able to use this option, but he cited the lack of working international payment systems in our country as a reason. This means that the Russians, who still have working cards of these systems, can, albeit in a microscopic way, influence the outcome of the competition.

In addition to participants from Slavic countries, whom our compatriots traditionally support at Eurovision, they can safely, if not vote, then root for Alika Milova, a 20-year-old native of the Estonian city of Narva, a fan of Zemfira (recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation) and Sergei Yesenin, whose talent at one of the children’s music competitions was noticed by Leonid Agutin. Alika Milova performs the song “Bridges” at the contest, written by her together with Dutch and Belgian producers. Her number in the final is 12th.

Aliki’s song will be performed in a block consisting of the strongest competitors. Number 11 is Italian Marco Mengoni. The probability of his success bookmakers estimate at a modest 1%. At the same time, his song “Due Vite” is a powerful and very traditional number for the Italian stage, which will definitely please many viewers. And after Aliki, Finn Kyaariya performs.

Just like before the start of the competition, the Swedish singer Lorin is now leading in the bookmaker tables, and the probability of her victory and the gap from her competitor – Kaariya – have only increased during the competition. However, the popularity of the representative of Finland is already living a life of its own, independent of the competition. Musically, his number “Cha Cha Cha” is inspired by the band Little Big, and visually created with a clear eye for popularity on TikTok. Users of this social network of different ages are recording videos of Kaariya dancing, and Hanna Waddingham, the host of the competition, the star of Game of Thrones and Theda Lasso, has joined them. Throughout the first semi-final, she, as if picking up some kind of virus, repeated the movements of the singer.

In general, the intrigue of the current contest is not who exactly will win, but whether, relatively speaking, Shazam or TikTok will win. Lauryn represents those members who emphasized music. Kaariya – those who care primarily about the virality of their videos. There are still more firsts in the competition, but purely arithmetically. Looking at the general ecstasy about Kaariya, half-Hulk, half-Ilyich from Little Big singing among wooden pallets (Ilya Prusikin is recognized as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation), you understand that Eurovision, which is still often called the “housewives contest”, quite accurately reflects the trends of today.

However, there is a trend that has remained relevant for many years. The tone for Eurovision is set by the Scandinavian and, above all, the Swedish school of production and songwriting. Whoever is ahead, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish authors and producers will earn the most.