Sergey Lazarev is back and looking for revenge.
Continuing its tradition of internal selection in the past years (the last time Russia organized a national selection was in 2012), Russia decided to pick its entry for Eurovision 2019. In January, the first rumours regarding its representative included known Russian pop stars, like Aleksandr Panayotov, Egon Kreed, and the potential return of Sergey Lazarev. After a leak in a few days before, Channel One announced Lazarev as the Russian representative on February 7th.
Sergey Lazarev, born in 1983, is one of the biggest music stars of Russia. Formerly part of the child group Neposedi, he was a member of the pop duo SMASH!! (with fellow Vlad Topalov). In 2003, SMASH!! was one of the rumoured representatives for Russia, before Channel 1 announced t.A.T.u. (who were also part of Neposedi). Sergey Lazarev officially tried to get the ticket to Eurovision in 2008, when he joined the national selection with the song “Flyer” where he ended in 4th place. Finally, he participated in Eurovision 2016, where he was one of the front runners. In the end, Sergey Lazarev won the televote with “You are the only one”, but it was not enough to surpass eventual winner Jamala from Ukraine. At the end, Sergey ended in third place with 491 points in one of the closest results of the ESC.
Trying to get revenge after that third place, Sergey will sing “Scream” in Tel Aviv. The song was written by Philip Kirkorov and Dimitris Kontopoulos. Both authors were also part of the team behind “You are the only one”. The song is a ballad with epic intentions, and speaks about our most deep fears and how you face them. The video was directed by Konstantin Cherepkov and shows Sergey accompanied by a representation of himself as a small kid.
Sergey Lazarev will be in the second semifinal and probably will be one of the favorites in the weeks before the contest.