fyeaheasterneurope:

Ukraine’s Eurovision entry stirs racism row

A nationalist politician prompted fury in Ukraine on Wednesday with racist remarks about a singer of African origin who will represent the country at this year’s Eurovision song contest.

“The show’s millions of viewers will see Ukraine represented by someone who does not belong to our race, and they will think Ukraine is located somewhere in Africa,” Yury Sirotnyuk of the Svoboda (Freedom) party told local media.

On Saturday a vote by a professional jury and television viewers selected 32-year-old pop singer Gaitana and her song “Be My Guest” as Ukraine’s entry to the annual pop extravaganza to be held in May in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Born in Kiev to a Congolese father and a Ukrainian mother, she lived in the Republic of Congo as a young child before moving to Ukraine, where she became a famous singer, mostly performing in Ukrainian.

I recommend against reading the comments on the video at YouTube. D:

Oh Eurovision. I love your ridiculous bullshit. Gaitana is so gorgeous. She’s like a Nicki Minaj without the ‘trying to hard’.

Also, sadly, even though this song is pretty meh, I gotta say it’s Ukraine’s best entry since Svetlana Loboda. The last few years have been abysmal with all the dull ballads.

(Source: google.com)