He’s the Russian superstar and mastermind behind multiple Eurovision hits. And now it seems Philipp Kirkorov has once more reunited his so-called “Dream Team” of Eurovision hitmakers, ready for another adventure. But who are they working with this year?
The hitmaker uploaded a candid Instagram photo taken yesterday at One World Trade Center in New York. The photo didn’t just show Kirkorov standing in front of the stunning New York City skyline, but also features fellow “Dream Team” members songwriter Dimitris Kontopoulos and creative director Ilias Kokotos. The men are joined by Russian entertainment industry figures DJ Katya Guseva and Olga Alekseeva.
The photo caption declares that the “Dream Team” is starting their “May adventure”. While Kirkorov doesn’t specifically name Eurovision, it’s not hard to guess what the big adventure happening in May will be. To add fuel to the fire, Greek staging maestro and frequent “Dream Team” collaborator Fokas Evagelinos has liked the picture.
Both Kirkorov and Kontopoulos have a long history in the Eurovision scene, both together and separately. Multiple countries have had the honour of working with the team, including Ukraine’s Ani Lorak, Greece’s Sakis Rouvas and Russia’s Sergey Lazarev. Most recently Azerbaijan singer Aisel and Moldovan trio DoReDos worked their “Dream Team” magic in Lisbon.
Fokas Evagelinos, however, is known for combining the inspirational musical ideas of the team with iconic staging moments, such as Farid Mammadov’s glass box, the Tolmachevy Sisters’ giant seesaw and the screen extravaganza at the centre of Sergey Lazarev’s performance in Stockholm.
Ilias Kokotos has collaborated with the “Dream Team” before, and was the creative director for Russia in 2016. DJ Katya Guseva is known for her remix of DoReDos’s “My Lucky Day”, while Olga Alekseeva attended Eurovision 2018.
But what country are they working with?
While Kirkorov is known as the Russian Eurovision maestro, this does not necessarily mean that the “Dream Team” is going to write for Russia. The Eurovision power nation has not yet confirmed for Tel Aviv. But if they do, it is likely that broadcaster Russia-1 will send the Russian entry this year — the channel that Kirkorov has traditionally been affiliated with.
Kirkorov was also part of the jury in the New Wave festival earlier this month. His involvement with the contest last year led to Kirkorov becoming a fan of New Wave 2017 winners DoReDoS, and he produced their Eurovision 2018 entry “My Lucky Day”.
The question now is have any New Wave 2018 acts caught Kirkorov’s attention? Could it be the time for Daria Antonyuk to represent Russia at Eurovision? Maybe Emil Kadirov would be a good option for Azerbaijan’s vindication? Or maybe Ivaylo Filipov could inspire Kirkorov to write for Bulgaria, his country of birth?
Kirkorov might also want to collaborate again with the Russian rapper Egor Kreed. The pair recently performed together on the single “Mood Color Blue”. Could we see another Kirkorov and Kreed pairing, but this time on the Eurovision stage?
One thing is sure: with the “Dream Team” on board, we could have an amazing hit on the Tel Aviv stage in on May.
What do you think? Which artist or country would you like to see working with the Dream Team? Let us know in the comments below!
I think most of their songs are unoriginal, boring and generic, with too much focus on the visuals.
Wearing a Vlad Putin t-shirt in New York City. Epic trolling. Im surprised he didn’t take the pic at Trump Tower.
mr.Kirkorov and his fast food music is getting old, and him being a fan of freaking bloody Putin doesn’t add any charm to his persona too…
fastfood music…I agree!
Hopefully he’s been hired by the BBC. They could do worse. In fact, they’ve always done worse.
Peter Nalitch (Russia 2010) BB (Russia 2012), they were out of the box, leave them alone. And about homophobia…I’m from Romania, and October 6th and 7th will have a referendum about lgbt marriage that has no hope. So sad. The best thing is for people to not vote at all. If they vote, they should vote NO because the question is about saying YES to the traditional family.
I don’t think it’s important what they think of gays
So they’re in NYC… Well, they’re teaming up for the USA entry !!! (^_^)
I think they’re writing for the tolmachevys again. Will it be called Shimmer?
Is it really necessary to put pic of Putin’ mug on his t-shirt?!! pic of bloody homophobic dictator, really?!!
Kirkorov just get lost! ugh!
Maybe it’s this internalized homophobia I keep hearing about. Not exactly sure what it means, but I feels so appropriate here. lol
* it feels
Perhaps it’s a hint that they are going to help Russia this year :3
I think it’s definitely for Azerbaijan, they ‘re in need…now that they didn’t qualify this year… We shall see
Well, Russia failed to qualify as well, what about them?
Belarus also failed to qualify (I remember Philipp is a part of Belarus’ entry from 2007, their best result yet)
But yea, Azerbaijan is an option as well
Their sound got stuck in the 2000’s after Shady always the songs just started sounding alike and dated. Most cliche of all were Demy, Sergey and Aisel. Fokas is a genius though he deserves a better songwriting team.
Lazarev song was fantastic and he even received in televising more points than Loreen
@VlaD My dear, Vlad. It wasn’t because of the song. It was because of the staging as it was really impressive. If the song was little bit better I am sure Russia could have won that year. The song was just another cliche pop song, nothing really interesting. Russia 2016 was all about Sergey and the staging.
The song was AMAZING and this is it became MASIVE hit in all Eastern Europe
The song won the televising with more points than Loreen because it was fantastic
And the points system was different.
But not Jamala 🙂
27 comments when all other articles have zero to maximum 5!! That’s why they are called a “dream team”.
I am not a fan of their songs but I must admit that the overall result always is very interesting.
They understand that Eurovision is most of all a TV SHOW!!
1: They call themselves a dream team.
2: It is logical that any news about a possible entry in the upcoming competition gets a hundred times more attention than past participants releasing new songs.
Very very split. A bunch of their songs have struck me as very vapid beyond the staging. I always feel like a party pooper cuz I know Eurofans go gaga for a spectacular stage show, but I like the song to have something going on there as well. All that being said, they redeem themselves majorly by being the team behind Shady Lady, one of the only good songs in a crappy year, so I’m at least interested in seeing what they do next (lord knows that besides Ukraine all the countries they’ve helped in the past could use a… Read more »
You are right! And thankfully, many esc-fans HATE big stage shows!! Does that come as a surirpise?
From his t-shirt you can tell he is a fan of Putin. Yikes
He is a citizen of Russia and Putin is a Russian president. So what? What is wrong?
@Not really I really needed a good laugh today. Thanks a lot for that.
@Dave And I really needed an answer to my question. What’s wrong?
The thing is… Putin is not just a president, he’s everything in Russia. Any person who supports him – most of the time, just wants easy money (money than has been stolen from the people, of course).
Ask Vladimir Kara-Murza, whom Putin’s agents have twice tried to assassinate.
May God save us all.
Mood-color me unimpressed.
This is great news!!!! They always deliver something very interesting and in 2016 they should have won!
I can’t wait to hear something new from their dated sound.
It’s just going to be yet another godawful song that sounds exactly the same as their previous ones I also hate how Russia started using the contest as a political instrument, like by sending a singer they knew would be banned and how they throw tons and tons of money at the contest, send already famous singers and so on, they’re so desperate to win. Also, Kirkorov has shown to be a terrible loser in the past and he’s deluded about Russia’s place at Eurovision and in the world For those reasons I’m very glad that Russia hasn’t confirmed yet.… Read more »
I just want Russia to take it down a notch. Send something in Russian, do an acoustic bit like Lost and Forgotten. I just can’t stand another overblown stage show. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I want them to go away, but this year proved they have to earn that spot in the final more than they have in the past.
How come this Kirkorov guy belittles the voting system and results of Eurovision every other year and yet keeps returning every other year?? Some self-righteousness needed here for him
The dude who parodied Lil Pump & Kanye West XD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPZXbaGqnDI&t=49s
I think Sergey Lazarev will back:)…I hope so
Sergey Lazarev won’t be back. Be sure.
We already have 6 selected entries for jesc and 0 news. WTF
It’s the biggest year till date with 20 countries, but wiwibloggs writes articles about almost forgotten artists.
Including Wales and Kazakhstan in the contest (with the Kazakhstani entry known)
But I guess they’re just busy
Busy writing about nothing?
I love Kazakhstan’s entry so much!!
And thanks for the news below, BTW I loved Israeli entries in 2016 and 2012. So maybe they will make a great song choice.
By the way, Serbia have chosen their entry but haven’t released it yet
Israel have chosen the singer with the song to be chosen and released later on
KAN had a national final but no one got to vote (they didn’t even broadcast it… They will broadcast it in October…)
Only 3 jury members took part in it (not the best ones as well…)
Don’t expect much from us this year as well
You should at least make weekly news or something. There are 20 countries participating and that is the record number of participants in the history of JESC. I do follow news on Eurovoix but I don’t think that website has as many Eurovision followers as Wiwibloggs. Whatever
I’ll stop checking this site for JESC news then. I don’t know about anyone else, but I personally don’t find this coverage of music videos, X-Factor/Voice shows, Eurovision friendships and whatever else filler posts interesting. A new contest is just around the corner and there are lots of national shows happening.
All right, then it’s clear.
I used to read jesc news here.
If I were a Wiwiblogger, I wouldn’t mind to be the one writing the JESC news :3
However, I cannot afford traveling every year to the contest so I would only be writing articles with no coverage of it live from there nor interviews with the singers xD (it’s not like I’m a good interviewer anyway lol)
Apostum, don’t forget that Wiwibloggs is not their job, they have other stuff to do as well
When they really try, they give us the best entries of the contest!
I’m super ready for another one!
I disliked both of their works in 2018. I still don’t understand how Moldova got Top 10 result with that terrible song. The staging was interesting at least.
Equinox 2.0?
One thing that can be said for the dream team: they deliver. The last time when they were firing on all jets (2016) they delivered a performance that snatched everyone’s wigs. If the dream team is competing, other countries know they can’t phone it in with a Running Scared or Only Teardrops. Competition is tougher but that pays off for viewers.
Only teardrops did win despite Azerbaijan having members of the dream team on board!!
they came second….
Definitely not everyone. Speak for yourself. Not a single hair was snatched from my scalp.
Please,not again.
Please, yes again!