Becoming the second singer to ever perform in a wheelchair at Eurovision; Julia Samoylova has been announced as the Russian act. She will perform her song “Flame Is Burning” on the Eurovision stage; which will be held at the International Exhibition Centre, in Kyiv. Ukraine.
With the deadline to announce Eurovision acts getting closer; Russia had us all worried that they were going to have to withdraw from the contest; instead, they presented Julia Samoylova with her song “Flame Is Burning”.
She has had television experience before, having been the runner-up in Faktor A, the Russian version of The X Factor, in season three. She also took part in the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Paralympics.
As for herself, she has been in a wheelchair since she was a child; losing function of her legs due to spinal muscular atrophy. She has wanted to do Eurovision since she was young; now she gets to grace the stage in all its glory come May 2017.
Watch Eurovision’s Julia Samoylova Perform “Flame Is Burning” Here:
Russia debuted in 1994; since then, they have only ever won the contest once, back in 2008 with Dima Bilan, who sang “Believe”, scoring 272 points. They have had a top three placing eight times out of the 21 times they’ve competed, and have had a 100% success rate in making it to the Grand Final. Julia Samoylova follows on from last year’s televote favourite Sergey Lazarev, who sang “You Are The Only One”; he came third overall scoring 491 points. The year before that, Polina Gagarina came second with “A Million Voices”, scoring 303 points. Can Julia Samoylova take it all the way, and be victorious?
To do so, she’ll have to beat all the other acts, who are: Cyprus’ Hovig, The Netherlands’ O’G3NE, Belgium’s Blanche, Macedonia’s Jana Burceska, Azerbaijan’s DiHaj, Ireland’s Brendan Murray, Austria’s Nathan Trent, Albania’s Lindita, Armenia’s Artsvik, Montenegro’s Slavko Kalezic, Greece’s Demy, Georgia’s Tako Gachechiladze, Belarus’ Navi, The United Kingdom’s Lucie Jones, Finland’s Norma John, Switzerland’s Timebelle, Germany’s Levina, France’s Alma, Spain’s Manel Navarro, Italy’s Francesco Gabbani, Israel’s Imri Ziv, Czech Republic’s Martina Bárta, Croatia’s Jacques Houdek, Malta’s Claudia Faniello, Poland’s Kasia Mos, Hungary’s Joci Pápai, Slovenia’s Omar Naber, Denmark’s Anja Nissen, Moldova’s SunStroke Project, Ukraine’s O.Torvald, Latvia’s Triana Park, Serbia’s Tijana Bogicevic, Estonia’s Koit Toome & Laura, Romania’s Ilinca feat. Alex Florea, Portugal’s Salvador Sobral, Australia’s Isaiah, Lithuania’s Fusedmarc, Norway’s Jowst, Iceland’s Svala, Sweden’s Robin Bengtsson, San Marino’s Valentina Monetta & Jimmie Wilson, and Bulgaria’s Kristian Kostov.
The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will be hosted at the International Exhibition Centre in Kyiv, Ukraine after Jamala won last year with “1944”. The semi-finals will take place on 9 May and 11 May, with the Grand Final taking place on 13 May 2017.