Russia first entered the Eurovision Song Contest
in 1994 in Dublin, and has come close to winning on three
occasions, finishing 3rd in 2003, and 2nd in 2000 and in 2006. Both
of Russia's runners-up were entries chosen internally by Russian
television, featuring songs performed in English, consequently it
is no surprise to see a similar method being used for the 2007
entry.
Just before the deadline for submitting entries
for Helsinki, Russian television went public on its choice of
performer and song to go to Helsinki. This year Russia will be
represented at the Eurovision Song Contest, by a brand new all
female trio Serebro (the Russian word for "silver", and
"Song #1".
Serebro were brought
together by the successful Russian songwriter and producer Max
Fadeev and consists of three young Russian singers; Elena Temnikova,
Olya Serebrinkya and Marina Lizorkina. The trio had just completed
work on their debut album, went Fadeev decided that they would be
the ideal act to represent Russia in Helsinki and submitted one of
their tracks to Russian television. Following an assessment by a
jury it was decided to send Serebro to Eurovision, once they had
demonstrated their ability to perform live. Once this was
completly successfully, the girls were on their way.
Serebro
is built around lead singer Elena Temnikova who was born on April
18th 1985 in the town of Kurgan in Russia and she first came to
public attention in 2002 when she took part in the national TV
music project "Star Academy" although her interest in
music goes back to piano lessons at the age of five.
Olya
Serebrinkya was born on the April 12th, 1985 in Moscow. At the age
of seven she began to study ballet and at 17 she started work on
becoming a master of sports. She took part in many international
competitions. Olga graduated the Art School, "estrada/pop
singing" department. In 2006 she got the higher education
diploma in Translation and Entrepreneurship. She likes to dance.
Completing the group is Moscovite Marina Lizorkina who's a new
comer to the music scene.
What the performers
may lack in experience, is certainly compensated by their manager
and the song's composer Maxim Fadeev. Maxim was born in Kurgan on
May 6th, 1968. At the age of five he entered the music school
attached to the Kurgan Academy of Music. When he was fifteen he
entered two departments of the Academy of Music at once - choral
conducting and piano and at seventeen he started writing songs.
Shortly after he was invited to join the Convoy band of the Youth
Recreation Center as the backing vocalist. The band was extremely
popular in Kurgan and while participating in the All-Soviet Union
young talent music festival his talent was noticed and he was
invited to Moscow.
In 1993, Maxim Fadeev
received a phone call from Fyodor Bondarchuk and he proposed to
have live audition with a girl who dreamt of a career in showbiz.
Her artistic name was Linda. Maxim's cooperation with Linda
continued from 1993 till 1999. This, the very first project
produced by Fadeev became extremely popular all over the country.
After that Max went to Germany where he began composing music for
films. Five soundtracks and project Oil Plant were the products of
his labor in Germany. In the end of 2002, General Director of
Channel One Russia invited Maxim Fadeev to take part in "Star
Academy2" as a producer. Shortly before that Maxim started
his another overwhelmingly successful project Glukoza. In 2004,
once again Maxim became one of the producers of "Star
Academy5".
Today Fadeev is one
of the major hit makers of the Russian popular music and works as
composer with different singers. At present Maxim is producing
such successful projects like Irakli, Narcis, Lena Kuraskaya
Glukoza and Yuliya Savicheva. Makim wrote Savicheva's 2004
Eurovision entry "Believe Me". Away from pop music he
also works a lot composing music for films.
Daniil
Babitchev is the lyricist on this year's Russian entry. Born July
5th, 1984 in Nyagan, Russia Daniil graduated from music school
where he took piano lessons. From the very early age he fell in
love with music. In the school years with a group of like-minded
friends created a band. In 1997 he took part in the making of a
musical program. Daniil has participated in various young talent
shows and won different prizes. In 2005 came to Moscow to
participate in the national TV music talent show "The Secret
of Success", where he successfully passed the casting stage
with a band called Nota Fraid. Daniil was involved in this year's
Russian entry after the invitation of Maxim Fadeev.
Since
being unveiled in March, the Russian entry has done very well on
internet polls and is rated among the favourites to finish in the
Top 10 in Helsinki, despite little promotion work by the group.
RUSSIA @ EUROVISION