More Eurovision drama: host Ukraine rejects Russia’s entry

The Eurovision Song Contest has plunged into yet another drama, as long time rivalries between Russia and host Ukraine spill over.

Ukraine authorities have rejected Russia’s entry, who was announced on the weekend. 27-year old wheelchair-confined singer Yulia Samoylova was runner-up in 2013 of Russia’s Factor A televised music contest and sang at the opening of the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi.

The Ukraine says that Samoylova illegally toured Crimea a year after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. It claims Crimea is part of its territory, and that she should have obtained permission from the Ukraine first.

It has now threatened that either she would be banned from entering or arrested on arrival to serve a three-year jail sentence.

The relationship between the two countries has dogged the song contest since Ukraine’s contestant, Jamala– an ethnic Crimean Tatar – won it in 2016 with a politically-charged song called 1944, which stung Russia.

The song alluded to mass deportation of her people by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the 1940s to Central Asia and hinted of inhumane treatment of Tartars in Crimea by the current Moscow regime.

Initially, Russia had considered not sending an entrant in 2017, in order to make its displeasure known.

Some Ukraine citizens said that Russia should be banned as it was financing separatist rebels in the east of their country.

In the latest issue, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladi­mir Putin told reporters, “practically everyone has been to Crimea,” and that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for Ukraine to politicise the contest.

Samoylova gave her opinion about the controversy to Russian news agencies: “I put all of that other stuff aside, none of it is really important. I sing, my job is to sing well, to represent Russia and not disgrace myself.”

Eurovision organisers have not made any comment at this point. It has been suggested that Samoylova could perform by satellite.

The Eurovision organisers have already been annoyed when most of the Ukraine organising committee quit over a political appointment to head it, and with the Government not releasing enough funds to stage the event properly.

Up to 14,000 are expected to attend the Eurovision heats and grand final. Last year 204 million viewers from 42 countries watched the event live staged in Stockholm; of these, 407,000 were from Australia.