They were one of the most anticipated acts of Eurovision 2020 prior to its cancellation. But fans remain hopeful that Russia’s Little Big will make it to the song contest stage in 2021.
And now, following a recent interview with NRJ / Energy Radio, these wishes are starting to look more like a reality. That’s because the group have confirmed that they will send songs into the Russian broadcaster.
Russia’s Little Big on Eurovision 2021
An Instagram follower posed the question: “Have you already written a song for Eurovision 2021?”
Ilya “Ilich” Prusikin, the band’s moustachioed frontman, answered with a simple “nope”.
Thankfully, the charismatic performer quickly added that “Because, it’s a competition, so you should prepare for it. Many people think that it’s automatical that we will go in 2021, but it’s not like that”.
Sonya Tayurskay, the group’s female vocalist agrees that “a song is needed”.
Ilya continues: “But we may write a song in the near future, and we will send a few songs and if it works out we will go, if it doesn’t then we won’t [go to Eurovision]. Because there will be a selection and so on and so on”.
The interviewer prods them for a more definitive answer, asking: “So, the plan is that you will present a few songs to the selection?”
Ilya replies: “We do not really have a plan but there is a chance, yes. But we WILL send the songs”.
Little Big on a Eurovision return
This isn’t the first time that the superstar band have pondered their Eurovision fate.
In April, Ilya told Forbes that:
“Nothing is clear now. This year, Channel One [financed] Eurovision. I think. No, I’m sure. Next year it can be Russia channel. So it’s not clear whether someone else or we will go. If it’s us, then I’m totally up for it. Because I think as we tried, but it didn’t work out due to [superior forces].”
“Sending us again would be a bit wrong I think, because we ourselves are against [staying unchanged], and here it’s like – so we didn’t go, so let’s send us again? It’s not like we don’t have enough artists who can go. We have a lot of cool artists.”
“We tried and did what we could, which seemed to turn out good. Well, we got unlucky, but life goes on. We got what we wanted from this contest, and we would like for other artists to get it [media exposure] as well. I think you need to give way to the others, too.”
Additional reporting by Dayana.
What do you make of the interview? Do you want to see Little Big return? Let us know in the comments.
They got robbed by not being able to actually compete, I was so excited to show people and then it all got burnt down in flames. I loved uno and hope they can hit with another killer next time.
In 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2020, they waited to unveil both act and song at the same time at the very end and I expect they’re doing that here.
I wonder if the Azeri and Belarusian juries would’ve given Little Big 12 points…can understand if the public did, but if the juries did it’d be almost as bad as the Serbian jurors unanimously placing Montenegro’s D Mol first in SF1 of 2019…
As for me, their music is not my cup of tea. I’m pretty sure Russia has a lot of talented people and I’m living with the hope to see one of them at ESC stage. You can downvote me to the very bottom, but it’s just not for my inner system
Thinking tactically Russia may wish to stand little big down for 2021 and allow Iceland to claim their promised win, then submit Little Big in 2022 where the field may be more open.
Dadi will likely have a more jury friendly offering of what Little Big would bring, and the former could still do better in the televote than the latter. If Dadi hadn’t been selected by Iceland, I think Little Big might’ve been automatically chosen.
But Little Big will have more Televoting support, and here are countries like Italy, Lithuania (If they send The Roof again) Poland that could be done great in both jury and televoting and snach the victory to Dadi & Little Big as well by convination like Jamala did as well.
99% they are selected for 2021. Russians just like to remain silent up until March.
I dont like Little Big and their cheesy songs with monotone music and silly lyrics, but it would be logical for Russia to send this band otherwise it would look strange, why dont send band with such huge fanbase?
then send voiceless Buzova and skip the finale ones again
I don’t think there is any song I despised from the cancelled contest this year than Little Big’s Uno. The best part is that the biggest fans of that unoriginal and uninspired song are the ones that praised Sobral when he talked about “fast food music” after winning with the most boring and dated ESC song from the past 30 years.
Y’all triggered? XD
I want to see the competition between Little Big, Gagnamagnid and The Roop. This year it didnt happen because of stupid covid, but it must happen in 2021! Iceland sends their best act again, Lithuania made stupid decision with national final, but we must hope they will win. Russia is big question, but they want to win ESC and they send them again, I think.
I get the feeling it’s a Dadi kind of situation: they’re not making any hardline statements yet, but knowing how well they were posited to do, there’s probably a decent chance they’re getting another shot.
And nothing of the value was lost. Bye Felicia.
Yup.
Hope that Zivert will try to represent Russia in Eurovision 2021!
I don’t think so. She did a blackface, dude.
when? and again even if she did I doubt she’s even aware that blackface is wrong. Eastern Europe doesn’t have any history of blackface/colonies so it’s not fair to judge them the same as USA.
not the defending blackface AGAIN
I’m not defending it, I’m just stating that context and who does it matters
u can have your opinion and I can have mine. 🙂
some black people aren’t bothered. I do think it was offensive and still is in USA, in other countries I don’t think so as long as it’s done in a proper way and not insulting to the black people. I also don’t believe in cultural appropriation like cultures mix together, that isn’t stealing or what ever. Blackface as making fun of black people is offensive, but blackface as being part of a performance when interpreting a black person isn’t imo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOqUTwfnlvI PPPeter is a Slovak youtuber who did blackface and I personally believe he did nothing wrong, he apologizes, but… Read more »
I’m not saying there’s no racism, but I’m saying that by creating this bubble where everything that isn’t even racist is racist creates even more trouble and division. that’s my issue. Blackface was of course offensive, for some it still is, but I do think that it shouldn’t be only so can we create a more equal society. And again some black people would agree with me so don’t call me a racist please 🙂 thank you for not insulting my intelligence, it really shows your kindness and ability to discuss ! 🙂 lots of love to u
what painting your face is bad treatment? you really need to experience real issues, such as actual racism, hunger, poverty in order to understand what is bad treatment (not saying u deserve it of course, just that painting your face is really a minimal problem compared to other problems) and also someone spammed the dislikes on your comments – it wasn’t me
i LOVE zivert but little big deserves 2021. i want to see her in 2022, she’s at the top of my wishlist
Me, I’m actually rooting for Dayana Kirillova to represent Russia in Eurovision next year. She represented Russia in Junior Eurovision 2013 in Kiev, Ukraine, and she was 11. Now she’s 18 years old and she’s still active in Instagram, but she mostly posts about her normal life.
It would be crazy of Russia not to send them considering how popular they are.
Hopefully they don’t send them and choose someone good this year. Unlikely, but maybe.
I think they are going to be selected, and I’m praying that Russia will continue with their path of not selecting Kirkorov acts, but rather independent artists (IC3PEAK, Manizha and Zivert are on my wishlist – also Max Barskih even tho he’s Ukrainian )
IC3PEAK is also on my wishlist but I really don’t think the Russian broadcaster would even consider sending them since they have different political views.
true but Little Big are also very liberal.. maybe not so direct, but they give a lot of liberal subtle messages. Are IC3PEAK more direct?
Imagine it being Sergey in the end again lol
No, he’s reserved for 2022 to place 3rd
Please don’t. I’m sick and tired of artists that return too soon.
Little big or i am done…i will done if they send song about peace again like – We are the worlds people, Different yet we’re the same
We believe. We believe in a dream. Praying for peace and healing, hope we can start again
We believe, We believe in a dream…
Love love peace peace!
Considering Russia actually honoured their promise to send Yulia to Lisbon, it’s really noteworthy that Little Big weren’t automatically invited back. I think they might’ve been given the ticket if not for RUV automatically selecting Dadi and LRT giving The Roop a spot in the final, and Russia not wanting to compete with those acts, one of whom at least will certainly be in Rotterdam.
As someone who disliked their song can’t say I’m mad but I do feel a bit sorry. If they have a great song up their sleeves I’d welcome them back after the internal selection!
If Little Big aren’t selected for Eurovision 2021, it’s just plain clownery. Period. Russia has some amazing artists they can pull from but right now Little Big deserves it.
Russia would be crazy to not send them in 2021. “Uno” is the most watched video on the Eurovision Youtube channel and thanks to Little Big being the Russian entrant, many new and younger generation of Russian people have become fans of Eurovision. I’m glad that Little Big is willing to try again and that there is a possibility Russia will send them again. Little Big is a breeze of fresh air in Russia’s Eurovision history and they will probably change Russians’ view of Eurovision.
True, but Dadi is doing a similar thing for Iceland, and he is much more likely to attract both jury and televote support. We know that Russia is underrated unfairly by juries a lot of the time, but with Uno they would deserve to finish low with them because it’s not a great composition objectively speaking. Since Russia usually do well with the televote anyway, they probably want to find a jury friendly act.
I am almost positive that Dadi would’ve gotten a bigger jury support in 2020 compared to Russia. The televote would’ve been a toss.
My prediction (which is, of course, a pure conjecture which will never be proven or disproven) is that the winner would’ve been among Iceland, Bulgaria and Switzerland, as I see them as the most likely ones to gain enough support on both fronts.
Russia would’ve owned the televote, perhaps even won it by a clear margin, but I don’t think that most juries would even have it in their top 10.
Agree so much. Actually I feel like Victoria is the one that could probably be liked by both juries and televoters. Not really sure if Dadi is gonna be supported by juries enough to win, but it depends on the song. I feel the opposite about Gjon, juries will probably love it and not sure about televoters. And if Russia sends Little Big, they will probably end up like Norway 2019. Just my thoughts.
When they say ”There will be a selection”, I’m assuming they think of the internal one, like in Germany. Because, a new national final from Russia would be a big deal to just randomly mention it. Not that I would mind. In any case, if it’s an internal choice, I wholeheartedly root for Little Big to be selected again. I assume that in 2020 we’ll have more than enough of heavy ballads about unity and getting through crisis. Having a few of them is fine, but it would be refreshing to also have a few funny songs to balance it… Read more »
I really don’t think we’ll have lots of ballads about uniting the world, people always expect that people will sing about trending topics, but I don’t think that that is usually the case at esc. People expected last year that a lot of songs would have a message about global warming, but only Eliot had one – and even that one was quite abstract.
In Tel Aviv, we had, in terms of the lyrics, peace songs from UK, Finland (attacking “what’s going on in the world today”), Belgium and Denmark (and possibly Georgia’s patriotic song) as well as the anti-peace song from Iceland. It says a lot if Iceland were the best of the lot, and Belgium and Finland were the 2 biggest disappointments of the entire contest.
Poland were the only such song out of this year’s entries-that-weren’t.
I don’t think that in usual circumstances the artists will massively jump into the band-wagon of the most topical issue (although that occasionally does happen), but these circumstances are anything but usual. Millions of people have been grounded by this pandemic in a way we didn’t imagine we would be. Many artists are probably contemplating on the unpredictability and randomness of the world today. Many of them likely at least had a short period where they thought they might have contracted the virus or that someone they care about did. The rising dangerous alt-right movements (and as a media response,… Read more »