Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016

On 10 December 2015, VGTRK announced that they had internally selected Sergey Lazarev to represent Russia in Stockholm.[3] The announcement occurred during the First Russian National Music Awards, where Sergey Lazarev was named "Singer of the Year".[3] Lazarev's selection as the Russian representative was decided upon by the editorial board of VGTRK with the executive entertainment producer of the Russia-1 channel, Gennady Gokhshtein, revealing that a song produced by Philipp Kirkorov had also been selected.[4] Lazarev previously attempted to represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, placing fourth in the national final with the song "Flyer". Russian media later reported that Lazarev would work with Kirkorov and Dimitris Kontopoulos in order to create his contest song, while choreographer Fokas Evangelinos was selected to develop the stage presentation for the entry.[5] Kirkorov previously represented Russia in 1995 as well as composed the 2007 Belarusian entry, the 2008 Ukrainian entry and the 2014 Russian entry, while Kontopoulos had previously collaborated with Kirkorov on all of his composing efforts in addition to composing the 2009 Greek entry and the 2013 Azerbaijani entry.

The Russian song, "You Are the Only One", was presented to the public on 5 March 2016 through the release of the official music video on YouTube.[6] The music video, directed by Konstantin Cherepkov, features Miss Universe Russia 2015 Vladislava Evtushenko.[7] "You Are the Only One" was composed by Philipp Kirkorov and Dimitris Kontopoulos, with lyrics by John Ballard and Ralph Charlie; Ballard and Charlie previously co-wrote the lyrics for the 2013 Azerbaijani entry and the 2014 Russian entry. The song was also presented on the same day during the Russia-1 evening news programme Vesty v Subbotu.[8]

In the months prior to his performance in the Eurovision Song Contest, Sergey Lazarev took part in a concert tour of Russia where he performed "You Are the Only One" for the first time during his concert in Kursk on 20 March 2016.[9] A performance of the song was also presented to the Russian audience for the first time during the Russia-1 programme Tantsi so zvezdami on 27 March.[10] On 3 April, Lazarev performed during the Eurovision Pre-Party, which was held at the Izvestia Hall in Moscow and hosted by Dmitry Guberniev.[11]

Sergey Lazarev also made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "You Are the Only One" as the Russian Eurovision entry. Between 11 and 13 April, Lazarev took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel and performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[12] Between 13 and 14 April, Lazarev took part in promotional activities and provided interviews in Malta.[13][14] On 17 April, Lazarev completed promotional activities in Belgrade, Serbia and recorded a performance for the talk show programme Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem, which aired on Prva Srpska Televizija on 18 April.[15][16] On 18 April, Sergey Lazarev made promotional appearances in Athens, Greece where he attended a meet and greet during a party organized by the Oikotimes website and he performed during the MAD TV Madwalk 2016 music and fashion show, which was hosted by Despina Vandi.[17][18]

Sergey Lazarev during a rehearsal before the first semi-final

Sergey Lazarev took part in technical rehearsals on 2 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 9 and 10 May.[24] This included the jury show on 9 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.[25]

The Russian performance featured Sergey Lazarev performing in front of a projection screen that displayed 3D images that Lazarev interacted with.[26][27] Lazarev posed, climbed and laid in the middle of the projection screen as various effects were projected. Lazarev was dressed in a black costume and performed choreographed movements together with the backing performers, who were also dressed in black. The stage director for the performance was Fokas Evangelinos. On stage, Lazarev was joined by five backing vocalists/dancers: Jennie Jahns, Alvaro Estrella, Johan D. Seil, Daniel Gill and Adam Svensson.[28]

At the end of the show, Russia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.[29] It was later revealed that Russia placed first in the semi-final, receiving a total of 342 points: 194 points from the televoting and 148 points from the juries.[30]

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Russia was drawn to compete in the second half.[31] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Russia was subsequently placed to perform in position 18, following the entry from Croatia and before the entry from Spain.[32]

Sergey Lazarev once again took part in dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show.[33] Sergey Lazarev performed a repeat of his semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. Russia placed third in the final, scoring 491 points: 361 points from the televoting and 130 points from the juries.[34]

The Marcel Bezençon Awards, first awarded during the 2002 contest, are awards honouring the best competing songs in the final each year. Named after the creator of the annual contest, Marcel Bezençon, the awards are divided into 3 categories: the Press Award, given to the best entry as voted on by the accredited media and press during the event; the Artistic Award, presented to the best artist as voted on by the shows' commentators; and the Composer Award, given to the best and most original composition as voted by the participating composers. "You Are the Only One" was awarded the Press Award, which was accepted at the awards ceremony by Sergey Lazarev.[35]

Voting during the three shows was conducted under a new system that involved each country now awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.[36] In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[37]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Russia and awarded by Russia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:[30][38][39][40]

The following five members comprised the Russian jury:[36][41]

• Larisa Rubalskaya – Chairperson – poet, translator, writer
• Denis Maydanov – singer, composer, musical producer
• Lipa Teterich – television host
• Oscar Kuchera – actor, musician, television and radio host
• Stanislav Duzhnikov (final) – actor

The EBU announced on 10 May 2016 that they were investigating reports of possible rule violations after Russian professional jury member Anastasia Stotskaya livestreamed footage through the live-streaming social media site Periscope, showing the Russian jury's deliberation during the jury rehearsal of the first semi-final on 9 May.[42] The video showed a jury member not paying attention to the Dutch performance, as well as a glimpse of Stotskaya's jury voting form showing notes evaluating performances. Another jury member states during the Armenian performance that she will support Armenia "because [her] husband is Armenian". The rules of the contest stipulate that all jury members are to evaluate performances individually, without discussing the results with other jury members.[43] Prior to the live broadcast of the first semi-final, the EBU announced that after discussing the matter with the Russian broadcaster, Stotskaya would be withdrawn as a jury member and her votes would be declared invalid.[44] The Russian broadcaster named actor Stanislav Duzhnikov as a replacement juror prior to the jury final on 13 May.[41][44]

Split voting results from Russia (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury						Televote
		L. Rubalskaya	O. Kuchera	D. Maydanov	L. Teterich	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Finland	17	17	17	13	17		17
02	Greece	4	7	5	5	4	7	8	3
03	Moldova	9	8	8	4	5	6	6	5
04	Hungary	13	9	9	2	7	4	5	6
05	Croatia	3	16	13	8	10	1	7	4
06	Netherlands	7	13	7	14	11		11
07	Armenia	2	1	1	3	1	12	1	12
08	San Marino	11	15	15	16	16		13
09	Russia
10	Czech Republic	14	3	4	9	6	5	10	1
11	Cyprus	16	10	11	10	13		3	8
12	Austria	6	14	14	11	12		2	10
13	Estonia	8	4	10	17	9	2	12
14	Azerbaijan	1	5	3	1	2	10	4	7
15	Montenegro	15	6	6	7	8	3	16
16	Iceland	12	11	12	12	14		14
17	Bosnia and Herzegovina	10	12	16	15	15		15
18	Malta	5	2	2	6	3	8	9	2

Split voting results from Russia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		L. Rubalskaya	S. Duzhnikov	O. Kuchera	D. Maydanov	L. Teterich	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Belgium	22	23	22	4	13	20		22
02	Czech Republic	18	22	5	13	14	14		23
03	Netherlands	8	5	24	18	15	12		20
04	Azerbaijan	2	2	3	3	1	2	10	5	6
05	Hungary	12	15	12	19	2	10	1	12
06	Italy	20	8	13	8	12	11		14
07	Israel	23	24	25	24	22	25		17
08	Bulgaria	13	16	15	21	19	21		11
09	Sweden	14	17	7	14	20	15		9	2
10	Germany	15	13	14	15	21	18		21
11	France	5	9	4	10	6	4	7	8	3
12	Poland	10	25	23	25	24	23		6	5
13	Australia	24	6	10	9	8	9	2	7	4
14	Cyprus	4	7	11	12	10	7	4	4	7
15	Serbia	19	21	20	20	23	22		16
16	Lithuania	11	3	19	22	16	13		18
17	Croatia	17	18	18	11	11	16		24
18	Russia
19	Spain	16	19	6	17	18	17		15
20	Latvia	7	20	9	5	5	8	3	10	1
21	Ukraine	25	14	21	23	25	24		2	10
22	Malta	1	12	2	2	4	3	8	19
23	Georgia	9	4	16	7	7	6	5	13
24	Austria	21	11	17	16	17	19		3	8
25	United Kingdom	6	10	8	6	9	5	6	25
26	Armenia	3	1	1	1	3	1	12	1	12