Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Ukraine's Maruv with "Siren Song" (the lost one)....
Well, I can definitely say I am disappointed in Ukraine. Last year, they were sort of robbed when their entry, "Under The Ladder" by the charismatic Mélovin, only came in at 17th place in the finals. I attribute a lot of that to the juries, who gave it a total of 11 points from two countries (with 119 points in the televote, the seventh biggest that year). But at least they kept their 100% qualifying streak intact. This year, the country again held a public national final with a jury of three (including Eurovision winner Jamala and the guy who played Verka Serduchka in drag and won 2nd place) as well as a televote. The winner in a tight race but definite preferred by the people was a pop-dance song. Then all of a sudden it all went wrong...
Ukraine - "Siren Song" by Maruv (withdrawn entry)
Maruv, a singer born in the city of Pavlograd in the eastern/central part of the country who already had been putting out seductive but musically powerful music already, entered the contest with her synth-horn laden track "Siren Song". Coming into the semi with adorned librarian glasses and roaming the stage (including the judges desk), she caused a lot of buzz. But by the time of the final, the performance was even more polished and visually stunning, and clearly was ready for Eurovision even if it was just in the state it was in. It wasn't Shakespeare by far, but it was a song in the dance genre that didn't sound like anything around...
And then, after her win, hell broke loose. The judges started to yell questions at her, like Jamala screeching in broken English, "Crimea, Ukraine?", alluding to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia where Russia annexed that section of Ukraine and is accused of also abetting an armed situation in the east of the country. Of course, Maruv, looking shocked, said "yes, of course", but then the drag guy asked if Russia were aggressors and she said that just because the president is a bad person there are good people there. (Those two also grilled other contestants, and subsequent shat on their legacy with me.) But apparently the issue it seemed was her performing concerts in Russia, something that was already well-known (and actually not new, even Melovin performed there), and at first it seemed like the television broadcaster that runs the show wanted her to stop performing in Russia during the run-up, which Maruv claims she would've even agreed to (though she shouldn't, she wasn't in Crimea or anything). But they went even further than that, demanding she sign a contract controlling her music and career as well as making her basically a government puppet in the process. And in seeing this, Maruv did the right decision and bowed out. I'm sure the idiots at the broadcaster thought they'd just fool one of the other contestants, but all of them refused the offer as well (good). So for the second time (and first for this reason), the country took a pass this year. God knows after this what will happen in 2020. Honestly, they need to tank everyone responsible for this shitshow and start anew. They could've done this vetting before any national final started, and I believe that they were just trying to negate a result, whether or not it would hurt their chances in Tel Aviv, and ended up knifing themselves. Maruv was supposed to be in the first final, and I bet she would've closed the show that day, which is why I placed this here in order. I only wish "Siren Song" gets the international audience it deserves, hell, it should be a club smash in America this summer. Here's the new music video...
Damn, Ukraine (Rating: 9.5/10)
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Ukraine has been taking part in Eurovision since 2003, and as I said before, has a perfect record of qualifying for the finals. Out of the 15 prior years they've entered, they've also made the top ten nine times. The country has won the contest twice - the first time in just their second year of competing when in 2004 they won with "Wild Dances" from Ruslana...
And again as mentioned, Jamala had taken the crown quite dramatically from favorite Sergey Lazarev with her veiled history lesson of "1944" in 2016. After this year's shenanigans, I regret rooting for this...
As for my personal favorite, I would go with Zlata Ognevich, whose sublime "Gravity" took third place in 2013. In fact, this is my second-favorite Eurovision song of all time, after Conchita Wurst's "Rise Like A Phoenix"...
But of course the country has sent its share of memorable crazy that has come to be the contest's trademark. Namely the aforementioned drag artist Verka Serduchka, who took second place in 2007 behind Serbia with "Dancing Lasha Tumbai". This is the one clip people show to people to get a reaction...
But I think that was topped two years later with Svetlana Loboda with "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)", which was 12th in 2009..
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