Russia has a very successful record in the Eurovision Song Contest of late, having finished in second position with Alsou with the song Solo in 2000, and Dima Bilan with Never Let You Go in 2006, and third position with t.A.T.u's Ne Ver Ne Bojsa in 2003 and Serebro with Song Number One in 2007.
The search for the 2008 representative began with 167 entries submitted, a special jury from Russian television shortlisted twenty five from these and recently, a further two have been added making a grand total of twenty seven. This will make the Russian final the biggest of 2008 as far as the number of competing songs is concerned.
No information has yet been released, beyond that of the names of the performers which are as follows :-
1. Assorti Band
2. Polina Smolova
3. Alsou Zainutdinova
4. Zhenya Otradnaya
5. Andrei Makarenko
6. Anna Mushak
7.Nora Adam
8. Natalia Terehova
9.Evgenia Rasskazova
10. Dima Bilan
11. Elena Gorskaya
12. Aleksandr Panayotov
13. Pier Narciss and Jam Sherif
14. Yulia Mihalchik
15. Granat Band
16. Sabrina
17. BK Band
18. Aza Batayeva
19. Tamila Grischenko
20. Prime Minister Band
21. Anatoliy Aleshin
22. Aleksei Vorobiev
23. Roman Bezhin
24. Sergei Lazarev
25 Natalia Astafeva
26. Maks Lorens and Satsura
27. Olga Varvus
Some familiar faces here with Eurovision Song Contest experience, as mentioned Dima Bilan finished in second place in the 2006 Contest with the song Never Let You Go, Polina Smolova represented her native Belarus in the 2006 Semi-Final but failed to qualify to the final with the song Mum, and Prime Minister Band represented Russia in the 2002 Final with the song Northern Girl ending in tenth position.
It is expected that the winner will be determined by part televoting and part expert jury. As soon as more information is forthcoming, further details will be provided.The final will commence at 18.40 CET.
Russia will compete in the First Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday May 20th.
