Russia russian ladies eurovision participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 21 times since their debut in 1994. Russia won the 2008 contest with Dima Bilan performing the song “Believe”.

Russia refused to broadcast the competition and the European Broadcasting Union in return forbade the country to participate the following year. Russia won their first Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, when Dima Bilan, participating for the second time in the contest, won with the song “Believe”, bringing the contest to Russia for 2009. Russia was the most successful country in Eurovision in 2000-2009, with one win, two second places, and two third places. However, in 2010 they finished 11th, and in 2011 they were 16th, which was the worst place for Russia since 1995. Interest in the competition fell, but in 2012 Buranovskiye Babushki finished in second place, increasing Russia’s interest in the show. In 2018, for the very first time, a Russian contestant failed to reach the final.

Yulia Samoylova, who represented the country with the song “I Won’t Break”, failed to qualify to the Grand Final from the second semi-final. In February 2019, Sergey Lazarev was once again confirmed as the Russian representative for Eurovision 2019 in Tel Aviv . Which makes Sergey the second return artist in Russian Eurovision participation history after Dima Bilan, who participated in 2006 and 2008 respectively. The contest has been broadcast irregularly on two different public state channels in Russia, both EBU members: for the 1994 and 1996 it was broadcast on Russia-1 of VGTRK, while in 1995, 1997 and from 1999 to 2007 the contest was broadcast on Channel One. In 1996 Russia failed to qualify from the audio only pre-qualification round.