Earlier this month, when MARUV announced via Instagram that she’d be competing on Ukraine’s version of Dancing with the Stars, she promised fans that she’d “pump the booty”.
And over the weekend the “Siren Song” hitmaker made good on her word, thrusting her peachy derrière and much more as she danced her way to another week on the show, known locally as Tantsi z zirkamy.
MARUV and her professional dance partner Jay were asked to perform in the genre of Vogue — originally popularised by the Eurovision 2019 interval act Madonna (who herself had borrowed it from the “ball” culture of New York City). The genre is all about the art of the pose. MARUV decided to strike hers to “Rockstar” by Post Malone feat. 21 Savage.
Visually, MARUV seems to have cast Jay in her own image. The pair wore black PVC body suits — which were appropriately body-con — and massive platform heels with an extra sharp spike. They kept things pure across the chest, opting for angelic white tops, while MARUV added a dose of naughty with underwear worn on top of her outfit. As you do.
MARUV starts the act writing beneath a faux chandelier. Once the beat drops she throws shapes in unison with her male counterpart, all to the dizzying flashes of a strobe. Much of this smacks of her Vidbir 2019 performance. We see Maruv — real name Anna Korsun — hitting the floor in the downward dog position while Jay playfully spanks her behind.
Without her Vidbir dancers to distract and add depth, this performance becomes all about Maruv, who displays her signature flexibility. At one point she lies on her back and performs an aerial split. Never the wallflower, she finishes the performance with her chest on the judge’s table with Jay standing suggestively behind her. Talk about assuming the position!
As you’d expect, the overtly sexual performance was a tad divisive. MARUV earned a 10 and a 9 from the male judges. But the sole woman on the panel — the prima ballerina of the National Opera of Ukraine Kateryna Kukhar — looked visibly disgusted at the end of the performance. She only awarded the pair a 6.
No matter. MARUV is through to slay for another week. While it may take time to win over Kateryna, whose classical taste will likely be an ongoing issue, MARUV has proven she’s here and that’s she going to stay true to herself.
MARUV is one of three Eurovision personalities competing on the show.
Eurovision 2017 host Volodymyr Ostapchuk cha-cha’d to the next round with a show-stopping performance to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk”. As you’d expect, he was cheeky and just a tad silly, adding major personality to the performance.
Perennial Vidbir favourite TAYANNA is also through. She performed the rumba to her own song “Damage”. And when we say performed we mean performed. Our girl couldn’t help but grab the microphone and sing a bit of her hit!
Any early favourites? Which Eurovision personality do you think is slaying the hardest? Let us know down below…
The song in this performance is actually a cover of Rockstar by Ilkay Sencan and Joel Gustafsson, not the original by Post Malone and 21 Savage!
I just realized there’s a man on heels in a popular Ukrainian tv show… Not something usual in that part of the world. Hope their will to be part of the western world will actually make them more liberal.
What a dumb stereotype 🙂
There were times when the current president of Ukraine used to dance on heels, making a parody of KAZAKY, a Ukrainian boy band that is dancing on heels. You don’t really know much about Ukraine, do you?
https://youtu.be/kgOSrw9Q8rc
Ah right, so they have no problems with men wearing women clothing but still HUGE homophobes. That’s pretty amusing
For me Maruv was the QUEEN…Vova Ostapchuk was also very very good…I’m from the Czech Republic and I’ve seen whole episode…i did understand a little bit…I fell in love with ukraine since I’m fan of Eurovision…is someone here from Ukraine?? 🙂
Ahoj from Kyiv! Thank you for such kind words 🙂
??????…you’re welcome…I really hope Ukraine will come back to Eurovision 2020 🙂
They’ve already confirmed that 🙂
Thank you for information…thats great 🙂
After watching that, I’m almost certain that a Maruv appearance in Tel Aviv would have been enough to keep Turkey out of Eurovision for another decade at least.
It’s ok, Dana’s kiss cam with kissing guys all over the venue did the trick.
haha MORE
Tayanna’s song translated not Damage but Sorry.
Maruv was Queen of this night. Can’t wait to see her next dances
Why you downvote? I’m Ukrainian and confirm that song title was translated incorrectly. “Shkoda” is not only Damage, it also means Sorry
Maruv seems like a better dancer than singer, but I’d also like to see her perform something outside of her BDSM bubble, cause with sole spanks and crawling (which she does well, I’m not gonna lie) she won’t win it.
It’s Maruv’s world and we’re all just visiting.