In an interview with Russian news outlet ‘super.ru‘, Manizha revealed that she dreamt of representing Russia at Eurovision ever since she was a child. The singer stated that she used to watch the contest as a child and remembers t.A.T.u (Russia, 2003) and Dana International (Israel, 1998) as her favourites. One of her highlights in recent years, however, is Salvador Sobral!
“In recent years, I absolutely loved the guy from Portugal, who sang in his own language. Who sang a very touching song, without special effects or an instrument. At that time I thought: wow, why don’t we believe in our own language and simple things? Why do we like to hide behind masks and special effects on stage? He messed with me and wanted to get closer to my native language, ”said Manizha of Salvador Sobral”
Manizha also mentioned Bilal Hassani, representative of France in 2019: “He sang in his own language and in English. I had been doing this for a few years now. But now I’m confident in what I’m doing, because I’ve stopped seeing boundaries. There are no borders for language”.
Manizha Sangin, better known musically as Manizha, is a Russian-Tajik singer from Dushanbe, Tajikistan. In 2003 she began her career as a child singer, and went on to perform in groups RuKola and Krip De Shin before pursuing her solo career.
On March 8th 2021, Manizha participated in the Russian national final to select the representative for Eurovision 2021 and subsequently won with her song Русская Женщина (Russian Woman) and will represent Russia at the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam this May.
