Manizha reveals the story behind how her entry for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, “Russian Woman” was created.
Speaking to FederalPress, Manizha reveals how she ended up creating and singing “Russian Woman” at this year National final. She explained that:
“We gathered in a small studio just to experiment. I the new popular music of Israel because it is very interesting, multi-genre and multinational, it was interesting for me to work with the guys, “
Work on the song started while Manizha was on tour in Isreal in March 2020, where the singer met local artists Ori Avni and Ori Kaplan. Manizha stated the song was created during a single day in the studio. However, this was only a demo of the song at this time.
Later once it was decided Manizha would take part in Russia’s national final to pick the entry for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, the demo of “Russian Woman” was one of the songs submitted.
“Of those songs that we sent to Channel One, they liked ‘Russian Woman’. We had a day before the first run to finish it, by some miracle we did it all. I didn’t even have time to realize the scale of this song, “
Channel One liked this demo however Manizha only had a single day before the show to finish the song. The singer did not expect “Russian Woman” to offend so many people and simply wanted to just perform the song.
“Now I understand that it was such a self-ironic therapy. However, then I no longer experienced the pressure that every woman experiences throughout her life”
Since being selected to represent Russia at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Manizha has seen a large amount of backlash against her from a range of groups within Russia. A range of factors such as Manizha Tajik background, her support of LGBT values, the singer’s rejection of traditional values has contributed to this backlash. Manizha has spoken out against the hateful messages she’s has received online since the national final.
Manizha will perform “Russian Woman” in the first half of the first semifinal, on May 18.
Who is Manizha?
Manizha Dalerovna Sangin was born on 8th July 1991 in Dushanbe, Tajikstan. The Russian-Tajik singer moved to Moscow, Russia, at three years old, and began her career in 2003 as a child singer, winning numerous competitions.
This year it was revealed that Russia would use a national final to select their 2021 Eurovision entry. Three acts competed, and the winner, Manizha, was determined by 100% televoting.
Image Source: Eurovision.tv / Egor Shabanov| Source: Fedpress
Russia debuted in Eurovision in 1994 and has gone on to be one of the most successful countries in the contest. Since the mid-00s Russia has had a string of strong results including their first and only victory in 2008. Dima Bilan won the contest in Belgrade, Serbia with the song “Believe” taking the contest to Moscow in the following year.
