JESC: Lerika for Russia!
- Written by Louis
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Lerika has won the national final in Russia. With a percentage of 12,34, Lerika held off Dayana Kirillova by 3,30%.
The national final was held at the Akademicheskiy in Moscow, the same venue that hosted the national final where Buranovskiye Babushki were selected for Baku in March. The ladies opened the show together with the contestants, after placing 2nd behind Loreen just last week.
Thanks to the fortunate scheduling time being 14:00 CET, the contest was broadcast live in all 9 Russian timezones and throughout Europe via RTR Planeta. Many regions of Russia were represented in the contest itself with several contestants from the Caucasus and Siberia. Part of the interval act was a performance by the representatives of Russia & Sweden last year, Erik Rapp & Katya Ryabova, singing a billingual duet called "Chemistry".
Lerika, real name Valeriya Engalycheva, has both Moldovan and Russian citizenship and is therefore allowed to represent either country. She represented Moldova in Yerevan last year with the song "No, No" reaching a satisfying 6th place with 78 points. With the victory in Russia in hand, she becomes the first contestant to represent 2 countries in Junior Eurovision, in 3 languages. It is not perculiar for participants with dual citizenship to try in both potential countries. Luara Hayrapetyan, Armenian representative in 2009, lost out in the Russian preselections before succeeding in Armenia.
The final outcome was decided by a professional jury and televoting, and afterwards distributed in percentages. Russia has participated since 2005 and in the previous year was the first country to send a returnee, making Lerika the 7th act to represent the successful jESC country. Full results as followed:
"Sorvantsy" - 8,12Lyoma Nal'giyeva - 8,57 Aleksandra Boldareva - 5,88 "Akademija Volshebnikov" - 2,72 Ivan Pomarkov - 8,35 Alisa Sementina - 3,64 Lerika - 12,34 Vladlena Bogdanova - 3,17 Renata - 4,19 Ivan Smidovich - 2,96 "Tonika" - 3,85 Elizaveta Shorohova - 1,94 Bon Su Yon - 3,22 Evgeniy Shkunov - 2,59 "Delfin" - 7,23 Vasilisa Matveyeva - 5,58 Dayana Kirillova - 9,04 Alina Morozova - 2,86 Christina Kulesh - 2,37 Aleksey Myshkaryov - 1,38