Филипп Киркоров

Philipp Bedrosovich Kirkorov born April 30, 1967 in Varna, Bulgaria. Kirkorov is known in Russia and the former soviet countries for his flamboyant, even theatrical stage clothes and has benefited greatly from his marriage to Alla Pugacheva, appearing frequently with her on Russian television variety shows. His musical style is generic Russian pop music with occasional Turkish and Western influences and, like many Russian pop stars of the 90s and later, he frequently records duets with other artists working in the same field. Kirkorov represented Russia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995 held in Dublin with the song "Kolybelnaya dlya vulkana" and finished in 17th place. He co-wrote the Belarusian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, "Work Your Magic" for Dmitry Koldun, and wrote the 2008 Ukrainian entry "Shady Lady", performed by Ani Lorak. He was also a judge in the second season of Music Idol in Bulgaria. There are a number of media controversies surrounding Kirkorov. The most notorious scandal followed an incident in Rostov-on-Don, 2004. At a press conference he insulted (using Russian obscene language) a female journalist who had asked why so many of his songs were remakes of American and European hits. Kirkorov, responded to the question by telling the female reporter he "bored with her pink jacket, tits, and microphone" and demanding that she leave the room immediately. When she eventually did, his bodyguards attacked her outside and destroyed her tape recorder. The incident led to a major response and discussions in the mass media. There was also an incident where Kirkorov sent his guards to attack the Russian rock singer and DDT band frontman Yuri Shevchuk after their emotional skirmish in a public place (as known, Shevchuk keeps no guards of his own). The reason for the argument reportedly were Shevchuk's offensive statements against Kirkorov, his wife, and his alleged lip-synching. Eurovision Song Contest 1995 Russia (ORT) Performer: Philipp Kirkorov Song title: Kolybelnaya Dlya Vulkana Song writer(s): Ilya Bershadsky Song composer(s): Ilya Reznyk Sang in Position: 6 Final Position: 17 Total Points: 18 For a record third year in a row, Ireland hosted the 40th Eurovision Song Contest which was held again in the Point Theatre in Dublin For the third consecutive time, Ireland was the host of the 40th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was again held in the Point Theatre in Dublin - it was the first time ever that the Eurovision Song Contest took place in the same city for two years in a row. In 1994, the European Broadcasting Union decreased the number of participants to 23 to make sure that the song contest would not last longer than three hours. All of the five relegated countries from the preceding year - Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Denmark and Belgium - returned to the contest. In contrast, the bottom seven countries of the1994 Eurovision Song Contest were relegated: Lithuania, Estonia, the Netherlands, Finland, Romania, Slovakia and Switzerland. As it was the 40th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest this year, the programme started with a three-minute compilation of previous contests. Bookmakers thought that the Swedish entrant Jan Johansen's song Se På Mig was favourite to win the entire contest, but instead neighbouring country Norway took first place with the song Nocturne performed by the group Secret Garden. The lyrics of the winning song only consisted of 24 words and despite the fact that Ireland did not win for the fourth time in a row, the Norwegian group's violinist was in fact Irish. Ireland itself and it's entry Dreamin' by Eddie Friel ended up at a disappointing 14th place. 1995 was the year of the Scandinavian countries at Eurovision: Norway won, Sweden came third and Denmark came fifth. Germany had its worst placing ever, only the Maltese jury awarded one single point to Stone & Stone's Verliebt In Dich.