Dmitry Oparin News Today

Russia’s Controversial Eurovision Entry Challenges Tradition Manizha Sangin has never been your typical Russian popstar. A refugee from Tajikistan and outspoken pro-LGBT feminist, the art pop singer’s March selection by public vote on state television to represent her adopted country at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the Dutch city of Rotterdam stunned Russia’s musical establishment. With Russia’s turn towards social conservatism deepening amid laws clamping down on homosexual...

Manizha will represent Russia at Eurovision this year. The Tajikistan-born Russian signer won the national competition to go to the contest with Russian Woman song interpreted on behalf of a Russian Woman (or the one born in Russia) pursuing her goal breaking stereotypes. Read more in Realnoe Vremya’s report. From Dushanbe to Moscow, from pop music to independent Manizha Sangin herself explains that Russian Woman is a “song about a transformation of the woman’s self-perception in the ...