There are always a lot of discussions about potential Eurovision participants. But when it became known that this year Russia will be represented by the Little Big band, which some call crazy and others brilliant, fans of the contest experienced a slight shock.
Joy-pup.сom collected some facts about the band for you to understand better where they came from, how they differed, why they were chosen and what to expect from them.
Who are they
For those who are out of step, Little Big is a St. Petersburg punk-pop-rave band created in 2013. The musicians don’t mind being ranked among the representatives of such a specific genre, however, they call themselves a satirical art collaboration. In fact, the style of the group can’t be defined: some see in it a deep meaning and even signs of a counterculture, others consider it to be pure mocking and primitive.
The regulars of the band are four people:
- Ilya Prusikin (vocal) – leader and founder of the group
- Sergey Makarov (DJ, backing vocal, sound producer)
- Anton Lissov (vocal, guitar)
- Sophia Tayurskaya (vocal)
The fifth participant Alina Pyazok is the co-founder of the project, author, director, producer and clip-maker.
How it all started
According to the lead singer Ilya Prusikin, the story of Little Big began with the joke dedicated to the 1st of April. He and his friends shot and posted on YouTube the viral video “Every Day I’m Drinking”.
The audience immediately divided into two quarrelling groups: the first was outraged that the song “offends the great power”, the second laughed loudly and convinced others that it was a satire on stereotypes about Russians. Anyhow, in just a week the video got 2 million views. Let’s admit, for newcomers, this is more than cool (now the number of views exceeds 24 million).
The infamous band came out of the virtual realm on July 2, 2013. It was invited to perform “at the opening” of an alternative hip-hop band from South Africa Die Antwoord. After the concert, American youth magazine Vice dubbed Little Big “Die Antwoord’s response from a Russian psychiatric hospital.” Since then, music critics have never stopped comparing the provocative art of both groups.
Why them?
On March 2, 2020, it became known that Little Big will represent Russia at the Eurovision 2020 contest, which will take place in Rotterdam. Teenagers squeak with joy, older people shrug their shoulders thinking “Haven’t they found someone more worthy (famous, talented, etc.)”?
Interestingly, passionate admirers “predicted” their participation several years ago in the comments to their very first video on YouTube.
But that’s not the point. Musicians give more than a hundred concerts in Russia and Europe every year. Russian and foreign publications often write about them. They have 4 studio albums, 2 mini-albums, singles and 25 video clips. On the top of that “Skibidi”, which is without exaggeration an explosive hit that has won many awards and even caused the international flash mob Skibidi Challenge – a dance that is performed by anyone who feels like it.
No matter what the sceptics think, the choice, as they say, is “on the button”. Bold, shocking, funny – as a rule, precisely such performers win the hearts of the audience and come in top place at the largest musical event in Europe.
In the meantime…
The band has recently presented the UNO contest song, which acquired vogue in a trice. Ilya Prusikin was right to call it CorUNOvirus’s, because it really spreads with incredible speed.
Despite the negative reaction of Russian music observers, big names of showbiz and other media, in just a few hours after publication on the official Eurovision Song Contest channel, the video gained a record number of views and outstripped all the announced participants.
But foreign critics are absolutely delighted with the song and the performers themselves. They call the Little Big’s performance fresh, extraordinary, awesome and note that there is not a drop of pathos in it. So, the chances of success are brighter than ever. We’ll see how it goes!
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