The Cali Garmo

This year Russia is in the first semi-final! Russia has had a historically good Eurovision run. Although they have wone only once in 2008, they have been top 3 six times in its 18 year history at Eurovision. Most have stated that political voting has helped Russia get to the top 3 spots more times than they deserve, but their previous singers have been fairly good and very exciting to watch, especially my all time favourite of Buranovskiye Babushki singing Party for Everbody in 2012.

This year they're sending Polina Gagarina to sing A Million Voices in the hopes of bringing the competition back to Russia. Polina is not only a singer, but also an actress, model, and songwriter although she did not help write this year's song. Her voice though is fairly recognized in Russia. She was the winner of Star Factory in 2003 and has also released 2 studio albums. Let's see what her song sounds like.

The song itself is an amazing song and her vocals are phenomenal. The only major problem I saw with the video was that it was very... white. I wish there was a little more colour and diversity in her video and it would have been great to see non-stereotypical couples, although considering Russia's ban on anything socially progressive, she might not have had a choice in the matter. The song was nice to listen to in the music video, but we will see how it turns out on stage. It seems like her vocals were helped slightly in order to hit some of the more powerful notes, so we'll see what her voice sounds like live.

Click here to view Polina's participant profile at Eurovision.tv