Last weekend, the name of the finalist who won the Ukrainian preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 became known. The latest news that Ukraine will be represented by Jamal with the song "1944" about the deportation of Tatars during the Great Patriotic War from Crimea has been hotly debated on the Internet for several days already.
Many are sure that the song is a kind of political manifesto, and, therefore, the performer of the provocative composition should be disqualified according to the rules of the international competition. It turns out that the political ambitions of one of the members of the jury played a role in the finals of the qualifying competition.
The day after the victory in the Ukrainian project was awarded to Jamal, producer Konstantin Meladze gave an interview to journalists. The popular composer noted that until the finale everything went honestly and openly, but during the decisive intervention the politician intervened:
Some moments in the voting were completely unexpected, and this can be called my little producer failure.
Shortly before the finale on the Internet started a real baiting of the leader of the SunSay group. The fact that the team is known not only in Ukraine, but also popular in Russia, where she recently performed. The leader of the group believes that music should be out of politics. The position of the musician was met by some Ukrainians with hostility.
The team was the favorite, and in the second semifinal scored the same number of votes as Jamal, so under equal conditions the last word was left for the audience. In fact, the jury deliberately underestimated the scores for the performance of SunSay, which allowed Jamala to become a winner. Ukrainian singer Ruslana, known for her patriotism since the first Maidan, was a member of the jury along with Konstantin Meladze and Andrei Danilko. For the performance of the group SunSay the singer put the lowest ball - one, while Meladze rated the number for six, and Danilko - for the top three.
Konstantin Meladze noted that Ruslana in this case was not guided by professionalism:
This was a clear civil position of Ruslana. It's another matter that my position as a music producer and the opinion of a public figure do not quite match. Ruslana and I are looking at several different positions ...