Since Sergey Lazarev revealed that he would be coming back to represent Russia at Eurovision 2019, his entry has been one of the most anticipated of the season. Now the “You Are the Only One” singer has confirmed he will release his tune for Tel Aviv tomorrow, Saturday 9 March at 17:00 CET.
He shared this news this morning with a post on Instagram, including information about the song release date and giving shout-outs to the talented team behind the entry.
In the post, Sergey wrote, “I really hope you will all LOVE the song as much as I did from the first time I listened to it. This is a new journey for me and I am so excited for it.”
This suggests Sergey’s song for Tel Aviv will be in a different style from what he is known for, perhaps far removed from the uptempo pop of 2016 hit “You Are the Only One”.
Sergey gives thanks to the team who have worked on his entry. As to be expected, Russian Eurovision maestro Philipp Kirkorov is top of the list, praised for not just his contribution to the song, but for his friendship.
Fellow “dream team” regular Dimitris Kontopoulos is credited for contributing the song’s melody and production work. New to the team is Sweden-based American songwriter Sharon Vaughn. She previously made it to Eurovision in 2012, with Jedward’s “Waterline”.
The Moscow Symphony Orchestra also get a mention. Sergey shows he’s a fan of old-school Eurovision, writing “I am so glad that we managed to bring live orchestras back to Eurovision” — even though it will be a pre-recorded sound we hear in Tel Aviv. Back in January, Dimitris Kontopoulos posted a pic to Instagram showing the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, which may very well have been the Eurovision recording.
Sergey also acknowledges the Russian sound engineer Andrew Weed Konoplev, “dream team” regular Alex Payani and gives thanks to the Russia-1 broadcaster for giving him another chance.
Finally — and most intriguingly — Sergey appears to share a song lyric. The post ends with “Tears aren’t quiet things…” which suggests it won’t be a subdued number. Combined with a symphony orchestra, this hints at a big, dramatic ballad, screaming with emotion.
With another “dream team” behind the entry, could 2019 be the year that Russia scores its second ever Eurovision win? Russia is currently top of the betting odds, but faces stiff competition from the Dutch singer Duncan Laurence’s newly released song “Arcade”, and whatever song Sweden choses in the grand final of Melodifestivalen tomorrow evening.
But four hours before the Mello grand final, fans will finally be able to judge for themselves. Sergey’s song drops at 17:00 CET on Saturday.
What do you think? What kind of song will Sergey end up taking to Eurovision? Can Russia earn a win in Tel Aviv? Share your thoughts below!
I guess an emotional power ballad! Different type of song for Sergey this time. I’m sure it’s going to be sth spectacular. Looking forward!
I hate Lazarev, but any of his craps would be better than the dutch “song”.
I am so excited about Sergey, he is such a gentleman. Remember in 2016 when he gave his coat to Ira Losco? It was Moscow pre party red carpet.
Please Russia, whatever you do, don’t bring that wall again.
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So, what happened with all those comments from last week that there is no place for politics at Eurovision? It doesn’t matter if we’re about to judge Russian entry?
Seriously guys, if you want to talk about politics I am sure you can find a lot of forums, blogs, media websites where you can do so. Blog about our beloved Eurovision is not the right place.
And remember, artists at this competion are representing people of their countries, not politicians.
Why is everybody judging Sergey by the country he is from? He is still an individual human being (and btw, if all Russians would think like him I think the world would have a different view on Russia). If you like the song and the performance, vote for it, if you do not, than do not vote.
Because he chose to represent Russia in a contest that IS highly political for many countries, Russia included. His country despises so many things the ESC stands for and with Sergeys participation he accepts and stands for everything his country is representing. Sergey knows exactly that the ESC ist huge for the LGBTQ community and he knows what those people have to go trough living in Russia. Trying to win this contest to bring it into this country is just a big punch in all the faces of the people who have to suffer just because they feel how they… Read more »
Okay, are you from Russia? Do you know what you’re talking about when you say “LGBTQ people who suffer” here? Also this phrase — “his country despises so many things the ESC stands for” — so from where you stand, the government propaganda machine equals people, correct? Otherwise, your point on his participation is totally valid, I don’t see why an accomplished singer with a long career behind him has to represent such a vast country at ESC but well, it’s all about government money anyway.
I just listened the snippet from youtube and it sounds little bit outdated 🙁
well right now that race is between Iceland and The Netherlands
The new fragment https://youtu.be/2yz9KC-NjEQ
I think this is the end of it https://youtu.be/g1ahDEtaFrg
Sounds epic and dramatic https://youtu.be/g1ahDEtaFrg
I am beyond curious about the Russian entry. I hope it will be spectacular – I love orchestras. No politics for me.
Off topic: Srbuk from Armenia has revealed that the song will be called “Walking Out” revealed on March 10 and the composer of her song is Garik Papoyan, the composer of Aram MP3’s “Not Alone”. Fingers crossed for another banger.
“Not Alone” is one of my favourite songs. Feeling really positive about Armenia!
Nobody wants russia. But the wiwwis absolutely want lazarev. Totally scary
Totaly agreed XD
Lets be honest… personal preferences are always closer to one’s heart, no matter how hard you try to be fair in certain situations and give opportunity to everybody 😛
If you want massive boycott of contest in Moscow, vote for outdated Lazarevs performance.
Lol
We will have ENOUGH drama and boycott groups this year
Meh… We saw that “boycott” at the World Cup 2018… Even UK team was happy.
haha … many countries who have tensions with russia didn’t participate in WC 2018 + contracts for broadcasting were signed many years before
It’s not all about Ukraine. They are not the center of the Earth.
Russia makes problems not only in Ukraine, but every Easter European neighbor also has problems with them, except Belarus.
Russia makes problems not only in Ukraine, but every Eastern European neighbor also has problems with them, except Belarus.
Don’t worry, Belarus is soon to become one… everything has its own hidden agenda 😛
UK team? You mean England? Let’s be real no one wants the big bully of Europe to buy its way to a Eurovision win again. Any LGBT person who votes for Russia is a fool.
So many sore losers in comment, Sergey will win and all the queens here gonna kiss his butt lol
Russia is the best what happened to boring Eurovision show, we can do whatever we want and no one can stop us ….lmao!
Cheap Ukrainian troll 🙂
Stop with the kissing of Sergey’s butt. What he does in his private life is his own business and sadly illegal in his own country.
I’m not at all a defender of Russian internal policies (actually am strongly antagonistic to them) but you do realize that there is nothing illegal about being gay or any part of lgbtq in Russia? The only thing that is sadly prohibited is the activism. Again, the whole situation is far from perfect, but nobody will pursue you legally for being gay. Just saying, don’t paint the picture ever darker than it already is.
Russia are not gonna winn. I hope Eutope not gonna vote for them.
They dont publish song, but you call “dont vote for them”?
Are you Ukrainian? Makes sense. But your hopes are pathethic. The best song is gonna win, Russia’s or not.
Your words are political!!! Many people say that eurovision is not political. Shame.
Being Russian I also sorta understand this attitude. If I were somewhere in the western Europe I would also hesitate to vote for Lazarev. I mean, the public position cultivated here through press is that Europe is more or less hostile to us with its liberal values. Well, Eurovision is kinda liberal and free minded, so why the heck do you keep sending artists there? I don’t know, I wish Sergei all the best but I personally lost any interest in Russian entries since maybe Garipova sang that nice Swedish tune, those were good times.
You guys say that Hatari can win the Eurovision but I think Iceland should be banned from entering Israel!!!
Denouncing Netanyahu live on stage or bring the Palestinian flag in front of millions is UNACCEPTABLE!!!
You comment is Unacceptable
GO Iceland
I feel this year will have drama and controversy 🙂 with Hatari and a lot of BDS Boycott groups against the government planning protests…
Can Hatari do that?? I think they can’t because they have a contract, but not sure
They will come for blood and they will slayyyy 😀
HATARI MUN SIGRA!!!!
I really hope they do that……<they will have my full support!
Hatari is not gonna do that because they realized their country actually wants them to try to win
I don’t understand the hype…Sergey is so generic and not interesting..next please
Kirkorov after May 18th 😀
ngl, this is a really funny gif xD this is such a good reaction gif for so many different things
Sergey knows that he has the public vote in the bag and all he has to do is throw some jury bait orchestration and that can guarantee him the win.
nothing can guarantee you to win , and i wouldn’t be so sure he has the public vote in his bag… this year we have enough talented male soloists in various genres , Sergey is good but he is NOT the only one lol
People voted in 2016 because they liked his song, not because all these people throughout the entire continent just loved Sergey. If they don’t like his song this year then there’s no way he’d just win the vote again.
I really wonder who came up with the urban legend that the juries always prefer ballads/symphonic arrangements. This is obviously NOT he case.
As gay you should not be afraid to go to Russia for ESC, all contrary.
year Russia Today channel tell the same lmao!
ESC is ESC. Use it!
OFF TOPIC: Putin clearly gets Botox and Fillers. His before and after pics don’t lie. Nothing against it thought.
And Lazarev has a boyfriend and adopted a child
Russia is reaching for gold this year that’s what I think !
Here are the first 14′ seconds snippet of Russia.
The song “SCREAM” has leaked now included with the huge moscow symphonyorchestra.
https://vk.com/video-5373584_456242009
a ‘scream’ of desperation to win :))
I know it;s only a snippet at 14 secs, but this is nothing special…..he’s a good singer, but to win he needs a song better than “Arcade” and Duncan Laurence……Netherlands has very little opposition compared to Russia, so Sergey has it all to do….
I think they’re going down the Dima Bilan route, he went from upbeat Never Gonna Let You Go to downbeat Believe and won.
1. Iceland
2. Switzerland
3. Cyprus
4. The Netherlands
My top 5
1 Netherlands
2 Iceland
3 Slovenia
4 Poland
5 Switzerland and Italy
Hatari just said on tv they will denounce Netanyahu live on stage and will probably bring a Palestinian flag… I think they should go slow because they can be banned by Israel…
What? are they serious? i hope not, Iceland could be disqualified for such act… it would be horrible, i’m still crying over Ukraine’s withdraw ….
Hatari is also known for satire so i’m not taking that even remotely seriously
It can
t be better than Netheralands masterpeace. I am sorry. Netherlands is the winner. <3Didn’t like their song.not even in my top 10
His song seems tricky to stage, so i wouldn’t say that about Duncan just yet
Let’s see if he can figure something out first
Last time we saw a male version of Helena paparizou. Sounds like he is relying too much on experts who can help him create big image, it’s a song contest and it’s tough competition. Its certainly not an artist contest
A ballad by Kontopoulos?? Moscow 2020 fading away………
Not hyped at all, expecting another generic and cheap Eurovision adjusted song.. Russia have so much talent, yet they send this wannabe for the 2nd time smh
The King Sergey will win easily this year! the others contestants are just so weak and pathetic…meh!
gays and girls adore our king and will vote for him , welcome to Moscow 2020 (and Ukraine will be out again ahaha!)
no thanks, as a gay man i wound’t risk to go there …
You really have to go to experience it, don’t listen to what other people say. I’ve been a couple times and it’s really not as bad as people want you to think and Russians are nice people. Most Russians aren’t even anti-gay, like a good 3/4 feel neutral or positive about gay people.
As a gay man, I’ll never go to a country that uses a famous closeted gay to pretend they are kind to LGBTs. No, thank you.
Will you ask difference people about champoionships world cup football, who was in russia. And my advice to wstch your news on tv a little.
yeah the infamous world cup you bought from corrupt FIFA …lol
and my advise don’t watch russian propaganda news… lmao!
lol a reminder for me why with all my love and respect to Sergey i don’t want Russia to win….sorry, not sorry
Ukraine won’t be the only country withdrawing
My expectations are high for Russia. Odds show the Netherlands coming closer and closer, but to be very honest I do not see it as a winner. Song is good, production and voice and video, but it is not a winner material to me. Something is missing.
Hopefully Lazarev and this team prepared something crispy for all of us
If for the 6th year in a row another political song will win, I will die.
Russia, if you can collude, then collude now.
This could be a snippet of the chorus
https://m.vk.com/video-5373584_456242009?list=f8270a06a7fc674579&from=wall-5373584_2061358
I’m so scared.. I LOVE Sergey but from the description the songs sounds like something I won’t like. And this after three years of waiting and hoping for him to come back 🙁 but we’ll see..
I don’t want to be a hater, but I couldn’t care less. the whole pre-hype is so forced and obnoxious… and I am just waiting for some cheesy -totally over the top- desperate ballad a là Dima Bilan that will annoy me big time. Maybe I am wrong, but I wasn’t a fan of his souless and “thunderish” plastic dance entry, and I don’t expect much from this one either. For now, I adore the netherlands as my favourite ballad this year.
I’m so tired of political songs, social songs, or full of 50’s genre. Just enough. Enough is enough. Now I want entertainment. Is it too much to ask?
I’m hyped to announce that I’m officially hyped! 😛
Me too!
I want something like this:
https://youtu.be/hhDm-8LA5qw
Can’t wait to be disappointed
LMAO! Same
Just connecting the dots here: Sergeys post with “Tears aren’t quiet things”, the rumour that the song name is Scream makes me believe that the leaked snippet of the end of the song in the comments below is actually true where you can hear Sergey-like voice singing “(…)they scream”. It logically implies to a chorus being “Tears aren’t quiet things, they scream” and promises a good rock power ballad (hopefully) stripped down from Kirkorovs cheese factory. Excited for Russian entry after a looooong time. blyatiful.
“cheese factory” <3
What link is the leaked snippet?
oh wow, i don’t really know what to expect now, i can already tell i’ll like this song more than you are the only one tho
Really wanted something like “You’re the only one”. Let’s see how that works out. Remember this: Demy’s “This is love” was having an orchestra – Kontopoulos’ orchestra. Hope this doesn’t flop, too.
Now it’s starts getting interesting …
Just because there’s an orchestra it doesn’t mean it’s a ballad – Adagio for strings anyone?
It was announced by Kirkorov that it’s a ballad.
Aww, orchestral elements… So salvadorable… <3
I don’t get the hype. I don’t wanna hear another ballad. We need bops and bangers!
Maybe you need…I wanna hear good ballads!
16h CET or 17h CET? On his insta post it’s 17h…
I think it’s 16 CET, 17 MSK (Moscow time)
it’s 17 CET and 19 MSK
It’s still three hours before Melodifestivalen, though, not four?
Irish entry has been released. Interesting song…
https://vocaroo.com/i/s0qUoEuJ5Eae only pie is (the end of song) Rock ballad.
woah :O is that really part of it?
This sounds like it can really be part of his song, based on the voice and (I guess) orchestra in the background. But it’s way too noisy to make the proper opinion.
If it actually is a rock ballad, then i can’t believe my comment from before actually sort of came true.
Imagine if it’s like Mall. While Mall wasn’t even predicted to qualify last year, this one gets predicted to win 😛
I wouldn’t mind a second mall, tbh
Mall was the most overrated song ever, Bon Jovi and Guns’n’Roses. In the bubble was no doubt it will qualify. 90’s 90’s 90’s. It’s so disturbing that the word ‘dated’ is used just for some.
“Mall was the most overrated song ever”
um excuse me but were we not there for the same jury opinion on Sweden last year?
Sweden was Michael Jackson 80’s. But is Sweden and people are sheeps.
Go listen to some contemporary manufactured pop trash then, and let us enjoy the so called ‘dated’ music.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy ‘dated’ songs, but the bubble give these sentences, for example ‘You are the only one’ Russia 2016.
I would give everything for a second Mall. But only from Eugent <3
Great, it’s a ballad!
Just what I wanted.
Eurofans praying for not another ballad can be really funny sometimes… what about just waiting and seeing? That magic, mythical creature called “a good ballad” also does exist (as long as you skip your anti-ballad prejudice)
It wouldn’t be as bad of in issue if they all weren’t stuck in the same semi-final. You gotta admit sf2 doesn’t have much to offer in terms of variety compared to sf1.
Me, knowing that with those kinds of instruments that there’s no way this new thing he is trying is gonna be rock: please be rock