The song Russian Woman of the Eurovision participant from Russia Manizha (Manizha Sangin) was nominated for the Eurostory Best Lyrics Awards. This is stated on the website of the award. It is awarded for the best songwriting from the competition.
According to the jury, the song Manizha draws attention to stereotypes about women around the world, such as the song about a little girl walking the field alone. “The girl is a metaphor for women from all over the world who cannot cross the street without fear of harassment,” the jury members explain.
Representatives of five countries have been nominated for the award this year. In addition to Manizha, Victoria claims her with the song Growing up is getting old (Bulgaria), the song Zitti e buoni by the group Maneskin (Italy), the song Birth of a new age by Zhangyu Makroya (Netherlands) and the song The wrong place by the Belgian group Hooverphonic.
The winner is determined by online voting on the award website and by the jury (songwriters, journalists, former contestants and publishers). In previous years, performers from Italy (2019), France (2018, 2017) and Ukraine (2016) became the winners of the award.
The award was established by Eurostory magazine in 2016 to draw attention to the textual content of the competition. It is awarded to the performer whose composition text the jury members and voting participants will consider the best among the participants of the Eurovision Song Contest. The winner of the award will be announced on the magazine's website.
Manizha will perform the song Russian Woman in the first semi-final of Eurovision on May 18th. This year the competition will be held in Rotterdam (Netherlands). During the selection of Channel One, Manizha bypassed the 2Mashi and Therr Maitz groups.
Federation Council Chairman Valentina Matvienko called Manizha's song “nonsense” and suggested asking Channel One for information on the voting procedure. The channel responded by saying that the song was chosen by fair vote.
ANO Veteranskie Vesti asked the UK to check the song Manizha and “stop an attempt to discredit the image of a Russian woman.” Investigators will consider the organization's appeal.
