Russia's Disabled Singer Banned from Kyiv, and the Withdrawal That Followed

MAY 15 2017 · 12:40

Yulia Samoylova · "Flame is Burning" · Russia · 2017 Placement: Withdrew · Language: English · Composers: Leonid Gutkin, Netta Nimrodi, Arie Burshtein · Venue: International Exhibition Centre · Host: Kyiv, Ukraine · Type: scandal · Broadcast: HD On March 12, 2017, Russia's Channel One announced that Yulia Samoylova, a wheelchair-using singer who had performed at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics opening ceremony, would represent Russia at Eurovision in Kyiv with 'Flame is Burning.' Ten days later, the Ukrainian Security Service confirmed that Samoylova was barred from entering Ukraine for three years — she had performed in Russian-annexed Crimea in 2015, a violation of Ukrainian law prohibiting entry to the peninsula via Russian territory. The EBU offered compromises: a satellite performance from Russia, or Channel One submitting an alternative artist who could legally enter Ukraine. Channel One refused both and withdrew from Eurovision 2017. Samoylova remained in Russia, the 'Flame is Burning' staging never happened, and Kyiv hosted its first post-Crimea Eurovision with a conspicuous Russian-shaped hole in the running order. The Russian commercial broadcaster also declined to air the Kyiv contest. Context Eurovision 2017 was the first contest hosted in Ukraine since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbas, and had already been politically fraught from the moment Jamala's '1944' won in 2016. Russia's selection of Samoylova was widely considered a deliberate test: a disabled performer with an unimpeachable personal story, routed through a country legally prevented from admitting her. Ukrainian authorities' enforcement of the travel ban was equally deliberate — the Security Service reportedly had discretion to waive the rule for cultural exchanges and chose not to. The EBU spent weeks attempting to broker a face-saving exit; none was found. Legacy The episode is now the canonical example of Eurovision as a stage for Russian-Ukrainian hybrid political theatre. Samoylova was re-selected for Russia in 2018 and competed in Lisbon, where she finished 15th in her semi-final and did not qualify for the final — the only Eurovision appearance of her career. The 2017 withdrawal presaged the 2022 full expulsion of Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, and the Kyiv edition's Russia-shaped gap is now read as a rehearsal for the permanent absence. Channel One's relationship with the contest never fully recovered. Mythology The ban is sometimes reported as having been imposed by the EBU or by Eurovision itself; it was imposed by the Ukrainian Security Service under Ukrainian law, and Eurovision's governance actively tried to circumvent it.