Russia–Ukraine relations in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Russia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, a pan-European music competition, from 1994 to 2021, while Ukraine has participated since 2003. Russia and Ukraine had positive relations for several years, and have exchanged top-3 points with each other several times over the years. Barring a minor dispute over Ukraine's 2007 entry "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" (whose title was alleged to be a mondegreen of "Russia goodbye", but was defended by its performer as being meaningless), notable conflicts began to emerge between the two countries at Eurovision in the wake of Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
In 2016, Ukraine's entry was "1944", a song by Jamala that was inspired by her great-grandmother's experiences during the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union. The song was criticised by Russian officials, who argued that it violated Eurovision rules against political content due to its allusions to the Crimean crisis. "1944" would ultimately win the contest. While there were calls for Russia to boycott the Ukraine-hosted 2017 contest over the ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russia did unveil an entrant—Yuliya Samoylova. However, after she was unveiled, it was reported that Samoylova had been banned from entering Ukraine for three years for violating a Ukrainian ban on direct travel to Crimea from Russia. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) attempted to reconcile the issues so that Samoylova could perform, calling upon the Ukrainian government to remove or defer her travel ban for the contest, and offering Russia the opportunity to perform their song from a remote venue. However, Russia's delegate broadcaster, Channel One Russia, passed on the offer, wanting to have Samoylova perform in Kyiv as with all other entrants. On 13 April 2017, Channel One announced that it would not broadcast the contest, effectively withdrawing.
Ukraine withdrew from the 2019 contest, after the winner of its national selection Maruv as well as the runners-up all refused to sign the participation contract, which required them to refrain from touring in Russia for a period of time. It was the first time since 2015 that Ukraine was absent from the contest.
Prior to the 2022 contest, controversy again emerged in the Ukrainian national selection, resulting in its winner Alina Pash, who was alleged to have travelled to Crimea in violation of Ukrainian laws, replaced by runner-up Kalush Orchestra as the Ukrainian entrant. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent protests from other participating countries, Russia was excluded from participating in the contest, where Ukraine went on to win. As a result, Ukraine was initially given the opportunity to host the 2023 contest, however, the EBU later decided that the country would not be able to host due to security concerns caused by the Russian invasion, with the United Kingdom, which had finished in second place in 2022, being chosen to host on Ukraine's behalf.