Natasha Kiselyova, writer
I think it is disgusting ignorance to evaluate a person by nationality and, in general, to single out nationality as a separate topic.
What is nationality in general? I am half Russian, half Ukrainian. What does this information give you? What does she give you, even if she gives nothing to me. I absorbed two cultures not because my mother was Ukrainian by nationality, but because I spent every summer with my grandmother on the farm. I sang songs there, played with the mov, learned to sculpt dumplings, cook borscht and danced the hopak, both male and female parts, because the female one is boring, and I love lifting my legs in a jump above my head. Then I absorbed Western culture, did that make me French, Italian, or American? There is no such nationality at all, what to do?
Nationality does not define anything, that's just nothing at all. This line is no longer even in the passport. I didn’t know that Manizha was an ethnic Tajik until everyone started to buzz about it. Are you out of your mind at all? I cannot understand how people can still be divided according to gender, age, size and sexual preferences, - but we are still at the level of the Third Reich.
For five years in a row I worked at Eurovision, starting in Belgrade in 2008, where Russia won. And then there were Moscow, Oslo, Dusseldorf and Baku. Therefore, I know a little about the competition, its anatomy and philosophy. I'll make a reservation right away that I really don't like the song Russian woman, it's blood from the ears and a mess of everything, for me it's not talented, but it has nothing to do with the artist's nationality.
I do not remember that the moment of nationality was raised when the Belarusian Alexander Rybak represented Norway. Or when Jamala (half Tatar, half Armenian) sang for Ukraine. Now I googled it on purpose, I was never interested in her nationality. This list can be written for a whole year, the principle "where he was born, there he came in handy" does not work for a billion years.
It is especially enchanting, of course, that such questions arise in the minds of people in such a multinational country as ours. My Facebook is very clearly divided into Russian and American friends. Surprisingly, only the Russian-language tape is very worried about black actors in films and TV shows. We are in great pain for the dark-skinned Anne Boleyn, right here the fatherland is in danger.
A year ago I was on Broadway for the musical "Moulin Rouge", it was staged based on the film by Baz Luhrmann. So there the role of Satine (in the film it is Nicole Kidman) was played by Broadway star Karen Olivo, an ethnic Puerto Rican from the Bronx. And no one, just no one discussed her nationality, although in the original Satine is blonde with blue eyes, French. By the way, who allowed the Australian Kidman to play her, don't you catch mice in your gamerops already?
No one was outraged if ethnic Italian Stephanie Germanotta (Lady Gaga) could sing the US national anthem at the inauguration. And for some reason nobody discussed whether the ethnic Puerto Rican Jennifer Lopez could sing the unofficial anthem “This land is my land”. Decaying west, what to take from them.
During World War II, the whole world fought against fascism, against adherents of a pure race and Nazism, so that many years later in the victorious country they would seriously discuss whether a Muscovite, the UN Goodwill Ambassador for Refugees, is worthy of representing us at a song contest if she is not ethnically Russian. Are you serious? Aren't you ashamed? And yet, be so kind, finally read the history of your country, especially who the Rusichi are.
Original is here.