She is one of the biggest pop stars in Russia, who represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 and finished in the second place. She also co-hosted the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, which was held in Moscow.

And now Alsou has been given additional international exposure, thanks to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which will be held next year in Russia.

The 34-year-old singer co-hosted the official 2018 FIFA World Cup drawing ceremony, which recently held at the Kremlin Palace in Moscow. She was joined on stage by Ivan Urgant, another host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009.

Alsou feat. Nino Bettankur — “Our Time Is Now”

In addition to hosting, the beautiful brunette also performed the official song of the drawing ceremony, “Our Time Is Now“. To honour both the hosting country and the international spirit of the event, she sang both the English version and Russian-language versions of the song, “Eto vremya dlya nas”.

“Our Time Is Now” is a power ballad with lyrics that talk about the philosophy of carpe diem, of grabbing the moment at such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity such as the World Cup, adorned perfectly with Alsou’s dramatic vocals.

The drawing ceremony was attended by numerous football legends and dignitaries. Former players Laurent Blanc, Gordon Banks, Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Diego Forlan, Miroslav Klose, Diego Maradona, Carles Puyol and Nikita Simonyan conducted the seeding, which itself was hosted by Gary Lineker.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup will be held between the 14th of June and the 15th of July 2018 in 11 Russian cities: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara, Volgograd, Saransk, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi and Yekaterinburg.

Rewatch Alsou’s Eurovision 2000 performance

What do you think of Alsou’s latest effort? Is it still her time? Will you be watching the World Cup? Tell us in the comments section below!

Follow our Russia Eurovision news here

Photo credits: AFP

18 Comments
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pasi
pasi
6 years ago

The german speaker told the public, that you can know her from the Eurovision Song Contest. That was really cool!

By the way, everyone who is interested in my Top Ten for the Latvian National Final, I´ve made a Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDaLFi3iMfE

🙂

Ron
Ron
6 years ago

She was not singing that was a playback. For how big she is, she really cannot sing or dance. I guess daddy’s money can buy you anything.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Ron

Welcome to Russian TV… 90% of it is playback. They even make a powerhouse vocalist like Polina Gagarina do playback sometimes.

Zebb
Zebb
6 years ago

She was so likeable in early 2000’s with her stuff and promos.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Zebb

It’s such a pity she passed on global fame (let’s be real, she could have achieved it, not Britney Spears level but she could’ve been a cute B-list pop girl like Christina Milian). But when your albums sell 1,500,000 copies in Russia and ex-URSS countries alone, I guess you don’t need all the drama that comes along with global fame.

Zebb
Zebb
6 years ago

Didn’t see Ur response. Well, with difficulties in 2005, she did more stuff later on, including in her native tatar language, but for me case was closed when she joined presidental political party after her father. I don’t know if she’s still in it, but it’s just the same party that has helped to drop native language from compulsory studying in Tatarstan after chauvinistic actions, which is woeful.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

A legend. Her discography is just SO good, and she’s a better live performer than you would think from her 2000 participation.

12AM
12AM
6 years ago

Like I’ve said Russia wants to win in Lisbon, they will go for the safe choice, no 2009, no 2012, no Julia, just a WINNER.
What about Moldova, I would like this style
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCBI_8PHL1o

12AM
12AM
6 years ago
Reply to  12AM

You mean nothing for the Universe
I’m gonna cry all day, you have nothing to do to me
I’ve been depressed for 20 years
Sequelae, trauma, mental disorder, spasms
Dissatisfaction, clinical depression, panic attack.
Aggressive layout, low appetite
And excessive guilt
EXCESSIVE GUILT

Tikriut Bvel
Tikriut Bvel
6 years ago

I have a feeling Russia will be in the top 5 next year, however I dont think they will win, I think they will be like 3rd or 4th, but not win. I honesty think Belgium or Bulgaria are most likely to win. but we will have too see what they bring to the table. Those are just thoughts- I mean look at the top the in 2017 -Portugal, Bulgaria and Moldova, no one would have guessed that 5 years ago… Any way- Brussels2019 or Sofia2019!

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Tikriut Bvel

Belgium or Bulgaria, just because they’ve had a couple of good years? That makes no sense sis. Any other country can come through and snatch like Portugal did.

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  Tikriut Bvel

I think a better shot would be picking acts from countries with the strongest NF, such as Sweden, Italy and Hungary. Still very unpredictable by now, though.

Informacje
Informacje
6 years ago

Lol, it happened 10 days ago 😀

12AM
12AM
6 years ago
Reply to  Informacje

You are right, it was on December 1st. This news was everywhere, is weird because was so easy to write about it.

Frisian esc
Frisian esc
6 years ago

I wouldn’t listen too much to the esc community. Some people on here just like to complain about everything 😉

Nika
Nika
6 years ago

Dear Jovanna,
Yesterday Dima Bilan released his new album and on Dec.15th Sergey Lazarev is going to do the same. Will WIWI keep silence in order to let everyone forget about Russia before you break these news? Probably some countries are richer in events than others and some commenters here sd just accept it.
Btw. Alsou is not one of the biggest pop stars in Russia at all though at ESC 2000 sht was fantastic.

12AM
12AM
6 years ago

Russia will want to win in Lisbon. After olympic ban, Russia wants to win ”bigly” (like D. Trump would say). Or ”big league” like he claims he has said.