Russia | Meet Sergey Lazarev From Russia

This year will mark the 64th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest will be held in Tel Aviv, Israel, and will see 41 countries compete for the honour of being Europe's best. There will be two semi finals taking place on Tuesday 14th May, and Thursday 16th May. Ten artists from each will progress to the final that will be held on Saturday 18th May 2019. A grand total of twenty six countries will compete to be Netta's successor at the competition. With just a short time until this event, Eurovoxx will bring you a series of meet the artist articles, that will introduce you to each country that will be participating. Today's instalment comes from Russia who will be represented by Sergey Lazarev.

Who Is Sergey Lazarev?

Sergey Vyacheslavovich Lazarev was born on the 1st April 1983, and is 36 years old. He heralds from Moscow, Russia, and is better known as a talented singer, dancer, and actor. It will be no surprise to many that as a youngster, the singer was an athlete in school. However, it would be music that would be his "Number One" ambition. At the age of ten he would sing in the Lokteus Children's Choir. His real stardom began to blossom at the age of fourteen where he won his first music prize, and also won several contests. This would later help him to become involved in the child group, "Neposedi". He has one son named Nikita who has also appeared in his music video, "Так красиво".

It would be 2000 when his musical career as an adult would gain notoriety when he would join the group, "Smash" (formed of Sergey Lazarev and Vlad Topalov). In August 2002 the group would end up winning the "New Wave" contest in Latvia, this was followed by their first single, "Belle" which would chart for 6 months in Russia, The band would tour Russia, and also release two albums before disbanding 2004.

He is also a professional actor having graduated from Moscow's MKhAT Theatre School in 2004. His acting career tends to focus on theatre, where has taken on rolls in "Rome And Juliet" along with, "Lend Me A Tenor", that has seen the talented star win awards in this field too. There is nothing that this man cannot do.

As a soloist, Sergey too would be very prominent. With the help of British producer, Brian Rawling he would release his first album, "Don't Be Fake" that would see sales of more than 300,000 copies in Russia. This song would also lead him to winning an award a year later as best new act. It was "Daje Esli Ty Uydios" from this album that would go to number 1 in Russia for several weeks, and remain in the charts for nearly six months. Sergey Lazarev has released over 6 studio albums, 2 compilation and 2 remix albums with all varying degrees of success. The talented singer has been prolific with his released singles, with over 46 being released. He has also toured over 7 times. It was his Eurovision performance back in 2016 that saw the star become international as he gained many new fans at home, and abroad since his debut Eurovision performance. During this contest he would win the public vote completely.

Check Out Sergey Lazarev's Eurovision Entry, "Scream" Below:

How Was Sergey Lazarev Chosen?

This year, both the song, and entrant was chosen once again internally. However, it would be the broadcaster RTR who would make the announcement that Sergey Lazarev be the countries representative for a second time. This was made public on the 7th Februaruy 2019, much to the delight of many of his, and the Eurovision fans. The song announcement would come over a month later on the 9th March where "Scream" was officially released. It has already become part of the one million views club. It was written by the dream team Philip Kirkorov and Dimitris Kontopoulos, and is currently bookies second favourite to win.

Check Out Andy Reacts To "Scream" Below:

Russia At The Eurovision Song Contest

Russia first debuted back in the contest all the way back in 1994, when Youddiph would sing, "Vechni stranik" placing ninth scoring 70 points. Since then the country has appeared at the competition no less than 21 times. This year will mark their 22nd appearance. The country has missed the contests in 1996 (failed to qualify), 1997, 1998, and 1999. They would return in 2000 to spectacular style where, Alsou's "Solo" came second scoring 155 points. They would appear every year since, except 2017 where they withdrew to political tensions with Ukraine who were hosting that year. Julia Samoylova was expected to sing, "Flame Is Burning", she would return a year later. They have an impressive history at the competition with Dima Bilan giving them their first win in 2008 with the song, "Believe", scoring 272 points. They have never come last, and have made top 10 on an impressive 12 occasions. Nine of those would be top 5 finishes, including Sergey Lazarev's first Eurovision attempt, "You Are The Only One" that came third in 2016. It did however, win the public vote. Since the introduction of the semi finals, the country has an impressive rate of qualification. Only in 2018 they failed to qualify.

At the grand final Russia has awarded most its points to Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Norway and France. Whilst it has received most of its points from Estonia, Belarus, Latvia, Israel, and Ukraine.

Last year Russia was represented by Julia Samoylova who would sing, "I Wont Break". This was the the first time in the countries history that they failed to qualify. Julia would finish 15th out of 18 countries scoring only 8 points from the televote, and ten from the international juries. This year Russia has recruited Sergey Lazarev again, can he make it a 21 qualification?

Do you like the song? Will it qualify? Please tell us what you think in the comments below. The whole team at Eurovoxx would like to wish Sergey Lazarev a very big, "Удачи".