"Russian Woman" (transliterated into

Russian Cyrillic The Russian alphabet (, or , more traditionally) is the script used to write the Russian language. The modern Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters: twenty consonants (, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ), ten vowels (, , , , , , , , , ), ...

as , stylised in

all caps In typography, text or font in all caps (short for "all capitals") contains capital letters without any lowercase letters. For example: All-caps text can be seen in legal documents, advertisements, newspaper headlines, and the titles on book co ...

), originally titled "Russkaya zhenshchina" (), is a song by Russian-Tajik singer Manizha, independently released as a

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

on 19 March 2021. The song represented Russia in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's win at the with the song "Arcade (song), Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. The Netherlands was se ...

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, the Netherlands, after winning the national final '' Evrovidenie 2021 – Nacionalniy Otbor''. To date, this is the last Russian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, after the country .

Background

Controversy

Many Russian viewers took offense to a singer of Tajik descent singing about Russian women and to the singer's activism for

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

and

women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...

, and left hate comments on the video and her

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account, demanding that she drop out of Eurovision.

Yelena Drapeko Yelena Grigoryevna Drapeko (; born 29 October 1948) is a Russian theatre and film actress. She has appeared in more than 30 films and television shows since 1972. She is also a member of the State Duma since 2000. Career On 19 December 1999 ...

, First Deputy Chairman of the

State Duma The State Duma is the lower house of the Federal Assembly (Russia), Federal Assembly of Russia, with the upper house being the Federation Council (Russia), Federation Council. It was established by the Constitution of Russia, Constitution of t ...

Committee on Culture, suggested banning Manizha from performing in Eurovision under the Russian flag, commenting also that Eurovision offered no cultural value and was too politicized and pro-LGBT.

Eurovision Song Contest

The song was selected to represent Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, after Manizha was selected through ''Evrovidenie 2021 – Nacionalniy Otbor''. The semi-finals of the 2021 contest featured the same line-up of countries as determined by the draw for the 2020 contest's semi-finals. Russia was placed into the first semi-final, held on 18 May 2021, and passed into finals. The final was held on 22 May 2021, and the song got 9th place with 204 points.

Charts

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2020 songs 2021 singles Songs in Russian Eurovision songs of 2021 Eurovision songs of Russia Songs with feminist themes Songs written by Ori Kaplan