Okay, let’s address the elephant in the room. Actually, let’s give the elephant a name: Vladimir… no, let’s not. Elephants are too awesome to be named after a certain homophobic Russian president.

You know who else are awesome? The Russian artists who represent their country at the Eurovision Song Contest. Yet last year, the Tolmachevy Sisters were booed whenever they performed live and that was just plain wrong.  The Tolmachevy Sisters are not Putin and neither is Polina Gagarina. However you feel about the current geopolitical environment, please respect the artists and the people they represent.

Now that we’ve cleared the air, let’s get on to the fun stuff! Polina Gagarina was chosen by internal selection to fly the Russian flag in Vienna with her song A Million Voices.

Very nice. Very uplifting. Polina Gagarina is a beautiful young woman with a powerful voice and strong stage presence. I would like it more if it weren’t for one thing: it is so similar to Russia’s 2013 entry. Take a look and listen.

Of course it’s not the same song, but undeniably similar. It feels like they took the lyrics from 2013’s song, put them in a box, shook it and came out with this song. I really like Polina Gagarina as a performer. I wish they’d given her better material to work with.

Still, Russia does get a lot of votes no matter what they put up there. I’m sure A Million Voices will do well and even make it into the top ten. This makes me happy for Polina Gagarina, but sad for other artists with more original material.

Nonetheless, I wish her all the luck in the world. Best wishes from the USA!

You can find out more about Polina Gagarina here.