Yulia Samoilova represents Russia at Eurovision 2020, which will be held in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. During her life, the girl went through many trials to get to the place where she is now.
Clutch will tell you all the most interesting details from the personal life of Yulia Samoilova and about her path.
Yulia Samoilova
Childhood
Yulia Samoilova was born on April 7, 1989 in the city of Ukhta, Komi Republic. During the times of the Soviet Union, people from all over Russia came to this region to work, and for the same reason, the parents of the future singer, Oleg and Margarita Samoilov, ended up there.
To support the family, his father worked as an assembler and later as a miner, and his mother tried many different professions in the service sector, including a hairdresser and a waiter.
Yulia Samoilova in childhood
The future singer spent her childhood and teenage years in Ukhta. Together with Yulia, two children grew up in the family - son Evgeniy and daughter Oksana.
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Interestingly, the singer is also the paternal cousin of the Russian rapper Dzhigan’s wife, Oksana Samoilova.
Eurovision 2018: MELOVIN created its own fragrance for the competition
Disease
In early childhood, Yulia was a healthy child, but suddenly she began to melt before our eyes and could not walk. Initially, the reason was unclear, and therefore the girl was treated for everything, making false diagnoses one after another.
According to the artist herself, an exacerbation of her hereditary disease could have resulted from an unsuccessful vaccination against polio, but experts deny such a connection.
Yulia Samoilova in childhood
There were visits to doctors, and later the family turned to healers and healers. The therapy did not give the expected results, because Samoilova only got worse. Doctors said that she would die and would not live to see 5 years. Soon the parents accepted the situation, refused treatment and supported their daughter’s condition with manual therapy and massage sessions.
By the age of 13, the girl received the final terrible diagnosis - “Werdnig-Hoffmann spinal amyotrophy.” Yulia was given the first disability group.
Eurovision 2018: where and when to watch the first semi-final
Of course we're out of luck
In Portugal, our team worked creatively, it is clear that everyone tried to perform successfully. Although the number was initially not very winning.
Yulia Samoilova sang a sincere, piercing, soulful song. With this, you need to be close to your audience, adding warmth, a friendly tone, and a desire to exchange warmth. For example, if Yulia was sitting next to a lamp under a green lampshade, in a cozy atmosphere of meeting old and sincere interlocutors, eye to eye with them? It would be much warmer! The proposal for such a video is conditional; our readers would probably suggest many other options for such a strong song.
The director of the performance, Alexey Golubev, said that erecting this three-meter structure on stage, symbolizing a mountain, is a separate, not simple story. Everything had to be done very quickly - in 30 seconds.
Everyone made it in the semi-finals. But imagine how difficult it is for any person to manage to be at the top of this structure in half a minute, and catch his breath, and get into character and start singing without losing his breath? So, not everything worked out for Yulia at the beginning of the issue. And any artist will tell you that he likes to sing while looking into the audience, feeding off the energy from the audience. And singing for them from above is more difficult: there is no contact with the audience.
In addition, the dancers were actually between Julia and the audience. Remember the other performances of the contestants - nowhere did the dancers separate the artist and the audience, but were a spectacular background, a train of the contestant. The chaotic nature and vanity of many choreographic decisions was also undeniable. Whether the dance symbolized overcoming or struggle remained unclear to many, which is what journalists wrote about in the first place. And the bookmakers put Julia either in the offensive 26th or 27th place. Never before have experts promised Russian participants such a low result! Of course, Yulia Samoilova is not to blame for this. And that’s why it was especially painful to see her tears after the result was announced.
Youth
At school, she endured ridicule from her peers, which helped strengthen her character: the girl learned to take a blow and solved her problems on her own. Parents who did not treat their daughter as disabled, and music lessons also helped with this.
Yulia Samoilova with her parents
Samoilova graduated from five classes of a regular high school, after which, due to an illness, she was transferred to home schooling.
“I had a very good teacher. She herself has a child in a stroller, although everything is more complicated for him than for me, and he could not go to school. She became like a third grandmother to me and helped me with everything. So I finished my studies up to the fifth grade, but then I had to switch to home schooling, because I couldn’t run from office to office across the floors,” Samoilova recalled.
Yulia Samoilova with her mother
Having received secondary education, the artist decided to enter St. Petersburg State University, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Therefore, Yulia began studying at the Ukhta branch of the Modern Humanitarian Academy (SHA) with a degree in psychology, but did not graduate.
“I finally realized that all this was nonsense at the moment when we had a teleconference with teachers from Moscow. They ask us questions, but we remain silent - we don’t know anything. One question, second, fifth. The teachers were silent, and then they said this: “Yeah. Well, okay, let’s just talk then, what are you doing anyway?” I was terribly ashamed. I dropped out. As a result, only a couple of people completed their diploma, and my favorite psychology teacher left the SGA,” the girl said in an interview earlier.
Alexander Rybak spoke about the representative of Ukraine at Eurovision 2018
There could be even more fans
At Eurovision, a lot is decided not only by the professionalism of the artist, but also by the sympathies of the viewers. And helping to fight for them is not only the business of the contestant, but also his team. After all, this competition is specific: each participant has the right to vote only in those countries that also got into the same semi-final with him. And let's be fair: we were unlucky with the draw.
Together with us, Ukraine, Poland, Georgia were included in the same group, and Great Britain was added from the “Big Five” countries. Considering the political situation, it is difficult to imagine that yesterday any of them voted for us in a friendly manner. And of the countries that made it to our semi-finals, we could count with a little more confidence only on the support of TV viewers in Serbia, Slovenia and Hungary.
But we ourselves could expand the “geography of sympathy” for Samoilova. And Yulia would have made more friends in different countries, where they would then also vote for her in the semi-finals. Even forgiving mistakes.
This is why promotional tours exist. In 2016, Sergei Lazarev actively traveled around Europe: he sang, communicated, and recruited new fans in advance, who eventually voted for him. Let us remind you that then, according to the vote of the “spectator jury”, our singer ended up in 1st place. And only the “professional jury” moved him to 3rd place. This year Russia did not have a promotional tour, and Yulia Samoilova was promoted in Europe only by her video I Won't Break.
The video was made simply, artlessly, without any original directorial or design solutions. Too artless, as they say, “in the forehead.” Here is Yulia singing from the front, here in profile, there is a lot of light around. Even an excellent student with a normal computer could make such a video. In terms of the number of views on YouTube, the clip was inferior to many rivals.
Latvian journalists told us that Julia herself, in an interview for them (and in Latvia many were interested in Samoilova and were rooting for her), said that she didn’t really like the clip either. Of course, the situation could have been improved in April: make new promos, come to Eurovision pre-parties in other countries, come up with other forms of promoting the artist, while Yulia herself was rehearsing in Moscow.
It was also not comforting that for the first time, only participants from three countries arrived at the Russian Eurovision pre-party in Moscow on April 7: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Moldova. Were the others called? Maybe it was worth holding the party later and persuading someone else to come? As a result, before the competition Samoilova was known from a not very creative video. Which also led to the fact that we did not get the European votes to reach the final.
Music
Even in early childhood, Samoilova was discovered to have good vocal abilities. Initially, she studied singing with her mother. The artist clearly remembers her first performance, which took place at a New Year's party. Sitting on Father Frost's lap, 4-year-old Yulia sang Tatyana Bulanova's song Don't Cry. She amazed those present with her performance and received the largest doll from Santa Claus.
Yulia Samoilova at the festival with her mother
At the age of 10, she performed at a charity concert in her hometown with the song Small Country by Russian composer Igor Nikolaev, after which she was invited to study music at a professional level at the local Palace of Pioneers together with a talented teacher, Svetlana Valerievna Shirokova.
After this, Julia began to often take part in various music competitions, constantly adding to her collection of victories. It all started in 2002, when she took first place in the regional Silver Hoof competition - 2002 in the city of Inta, Komi Republic. Then in 2003 she became a laureate of the All-Russian festival On the Wings of Dreams in Moscow and took second place in the Silver Hoof competition - 2003. Two more years later, the rising star received the audience award and first place in the open interregional competition Spring Drops and second place in the All-Russian competition Shlyager – 2005 in Yekaterinburg. In 2006 she became a laureate of the International Competition Windrose Festival in Hurghada, Egypt.
Yulia Samoilova at the festival in her youth
After some time, Samoilova became seriously interested in heavy alternative music. In 2008, she founded the group TerraNova, which disbanded in 2010. The girl decided to perform solo and got a job as a singer in a restaurant. It was her voice that helped the establishment gain unprecedented popularity: tables began to be booked several months in advance, just to enjoy the vocals of the young performer. The repertoire included completely different compositions - from songs by Vladimir Vysotsky to chansons by Mikhail Krug. However, Julia wanted to go further. Many openly told the girl that she would not be able to build a career in show business, which is why she decided to stop singing.
Yulia Samoilova with her mother
Soon Samoilova decided to move to St. Petersburg and enter the local university to major in advertising and public relations, which again did not work out. Returning to Ukhta, Samoilova and her lover opened an advertising agency and continued to feel emptiness deep inside - she missed singing so much.
When she received the Grand Prix at a competition in her hometown, which was reminiscent of the popular Star Factory, she realized that there was no need to fight herself.
Eurovision 2018: the official soundtrack of the competition has been chosen
Factor a
An important turn in Yulia’s life was the finale of the third season of the Russian project Factor A by singer Alla Pugacheva on the Russia 1 TV channel. The girl impressed the selection committee and easily passed the casting. Samoilova sang the song Prayer, before which she received instructions from Alla Pugacheva. The prima donna said that Julia should “sing wow, so as not to attract pity.” In the middle of the song, judges Yuri Nikolaev, Lolita and Roman Emelyanov stood up and began to applaud.
Watch Yulia Samoilova’s performance on the Factor A project:
Speaking about the Factor A project, Samoilova recalled:
“We lived in a hotel right next to the studio. Every Thursday we had filming. We came to the studio around 10 am, and left somewhere around 2-3 am, it happened. Everyone was tired, and if there hadn’t been so much time in which you were busy with God knows what before the concert, then we probably would have performed better.”
This competition became a powerful impetus for the singer’s further career. She took second place, losing to her competitor Mali, and most importantly, she received Alla Pugacheva’s Alla Golden Star award.
Samoilova decided to move to Moscow, where she continued her active creative work. In 2014, two songs Light and New Day were recorded. In addition, the artist sang in a duet with Gosha Kutsenko his original song called Comet.
Watch the video clip for the song by Gosha Kutsenko and Yulia Samoilova Don’t look back:
In 2014, the singer was invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi.
Watch Yulia's performance at the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi:
At the end of 2020, Samoilova participated in the recording of the song and video #LIVE together with Polina Gagarina, Grigory Leps and Timati.
Watch the video clip for the song #LIVE with the participation of Russian artists:
Yulia Samoilova about the failure at Eurovision: “Horror, nightmare, very scary”
Follow our material: Eurovision 2018: online broadcast of the final, voting results
There is probably something symbolic in this. Having quarreled, apparently for a long time, with old Europe over almost the entire political and civilizational agenda of our time, Russia, even at the “housewife” level of the notorious Eurovision Song Contest, almost managed to stand out so sophisticatedly as to be left alone here, although undoubtedly very proud. If, of course, it weren’t for our native China. Literally the night after the second semi-final, when we loudly mourned the failure of Yulia Samoilova, lightning struck the night air, eclipsing all other scandals - the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) terminated the contract with China.
The Celestial Empire, however, made a fine. Having succumbed to the general excitement, I decided to show Eurovision, but I didn’t calculate the spiritual bonds. And there it is! An Irishman with a gay song, boys dancing, rainbow flags. The Irishman and the boys were slaughtered, the flags were blurred. And voila. There will be no more Eurovision in China. I already foresee how lovers and admirers of the “Chinese model” will now scream about who we need to follow as an example. And then they moved the gays only for an hour and a half on the night... Disgrace!
In general, we are no longer very far from such a castling, however, for now we preferred to maintain a more or less good, albeit very sour face, despite the bad play. Bad in the sense that for the first time since 2004, Russia did not qualify for the Eurovision final, when this system of semi-finals was introduced - due to the dramatic expansion of the competition by new participating countries, mainly Eastern European ones. Quite a scandal and a painful slap in the face! Especially when you consider that in the list of “record holders” who always made it to the finals, there are now only two countries left - Australia, which is only participating in the competition for the fourth time and has not yet managed to acquire a serious “portfolio”, and - fanfare! - Ukraine. No comment…
In the official commentary of the Russian delegation, a certain unpredictable “roulette” was only rather restrainedly mentioned, which, however, “is controlled by someone,” but who is unknown... No, there is an incredible number of countries that are not just about to win, but even before we almost didn’t reach the finals. For years and even decades. One unfortunate Great Britain, never needed by anyone during voting, what is it worth! But the problem is that these countries - either stupid or naive - never look for “obvious conspiracies”, especially at Eurovision, do not heroically resist “defamation” and in general are somehow relaxed and completely unserious about such a responsible an event when “the whole country”, “the honor of the state” is behind you, la-la and other poplars... Slobs, in a word.
It would be nice if the authors of the idea of delegating Yulia Samoilova to Eurovision really pursued the noble goal of attracting special attention to the problems of people with disabilities through a creative competition, and showed an example of solving these problems in their own country (at least during the turbulent year that passions raged around the singer ), and would carry this noble message to all enlightened Europe...
But, when at every station of the Lisbon metro, even the oldest one from the middle of the last century, you see two or three, or even all four elevators for PUBLIC use, accessible not only to the disabled, but in general to everyone who is too lazy or unbearable to hobble up the stairs - escalators (for example, with heavy bags or suitcases), then questions arise about the sincerity of the intentions of the authors of the Russian “inclusive” European spring special project.
However, these questions arose, of course, long before the tour of the Lisbon metro elevators. They arose from the moment when a year ago Russia and Ukraine clashed in an irreconcilable clinch over Samoilova’s “Crimean dossier.” “The competition is unusual and our artist is unusual,” insiders admitted then in private revelations...
But “we only dream of peace,” as the song sang. The competition, having moved to Lisbon, has now become more than ordinary, no matter how you look at it. And what is coming from Russia? “Yulia Samoilova’s performance was unsuccessful. Once she entered a verse at the wrong time and was off key at the end of the song. The reason was supposedly faulty ear monitors - Julia, most likely, did not hear herself in them - only the musical accompaniment. Whether the headphones broke by accident, or whether it was a PURPOSE DIVERSION, is now unlikely to be established,” I read in the very first dispatch from the Mother See. Another, third: “supposedly”, “sabotage”, “provocations”, “freak competition”... In general, the song is good, start over...
At the same time, even the artist herself is not aware of the “broken headphones.” And they, our vigilant ones, saw and heard from such a distance. Wow! The saddest outcome of this story will be if an artist’s banal and quite common failure at any competition results in yet another extravagant hysteria in Russia and pumping oneself up with universal anger and already habitual hatred of everything around.
But everything is very simple. Yulia Samoilova performed unsuccessfully. DOT. Despite the fact that the level of participants and the quality of songs this year are rated quite highly by experts, this gives the competition a tense and unpredictable character.
The song, choreography, and staging of the I Won't Break number could not add credibility to the artist herself, who initially, a year ago, was not tasked with impressing everyone with her inimitable skill and professionalism. And in the year that has passed since Yulia’s European mandate was “automatically” extended, these qualities, unfortunately, have not increased in her.
It looks like no one was even doing this. The idea with the stroller, if it did not lose its meaning under “normal” conditions, should have been supported then by the impeccable quality of the performance. It may not have been an easy task. Perhaps not feasible at all. But... Remarks in the press center about Samoilova’s performance by some observers, absolutely impartial people, sounded more than restrained: “It was, perhaps, the longest three minutes at the competition.”
If we draw literary analogies, we will apparently have to admit that in this situation Russia acted as Gogol’s non-commissioned officer’s widow, who flogged herself...
***
But how Kirkorov rejoiced! No, of course, he spoke very heartfeltly and compassionately at the press conference of the winners of the second semi-final about Yulia Samoilova. “I’m very sad,” he said, “She’s wonderful, she has a difficult fate. Julia, you are brave and strong.” He reminded the European Assembly several times that he is “Russian”, “from Russia”, “proud of this”, as well as the fact that as part of his international “Dream Team” Moldova, also “a beautiful country with a great culture”.
And the sun-faced one’s jubilation was associated with the breakthrough of the DoReDos group to the finals, so successfully “cut” by Kirkorov at the “New Wave” competition last fall. In the morning, they say, Philip was very nervous. The day before, in the first semi-final, just like Samoilova yesterday, his other project failed miserably - the Aysel number from Azerbaijan. And the projects of Kirkorov and his large Greek “family,” it must be understood, are not cheap. Customers are not simple... In general, he went to this second semi-final as if to the slaughter. Moreover, the bookmakers were not encouraging.
But the groovy Moldovans lit it up so that even the dead jumped out of their graves in the nearest cemetery. Already from the applause of the audience it was clear that DoReDos’ chances were very bright. Philip beamed at the press conference of the winners, and in the words of the presenter: “This is the very gentleman you need to contact if you want to become a star at Eurovision,” he simply floated like a fat Portuguese pudding.
And in fact, the failure of Russia is very beneficial for Kirkorov. Just like the failures of all other post-Soviet countries that did not make it to the finals: Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Latvia, Azerbaijan. Because the neighbor's vote, despite all the squeals and squeals, no one was able to cancel. And to whom will they, having gone wild in the finale, all give their enthusiastic fan votes? But - WHO!
There are, however, a few unpleasant splinters on FiKi’s bright path to European happiness. Norwegian-Belarusian Alexander Rybak hung like an annoying weight on his feet with his irrepressible ambition to win the Eurosong for the second time. After all, he is also loved and honored as one of their own in the same Kirkorov clearing...
From this perspective, the Ukrainian envoy Melovin also poses a lesser, but still also a threat. Smaller in the sense that the devoted army of melovinator fans has multiplied powerfully so far only in Ukraine, but with an impressive song and the infernal-fiery number Under The Ladder, the artist made a very serious bid for high places. Kirkorov himself, despite his long-banned status in Ukraine, still counts on the votes of his orphaned fans in Square and, apparently, that’s why he literally showered Melovin with public signs of attention, doing everything to make them noticed.
photo: Artur Gasparyan
Debriefing of the Russian delegation after the “failed” semi-final. We cried, wiped away our tears and decided that life would go on.
We should also not discount Estonia, whose “Diva Plavalaguna” Elina Nechaeva is good in its own right, and her Russian origin may become an additional incentive for voting in the eastern, so to speak, sector. In general, it’s a lot of nerves for Kirkorov...
Participants from Sweden (Benjamin Ingrosso), Serbia (Sanja Ilic & Balkanika), Denmark (Rasmussen), the Netherlands (Waylon), Australia (Jessica Mauboy), Slovenia (Lea Sirk) who also passed the second semi-final were well within the framework of the notorious European format, but even the full breadth of these frameworks was crushed by the heavy metal Hungarians AWS. Why this group even got into Eurosong remains a big mystery. They are not at all the Finns Lordi, who amused everyone in 2006 with a daring monster show. They are just an average metal band, of which there are a dime a dozen in Hungary. They say that the guys were just kidding, dragging themselves to the national selection with their metal fig in their pocket, and since the Hungarians are a nation with outstanding rock traditions, the whole people voted for it.
Now Eurovision has also voted, at least in the semi-finals - most likely, some kind of protest vote of the most advanced housewives, their girlfriends and boyfriends. However, regardless of what fate befalls AWS in the final on May 12 - or perhaps none - they snatched their piece of musical happiness by receiving an invitation to the largest European metal festival Wacken Open Air in Germany right during Eurovision. When else would they have known about these Hungarians if not for the “housewife” Eurosong?! Such musical perversions have already started, Conchita Wurst and the same Kirkorov are smoking nervously...
***
Meanwhile, while the Eurowedding sang and danced at the press conference of the winners of the second semi-final, Yulia Samoilova, who had failed with her mountain, sobbed loudly in her dressing room, and just like the day before Sevak Khanagyan from Armenia, she was reassured by the whole world. She really was sure that she would easily make it to the finals, and simply could not understand that such a blatant injustice had happened to her. After sobbing, she finally pulled herself together and even gave an exclusive interview to MK.
— Julia, different reactions (to the results of the semi-final and your performance), but very emotional: they sympathize with you, are upset, support you, are indignant, gloat... And much more. And I want to congratulate you! First of all, with the fact that your participation in Eurovision, which you once dreamed of as an impossible miracle, finally came true! All! She came and performed. Did you at least enjoy it?
- Well…. The dream didn't quite come true. Because I still expected that I would reach the finals. Horror-nightmare? For me, yes, to be honest.
- Still, it’s a horror-nightmare, don’t you think?
— For me personally, not reaching the final is not a very happy result. Just a disappointment, somehow very scary.
- But you are a competitive person, you have passed more than one competition. And any competition involves more than just winning.
- Yes, sure.
- And what is the conclusion now?
“We must continue to live, make music, continue to sing, and not give up.” Life doesn't end there, that's for sure. Now, of course, I’m in a pessimistic mood; I don’t want to lie to anyone. Apparently, I need to somehow come to an agreement with myself.
- It’s still difficult to accept the verdict, right?
- Difficult.
- Do you think he was unfair?
- Well, I think that we certainly could have made it to the finals. I didn’t think about what kind of place there would be. But that doesn't matter anymore. It turned out the way it turned out.
— People go to Eurovision several times, after all...
— Perhaps there is ambition. But, if you take part again (in Eurovision), then you need to do it so well that you not only get to the final, but also take some leading positions. For me, it’s still important and matters – the place, the result.
- You write songs yourself...
- Of course, I’m writing. I have an album and a book coming out now. But to say that now I’ll immediately rush to write something special... No. I think time itself will choose me. Just like this time. I've been waiting for Eurovision for a long time. I waited and waited, and it fell, so to speak. The same thing will happen again if necessary.
— If we abstract from the result, to what extent did the atmosphere of the competition, which is always talked about so much, live up to your expectations?
“I absolutely justified it, I really liked it.” In fact, I thought it would be more difficult, but time flies by very quickly - due to rehearsals from morning to night, various events, events that go on in a continuous sequence. And today, with some sadness, I realized that I would have to part with these dressing rooms, in which so much time had passed, with this backstage.
- I got used to it...
- Yes! Parting with the people who work there and with whom I had so much communication. I say this with regret.
— Have you made any new acquaintances or friends among your fellow rivals from other delegations?
— Of the participants, unfortunately, we did not manage to make friends with anyone. They just managed to exchange a few phrases: “well done”, “excellent”, “hang in there”, “good luck” - in this format. But in reality, I became friends, of course, with our entire team - the dancers Ildar and Nastya, backing vocalists Ari, Netta and Ksenia, director Alexei Golubev... I hope our communication will not end with Eurovision.
— I heard Elina Nechaeva from Estonia singing your song backstage. It was actually a kind of flash mob, when the contestants out-sang each other. Whose songs did you have to cover?
— I sang a Spanish song, although in Russian. But I remember so many songs: Swedish, Italian, Polish, German.
— Who will be the winner, in your opinion?
- I think Germany.
- A completely unexpected forecast! We'll keep an eye on it. And you just hold on, as they say...
Lisbon.
On the topic of the day: Yulia Samoilova’s loss at Eurovision: about freaks and people
Watch the video on the topic: “Video of Yulia Samoilova’s performance at Eurovision 2018: I forgot the words”
03:14
Scandal at Eurovision 2020
On March 12, 2020, Channel One chose Yulia to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 in Kyiv with the song Flame Is Burning (Editor’s note). She was glad for this opportunity and admitted that she had long dreamed of participating in a show of this scale.
Watch the video for Yulia Samoilova's song Flame Is Burning:
“The most important thing is to soberly assess your capabilities. It often happens that a child draws some kind of booger, and the parents are delighted and begin to drag him to all sorts of competitions. As a result, he has inflated self-esteem, although he has no talent as such. Or the opposite situation. I believe that the main thing is not to be afraid of anything, if you are really talented, and not to listen to anyone. But you shouldn’t think that if you have some kind of illness, then this gives you some kind of privileges,” said Samoilova.
At the same time, Internet users called the choice of a participant from Russia a “forbidden trick.”
“Slavic countries, stop using people with disabilities in your propaganda!”, “Russia is sending a girl into the breach as a target for booing. Hang in there, Julia!” - opponents wrote.
Yulia Samoilova
However, the girl’s performance at Eurovision in Kyiv did not take place. As is known, according to the resolution of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, foreigners must have special permission to visit the territory of the Russian peninsula. In this regard, on March 22, the Security Service of Ukraine officially banned her from entering the country for three years, since in 2020 Samoilova performed a concert in Crimea at a gala concert of the World of Sports and Good festival.
Behind the scenes of Eurovision 2020: wild dancing on the blue carpet and kisses from Kirkorov
Creation
Yulia Samoilova began participating in various metropolitan concerts and touring around the country. But the greatest reward for the singer was the invitation to open the Winter Paralympics in Sochi at the famous Fisht stadium with a song. Yulia sang the song “We Are Together,” bringing tears to millions of people who watched the events in Sochi.
After the song she sang at the Olympic Games, the girl got producer Alexander Yakovlev, whom she met at Factor A.
In 2020, Yulia Samoilova was invited as a special guest to the country’s main music show “The Voice”, where she presented the premiere of the video “Live” with Russian pop stars, including Grigory Leps, Polina Gagarina, Garik Sukachev.
The process of recording Igor Matvienko’s song occurred during a difficult period in Yulia’s life. The girl just underwent a complex operation. Working on new musical material inspired Samoilova, and the singer quickly got into shape. Soon a project of the same name was launched, the goal of which was to help people who find themselves in difficult life situations.
Samoilova was greatly impressed by her acquaintance with rock singer Olga Kormukhina, who invited her young colleague to take part in the “Island” festival.
Yulia Samoilova
Now Yulia is surrounded by many wonderful and talented people, including Alla Pugacheva, Roman Emelyanov, Lolita, Mikhail Terentyev, Olga Kormukhina, Aya, Maxim Desyuk and Gosha Kutsenko. Yulia Samoilova gladly accepted Gosha Kutsenko’s offer to sing the song “Don’t Look Back” with him. This is a New Year's song, for which a bright video appeared.
Singing with Kutsenko, as Samoilova claims, was not just easy - it turned out to be a real pleasure: the artists found a common language instantly and gave music lovers a surprisingly harmonious hit.
In March 2020, it became known that Yulia Samoilova would become Russia’s representative at Eurovision in Ukraine with the hit “Flame Is Burning.”
According to some information, among the authors of the song was Leonid Gutkin, co-author of successful European songs for Polina Gagarina (Million Voices) and Dina Garipova (What If). The co-authors of the composition were Netta Nimrodi and Arie Burshtein - recognized specialists who “gave birth” to more than one hit. The video for the song Flame Is Burning, which appeared on the Internet, impressed many with its touching tenderness.
As it turned out, Yulia Samoilova had been preparing for the competition for a long time, but the preparation was kept strictly secret, so most of those who heard the name of the Russian contestant were surprised and even shocked.
The reaction from social networks was mixed. There were those who considered the participation of a girl in a wheelchair in an international song competition to be the height of cynicism and a desire to “pity” the audience, especially in light of how the Ukrainian public might greet a contestant from Russia. They started talking about “speculation on prohibited techniques.”
Singer Yulia Samoilova
But the majority greeted the news of Yulia’s participation in Eurovision with admiration, because this girl really has no shortage of talent. The song Flame Is Burning, as soon as it appeared, took eighth place in the bookmakers' bets. The head of the Russian delegation at the competition, Yuri Aksyuta, argued that Yulia Samoilova is an original singer, a charming girl and an experienced contestant who will be able to win the hearts of millions.
However, at the end of March 2020, the Security Service of Ukraine announced a decision to ban the entry of Russian Eurovision participant Yulia Samoilova into the territory of Ukraine. The EBU made a proposal to telecast Yulia Samoilova's speech from Moscow. But in response, Russia refused to participate in the competition.
In the same year, the singer’s first album, entitled “Live,” was released, which also included a new musical composition, “Suddenly a Friend Is Nearby.”
Eurovision 2020
Shortly after the conflict between the Ukrainian and Russian sides at Eurovision, Channel One made the following statement: “In the event that Ukraine does not allow Yulia Samoilova to participate in Eurovision, next year, regardless of the location of the competition, Russia will be represented by Yulia Samoilova.”
The girl represents Russia at a competition in Lisbon, Portugal, with the song I Won't Break (I won't break - editor's note). In just a few days, the video clip for this composition gained 1 million views on the YouTube video hosting site. The authors of the song were Leonid Gutkin, Netta Nimrodi and Arie Burshtein. Alexey Golubev worked on directing the video, who also staged the singer’s concert performance.
Watch the video for Yulia Samoilova's song I Won't Break:
Earlier, Samoilova led a procession with the Lenin flag in Lisbon.
On Thursday, May 10, it became known that the artist did not qualify for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
Yulia Samoilova now
After Yulia was refused entry into Ukraine, Channel One prepared an official statement: in 2020, Yulia Samoilova will represent Eurovision without any castings, regardless of which country becomes the winner and the next hostess of the competition. The Portuguese disabled singer Salvador Sobral won, and in May 2020 Julia went to Lisbon. Eurovision: Yulia Samoilova - I won't break However, Yulia and her song “I won't break” (“I won’t break”) failed to qualify for the final of the show. Since the organizers of the competition introduced the division into semi-finals in 2004, Russia has always reached the Eurovision final.
Personal life
Yulia Samoilova is married to musician Alexei Taran. As you know, the lovers met on social networks: they exchanged photos and communicated. At the first meeting, the artist described her future husband with the word “nightmare”, since he, knowing that the girl loved hard rock, dressed in black clothes and chains - trying to impress.
Yulia Samoilova with Alexey Taran
Alexey is two years younger than Yulia. He supports his wife in every possible way, does not miss concerts and works as her administrator. He is interested in religion and history. In an interview, Samoilova called herself the owner of a complex and capricious character, so her future husband had to go through many trials in order to win her heart.
We would like to remind you that the 2020 Cannes Film Festival started in France.
Personal life of Yulia Samoilova
Yulia has a common-law husband, Alexey Taran, whom she met at the age of 20 via the Internet. Since then, the young man has always been close to his beloved, supporting her in all her endeavors.
In the photo: Yulia Samoilova and Alexey Taran, the singer’s common-law husband
Now Alexey is organizing her concerts and accompanies her on tours, being the administrator and tour manager of the singer.
