She may spark outrage among her more conservative compatriots, but Ukrainian drag queen Verka Serduchka has won bookmarkers' hearts: she's the favorite at this year's Eurovision song contest. With her frivolous songs and extravagant costumes, Serduchka-known as comedian Andriy Danylko when not in costume-has a devoted following not only in Ukraine, but in neighboring Russia.
But her selection as Ukraine's candidate for Eurovision 2007, which held its final round of competition yesterday, scandalized Ukrainians such as Vasyl Popovych, who took part in a recent protest in Kiev against the choice. "Verka Serduchka shows the post-imperial inferiority complex that some Ukrainians still suffer," said Popovych, a member of a nationalist Ukrainian youth group.
It was a mild assessment next to that of pro-Russian parliamentary deputy Taras Chornovil, who attacked Serduchka as "a national shame" and "a hermaphrodite." But it was clearly the minority view, since Ukrainians overwhelmingly chose Serduchka in an interactive Eurovision ballot. And Danylko, 33, who created the character over a decade ago to poke fun at rural Ukrainian women, went into the competition sounding like a true entertainer.
"It's all the same to me what place I get," he told the Ukrainian weekly Focus. "The important thing for me is that the public likes the show. Serduchka is our dream. She's a Ukrainian Cinderella who lived in a hut with her mother" until she began to sing and "became a star," he said.
The major European bookmakers were clearly convinced. Yesterday, British bookmaker Ladbrokes listed Seduchka as the Eurovision front-runner at odds of 5:2, ahead of contestants from Serbia, Belarus and Latvia. Serduchka, who performs in a silver costume and hat topped with a metallic star, will sing her song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" before the audience in Helsinki. The bouncy pop song is a jumble of German, English and Ukrainian, featuring lyrics such as: "One-two-three! Ukraine is super! Ukraine loves to dance!"
Asked to explain the mysterious phrase "lasha tumbai," a spokesman for Danylko said it was Mongol for "beat the cream." Mongolia's embassy in Moscow, however, said "lasha tumbai" was total gibberish. Meanwhile, some 100 million Europeans were expected to be glued to their televisions yesterday as the Eurovision song contest reaches its dizzy climax, with Serbia, Ukraine and Belarus hot favorites. Acts from 24 countries will strut their stuff at the Hartwall Areena in front of 12,000 spectators, vying for their votes in the kitsch glamour contest created in 1956.
A record 15 acts come from "new Europe", countries that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia, including Armenia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Hungary, Romania and Russia. Nine of the 10 countries that qualified in Thursday's semi-finals are from central and eastern Europe, with Turkey as the 10th country.
Georgia is participating for the first time, with the "ethnopop" song "Visionary Dream" that could easily have come off of Icelandic star Bjork's latest album.
Among the countries that failed to qualify on Thursday were Switzerland, Norway and Israel. The latter's song, "Push The Button" by The Teapacks, had sparked controversy with its anti-nuclear message that some interpreted as targeting Iran.
Serbia's entry, the ballad "Molitva" by 23-year-old Marija Serifovic, topped British bookmakers' lists ahead of Thursday's semi-final. But on Friday the odds had changed and Ukraine and Belarus had knocked her into third place, followed by Russia and Sweden. Yesterday's final will feature the four founding countries-Germany, Spain, France and Britain-plus the top 10 finishers from 2006 and the top 10 countries from Thursday's semi-final.
Last year the contest was won by Finnish monster rock group Lordi with their song "Hard Rock Hallelujah". Ireland is the most successful nation since the contest began in 1956, winning it seven times. France, Luxemburg and Britain have won five times each.
Source: www.kuwaittimes.net
