Russia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 23 times from its debut in to . Russia won the contest with Dima Bilan performing the song "Believe". In , the country failed to qualify for the final for the first and the only time in its history. The Russian entry was chosen through both internal selections and a televised national final titled Evrovidenie.
Following their exclusion from the due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 26 February 2022, the Russian broadcasters RTR and Channel One announced that they would suspend their membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EBU made the suspension effective on 26 May 2022, preventing Russia from participating in further Eurovision events unless its membership is resumed.
Contest history
Russia debuted in the contest after becoming a member of the EBU. Russia won their first and so far only contest in 2008, when Dima Bilan, participating for the second time in the contest, won with the song "Believe", bringing the contest to Russia for 2009. Russia came second at four contests; in with the song "Solo" performed by Alsou, in with Dima Bilan's song "Never Let You Go", in with the song "Party for Everybody" performed by Buranovskiye Babushki, and in with Polina Gagarina's song "A Million Voices". They also achieved four third-place finishes; in with t.A.T.u's song "Ne ver', ne boysia", Serebro in with their entry "Song #1", and in as well as with Sergey Lazarev's entries "You Are the Only One" and "Scream" respectively.
Russia has failed to qualify for the final on two occasions. In 1996, Russia's entry was Andrey Kosinsky with the song "Ya eto ya", but he scored an insufficient number of points in a special qualifying round, while in 2018 Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song "I Won't Break", failed to qualify from the televised second semi-final.
In 1998, because Russia did not participate in the contest (due to lower average scores in participating in previous competitions), Russia refused to broadcast the competition and the European Broadcasting Union in return forbade the country to participate the following year. According to unconfirmed information, Russia intended to send Tatyana Ovsienko with the song "Solntse moyo" (My Sun), which turned out to be a false rumour as the song was officially released in mid-1997 on Tatyana's album "Za Rozovym morem". Tatyana herself, during an interview, said that she did not go to Eurovision because she was "Either afraid or not very sure, besides, I knew that there were stronger guys and girls, and I thought that I would still have time [to go to Eurovision]."
Russia was the most successful country in Eurovision between 2000 and 2009, with one win, two-second places, and two third places. However, in 2010 they finished 11th, and in 2011 they were 16th, which was the worst placing for Russia since 1995. Interest in the competition fell, but in 2012, Buranovskiye Babushki finished in second place, increasing Russia's interest in the show. Sergey Lazarev holds the record of the highest score of any Russian contestant, who finished third in 2016 with 491 points.
In February 2019, Sergey Lazarev was once again confirmed as the Russian representative for the 2019 contest, becoming the second returning artist in Russia's Eurovision history after Dima Bilan, who participated in 2006 and 2008 respectively. This time he represented his country with the song "Scream", with which he brought Russia back to the final for the first time since 2016 and achieved the country's 10th top 5 result, by finishing third once again.
For the 2021 contest, Russia opted to return to a national selection, after Little Big declined to return following their intended participation in the later-cancelled 2020 contest with "Uno". "Russian Woman" performed by Manizha emerged as the winner of the selection, which then went on to finish in 9th place in the final.
Russia had originally planned to participate in the contest, but was excluded from participating by the EBU due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In response, the Russian broadcasters VGTRK and Channel One announced their intention to suspend their membership in the EBU.
|-
|2004–2021
|Yuri Aksyuta
|
|-
|RTR
|2008–2019
|Ekaterina Orlova
|
|}
Commentators and spokespersons
The contest was also aired on radio stations and alternative channels, including , commentated by Olesya Trifonova, in 1995. From 2008 until their suspension, Channel One and Russia-1 switched roles to broadcast the contest.
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Channel
! scope="col" | Commentator
! scope="col" | Spokesperson
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |
|-
!scope="row"|
|rowspan="6"|Programme One
|rowspan="3"
|rowspan="8"
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
| Grigory Shestakov
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|rowspan="2"
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|rowspan="3"|RTR
|rowspan="2"
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|
|Irina Klenskaya
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|ORT
|Olesya Trifonova
|Marina Danielyan
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|colspan="2"
|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|ORT
|Philipp Kirkorov, Sergey Antipov
|Arina Sharapova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|colspan="2"
|rowspan="3"
|
|-
!scope="row" rowspan="2" |
|ORT
| Olga Maksimova and Kolya MacCleod
|
|-
| Jewish Channel
|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|rowspan="3"|ORT
| Tatyana Godunova, Aleksey Zhuravlev
|Zhanna Agalakova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|,
|Larisa Verbitskaya
|
|-
!scope="row"|
| rowspan="4" |,
|Arina Sharapova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One
| rowspan="5" |Yana Churikova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One <small>(Final)</small><br/>
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|rowspan="3"|Channel One
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Yuri Aksyuta, Tatyana Godunova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Yuri Aksyuta, Yelena Batinova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Telekanal Rossiya,
|Dmitry Guberniev,
|Oxana Fedorova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One
|Yana Churikova <small>(All shows)</small><br/> Aleksey Manuylov <small>(Semi-finals)</small><br/> Philipp Kirkorov <small>(Final)</small>
|Ingeborga Dapkūnaitė
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Russia-1
|Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest
|Oxana Fedorova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One
|Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova<br/>
|Dima Bilan
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Russia-1
|Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest
|Oxana Fedorova
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One
|Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova
|rowspan="2"|Alsou
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Russia-1
|Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One
|Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova
|Dmitry Shepelev
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Russia-1, Russia HD
|Dmitry Guberniev, Ernest Mackevičius
|Nyusha
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|colspan="2"
|
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Channel One
|Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova
|Alsou
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Russia 1, Russia HD
|Dmitry Guberniev, Olga Shelest
|Ivan Bessonov
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|colspan="3"
|
|-
!scope="row"|
| Channel One
|Yuri Aksyuta, Yana Churikova
|Polina Gagarina
|
|-
!scope="row"|–
|colspan="2"
|
|
|}
Costume designers
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
!Year
!Costume designers
!
|-
!scope="row"|
|Pavel Kaplevich
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Maria Grachvogel
|
|-
!scope="row"|
|Valentin Yudashkin
|
|-
|}
Viewing figures
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Region(s)
! scope="col" | Share
! scope="col" | Rating
! scope="col" | Ref.
|-
| 1997
| All of Russia
| 53.8%
|
|
|-
| 2001
| All of Russia
| 31.1%
| 5.5%
|
|-
| 2004
| All of Russia
| 51.6%
| 16.1%
|
|-
| 2008
| All of Russia
| 47%
| 8.4%
|
|-
| 2013
| All of Russia
| 32.5%
| 6%
|
|-
| 2014
| All of Russia
| 31.5%
| 5.2%
|
|-
| 2016
| All of Russia
| 37%
| 6.8%
|
|-
| 2021
| All of Russia
| 23.1%
| 3.8%
|
|}
Awards
Marcel Bezençon Awards
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="font-size: 95%"
|-
!Year
!Category
!Song
!Performer
!style="width:45px;"|Final
!style="width:45px;"|Points
!Host city
!
|-
!scope="row"|
|Press Award
|"You Are the Only One"
|Sergey Lazarev
|style="text-align:center;"|3
|style="text-align:center;"|491
| Stockholm
|style="text-align:center"|
|}
Barbara Dex Award
{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="font-size:95%;"
!Year
!Performer
!Host city
!
|-
!scope="row"|
|t.A.T.u.
| Riga
|style="text-align:center"|
|}
Photo gallery
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Julia Savicheva - Russia 2004.jpg|Julia Savicheva in Istanbul ()
File:ESC 2007 Russia - Serebro - Song No 1.jpg|Serebro in Helsinki ()
File:Russia in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest.jpg|Dima Bilan in Belgrade ()
File:Anastasiya Prykhodko.jpg|Anastasia Prikhodko in Moscow ()
File:Peter Nalitch Band 01.JPG|Peter Nalitch and Friends in Oslo ()
File:Russia at ESC 2011.jpg|Alex Vorobyov in Düsseldorf ()
File:ESC2013 - Russia 06.jpg|Dina Garipova in Malmö ()
File:ESC2014 - Russia 15.jpg|Tolmachevy Sisters in Copenhagen ()
File:20150515 ESC 2015 Polina Gagarina 7754.jpg|Polina Gagarina in Vienna ()
File:ESC2016 - Russia 07 (cropped).jpg|Sergey Lazarev in Stockholm ()
File:ESC2018 - Russia 01.jpg|Julia Samoylova in Lisbon ()
File:ESC2019 - Russia 06.jpg|Sergey Lazarev in Tel Aviv ()
File:ESC 2021 Rotterdam 1st Semi Jury Show Russia.jpg|Manizha in Rotterdam ()
</gallery>
See also
- Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
- Russia in the Intervision Song Contest – A competition formerly organized by the International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT) from 1965 to 1980, and revived in 2025.
- Russia–Ukraine relations in the Eurovision Song Contest – Relations between the two countries in the Junior and Senior Eurovision Song Contests.