Russia’s broadcaster Karusel has announced that 14 year-old Sofia Fisenko will represent Russia at Junior Eurovision 2016 with the song “Zhivaya voda”.
Meaning “Living water” in English, the song has strong oriental flavour, which brings some major Nadezhda Misyakova vibes back from 2014. During the song, Sofia shows off her large and pure vocals which more than carry the number. The song takes us back to nature musically — feel that tribal spirit — and visually, as three backing dancers that resemble wolves dance around her.
The final of Russia’s Junior Eurovision selection took place yesterday in the controversially chosen city of Artek, on the Crimean peninsula. All performances were pre-recorded for today’s broadcast and results.
The result suggests the public will be mighty happy. A few days ago, producers revealed that Sofia Fisenko had won the online voting segment.
But now she has won the full competition with a total of 36 points. Maria Mirova finished as runner-up for the second year in a row, as she came second to Misha Smirnov last year.
Russian national selection for Junior Eurovision 2016 full results
1. Sofia Fisenko – 36 points
2. Maria Mirova – 29 points
3. Duet “Friends – 26 points
4. Yulia Asessorova – 24 points
5. Maria Zhuravlyova – 23 points
6. Alexey Zabugin – 20 points
7. Katya Maneshina – 19 points
8. Lilia Verdiyan – 18 points
9. Vilena Khitmatullina – 17 points
10. Alisa Khilko – 16 points
11. “Chto skazhut deti” – 15 points
12. Elizaveta Kuznetsova – 14 points
13. Milana Pavlova – 14 points
14. Milana Zaryokhina – 13 points
15. Sofia Pastushkova – 12 points
16. Trio “Zhara” – 12 points
Russia is the seventh country to choose its Junior Eurovision 2016 representative, following Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Malta and the Netherlands.
Despite for the EBU’s changes to make the contest more attractive for males, this year’s contest is still an all-female affair.
The final of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 will take place on November 20 in Malta, with 13 countries to date confirmed to take part.
@SummerWine=Plum
I think orange Loo and purple Loo are not the same. 🙂
Hopefully Loo will never respond since his 1st post in this thread was just in favour of the common trend and he was expecting to be ardently supported.
He wasn’t supported. The end of discussion.
@Loo
We still don’t care what you think especially on our biased opinion.
The headline of this post is: Tribal realness! Russia picks Sofia Fisenko and “Zhivaya Voda” for Junior Eurovision 2016.
Conclusion: people who discuss politics here are off-topic and they should be banned. Wiwibloggs, please do something about it.
End of story.
@Loo Yours a couple of days ago: How pathetic of Russia to use the kids for political reasons and hosting their selection in Ukraine. And now yours again and you are contradicting yourself: I am VERY aware of the history and about the situation and why it turned out this way. Crimea is russian and so has been since like forever and I am one of those who truly supports that. I don’t get why it was given to Ukraine in the first place. What do you think Russia must do to make it “the right way” after Crimeans voted… Read more »
@Yalta And as you are crimean, your opinions are baised, so let’s stay true to the fact that there is two sides of this conflict that both lives in a belief of what is right and what is wrong.
@Yalta With all respect to you crimeans and I am VERY aware of the history and about the situation and why it turned out this way. Crimea is russian and so has been since like forever and I am one of those who truly supports that. I don’t get why it was given to Ukraine in the first place. However, it’s very clear that the annexation was made illegally. Crimea is withing Ukrainian borders until the day Russia makes it the right way.
@(J) ESC Fanatic
Why not? As you said, politics influences Eurovision, so therefore shouldn’t it be a relevant topic of discussion for a Eurovision blog? And furthermore, there is freedom of speech 😉 Most importantly, if contestants bring politics to the forefront, isn’t it only fair for others to discuss this and to present their side of the story? As they say, don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.
@Yalta Unfortunately some people here cannot even imagine that Crimean people exist in reality and they have their position. They are “not guilty” of this, they rely on their mass media and (in some dramatic cases) on Wikipedia. They don”t even wonder why the Crimean Tatars topic had never surfaced before USC 2016. They don’t realize that Ukraine is in a state of civil war and it has nothing to do with Russia but it is due to the coup in February 2014 in Ukraine. They will go on talking and talking and talking without any objectiveness, let them. Let… Read more »
@Julie
Yes, politics influences Eurovision but this doesn’t mean we should discuss it HERE.
Thank you @yalta and others for sharing your perspective and thus giving us a truer glimpse of how things really are. Unfortunately, this perspective is being suppressed here in the US (and appears to be in Europe as well). This may be “just” a song contest, but no doubt that politics (especially those that are directed against Russia) play a large role, sadly.
Gosh, again talking about politics in a website devoted to a SONG contest?
@ Loo
We don’t care who recognizes what. We, the Crimeans, decided to rejoin our historical motherland after being oppressed by Ukrainian government for more than half a century. If we didn’t decide so, Crimea would be second Donbass where dozens of civilians are killed every day by Ukrainian nationalist batallions. Crimea is Russia, was always and will always be Russia, if you can’t deal with it, don’t speak about it.
I love the songs WOWW
LOVE FROM BELGIUM
Top 3:
1-The Netherlands
2-Russia
3-Albania
Quite annoying to have that Kirkorov guy involved in everything related to Eurovision now …
@Ben Rafter
Three. Albania and Russia have revealed the full songs, The Netherlands has just revealed an extract. 🙂
How many SONGS have been chosen for JESC so far?
Summary of this contestant: Nadezda Misyakova from Russia which isn’t Dreamer, won in Ukraine
For me, the lyrics is good but the use of high notes is tiring. I would prefer Belarus’ 2014 entry than this. Sorry.
@(J)ESC Fanatic
me too!
@LOLXX
“Nobody wanted next girl.”
I did.
MORE GIRLS! MORE GIRLS! MORE GIRLS! Ha ha! 😀
@Loo
It doesn’t matter thether you recognise it or not. Just deal with this irrevocable fact.
I am also getting a lot of Anna Trincher vibes from this, especially from Anna’s video.
However, this young girl is very talented 🙂
SummerWine…
There aren’t enough countries that recognizes Crimea as part of Russia (my country for example) so Crimea is still within the ukrainian borders. Deal with it.
I’m just surprised it’s not another Mechta/Mechtay/Dream/Dreamer/Dreaming….
@RENSKE TEN VEEN
Btw Artek is not a city. It is an international junior centre situated in Gurzuf village, Yalta region, Crimea, Russia.
My top 3:
1. The Netherlands (I REALLY love the first part, and the chorus is also very cathcy <3)
2. Albania (very good live voice and song)
3. Russia (good live voice, and very nice song, almost as good as Albania)
Maybe instead of creating drama you guys should do some research… In the days before the JESC NF, the New Wave Junior festival was held. New Wave Junior is an international singing contest that is held in Artek, Crimea yearly, that was already the case way before Russia annexed Crimea. Both the New Wave Junior and the JESC NF are organized by the Igor Krutoy Academy of Popular Music. So the JESC NF is not held in Crimea because of political reasons, but because of economical ones: it is simply a lot cheaper for the organizers to re-use the same… Read more »
Next girl? EBU must be happy :DDD Nobody wanted next girl. Boring competition.
The best choice! I pray for our girl to avoid any anti-Russia prejudices at the contest.
@Loo
The Russian selection was hosted in Russia. Deal with it.
I preferred Maria Mirova, but I like a Tribal theme from Russia. It’s something new, we haven’t seen from Russia yet. Nice performance.
So again the Russian version of Simon Cowell/Christer Björkmann was once again showing his face at another Eurovision event … this guy will never stop until he manages a way to put behind his back his apparently depressive traumatizing 1995 poor score …
And the political innuendo here is just … no comments … 🙁 And they still hate me for not liking Junior Eurovision. Leave kids alone and away from competitions manipulated by the same people who screw Eurovision itself for reasons that scream everything but music.
How pathetic of Russia to use the kids for political reasons and hosting their selection in Ukraine.
Her vocals more than carry the song…. It’s terribly sung. Most made mistake in Junior Eurovision is to sing a reel of high notes which are off half of the time.
Great song, nearly as good as “Besoj”. She was my second favorite after Maria Mirova so I’m happy she won. 🙂