Ego Takes Center Stage at Alexey Vorobyov’s Eurovision Party (PHOTOS and VIDEO)

Following the dry run-through of the second semi-final (and an unfortunate move from our hotel to a rundown hostel), Wiwi and Vebooboo booked it over to the Russia Party at Euroclub hosted by Alexey Vorobyov. Our main goals, as always, were to get free food and drinks so we wouldn’t have to pay for dinner.

In Russia the richest 10% of people earn 12.5 times as much as the poorest 10%. It was clear that we were hanging out with the former.  The club had rows and rows of caviar, blinis and pierogies, and the delegation provided an open bar—for the first few hours at least. When we weren’t stuffing our faces, we were hunting down “famous” people, and here’s who we found.

Hungary’s Kati Wolf took to the stage early to perform “What About My Dreams?”  In the video below she totally outclasses Alexey, who didn’t even know the lyrics to Kati’s song. Or how to sing it.

WATCH:

But this was Alexey’s party, and he made that clear from the beginning. Euroclub may be big this year, but it’s still not big enough for Alexey’s ego. Over the next hour and a half we endured a series of duets with other contestants.  Our favorite was Alexey’s appearance with Paradise Oskar. He ruined “Da Da Dam” by rapping with the Finn, and later gave Paradise a heartwarming handshake and body-bump-hug–a sign that Finland and Russia have gotten over their problems (think World War II).

But Alexey threw salt on old wounds by forcing Oskar to be his little slave boy by playing background instrumentals as he sang his own song “Get You” in Russian for the very first time. Have a listen:

Everything Alexey did tonight was seriously rehearsed.  A Russian TV producer got on stage at one point and told us we needed to be louder so they could tape a 30-second clip for the evening news. As we crowded onto the dance floor, we were surrounded by Alexey propaganda that included slide shows of him shirtless and videos featuring his appearance on Russia’s version of Dancing with the Stars.

Iceland, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia, and Malta were also in the house and performed their songs, with Alexey stepping in from time-to-time.  Afterwards the music turned to pop, and Alexey danced on his own on the center stage so that we all could have the privilege of watching him instead of getting to dance to our favorite Eurovision beats. Here’s footage of Azerbaijan’s El & Nikki lip-syncing their song “Running Scared.” It sounded great.

Perhaps the biggest diss of the night occurred when Croatia’s Daria showed up, only to get sidelined and kept off the performance list.  We know at least two fans who were disappointed not to see our favorite dinosaur on stage!

So all in all an eventful evening with one clear focus: Alexey Vorobyov, the multi-talented dancer, singer, skater, musician, and all-around Russian renaissance man.