As Russia waits to find out whether Ukraine will let its Eurovision entry Yulia Samoylova, who illegally visited the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2015, take part in Eurovision 2017, Moscow may have just found a plan B.
British pop star Robbie Williams offered to represent the country in the song contest during the TV show “Pust Govoryat” (“Let Them Talk”), aired on March 20 on Russian television’s First Channel.
“Do you know what? I’d like to represent Russia in Eurovision,” Williams said while talking to the host of the show, Andrey Malakhov.
In a short video fragment uploaded to First Channel’s website, Malakhov and Williams discuss Eurovision, and the British heartthrob shares his opinion about the song contest.
“I loooove Eurovision! I know it lasts three hours and no one is patient enough to watch it until the end. Only ‘chosen ones’ like me and my wife can concentrate throughout the whole show,” he said.
After Malakhov told Williams Eurovision is like the Olympic games of music in Russia, the British singer was suddenly struck by the idea of performing there as Russia’s entry.
“I’m saying this to you like this, but my manager has probably got his head in his hands right now,” he added reiterating his desire to perform.
“Come on Russia, we can win it!”
Samoylova, who was in the studio watching the segment, laughed at the pop star’s comment. When Malakhov asked her whether she would like the idea of Williams performing with her, she said “With great pleasure. Even the whole of Russia can perform with me!”
Ukraine’s SBU security service is still deciding whether to let Samoylova enter Ukraine after old social media comments by the singer emerged in which she shows support for the annexation.
More seriously, when Samoylova performed in Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea in 2015 the singer didn’t pass through Ukrainian territory to get there, so under Ukrainian law she entered the territory illegally.
The singer also justified Russia’s president Vladimir Putin’s actions in Crimea in 2014 in a comment on Russian social network VK dating from March 2014.
“If Russia doesn’t defend Ukraine, the next blow will be at Russia,” she wrote.
“(Ukraine) will not only fail to prosper in the European Union, but will suffer a deep crisis in many areas,” Samoylova added.
Williams famously came under fire in Russia in September 2016 when he released a song and a video called “Party like a Russian,” which immediately caused many to think it was about Putin.
The song has lyrics “it takes a certain kind of man with a certain reputation to alleviate the cash from a whole entire nation” and “ain’t no refutin’ or disputin’ – I’m a modern Rasputin.”
However Williams denied the song was about the Russia’s president.
“This song is definitely not about Mr. Putin,” he said on Twitter on Sep. 30.
