Famous director Oleg Bodnarchuk commented on this year's scandal around the performer Ruslana and the organizers of Eurovision.

The celebrity answered whether it was fair not to let the first winner in the competition from Ukraine perform in Liverpool. However, first, Bodnarchuk told one story of how Eurovision was held in Kyiv in 2017.

In particular, then the director together with a team from Sweden was preparing a competition. However, in the end, Ruslana took up the preparation of Eurovision-2017.

Ruslana in Liverpool / Photo: Ruslana's press service

"Ruslana had such an interesting story... This story consists of two parts. The first part – let's remember 2017 and Eurovision in Kyiv. I had the honor to start preparing for this contest, I was chosen as the creative producer of Eurovision in Kyiv, and we worked for three months with the team that came from Sweden. We had a lot of interesting ideas. And at some point, Ruslana's team, her husband Ksenofontov and Mr. Hrytsak raider the process of preparation for Eurovision, and we were all swept away literally in one day," the director recalled in an interview with Alina Dorotyuk.

According to Bodnarchuk, Ruslana's team put spokes in their wheels. The director, together with his colleagues from Sweden, could not properly organize a competition and sign contracts with contractors.

Oleg Bodnarchuk / Photo: screenshot from video

"All these three months when we were preparing, the team from Sweden was just shocked. The Government of Ukraine blocked all contracts. They shouted: "This is not possible, February-March, we cannot sign a contract with any contractor. This has never happened anywhere. We don't understand why we're being blocked." And then it became clear that there was another team that was waiting for a critical moment and made a request: "You do not have a contract signed with anyone." By the way, this team did not allow these contracts to be signed, and then it filed a complaint. And in April, a month and a half before Eurovision, they raider seized all this preparation," the director said.

Bodnarchuk recalled that Ruslana's performance in 2017 was not planned, because Eurovision was dedicated to last year's winner Jamala. However, Ruslana had a powerful performance. Meanwhile, Jamal had a mediocre number.

"Ruslana's performance was not planned, because it was not the concept of this Eurovision, but the performance was pushed then. It was Eurovision in honor of Jamal and her victory, she was given some ordinary number there. Ruslana, the star of all times, had a super performance! Was that fair at all? What about Jamala, the concept of the competition, some human norms? No, it wasn't fair!" the director added.

So, Bodnarchuk is convinced that Ruslana felt the "boomerang effect" in Liverpool.

Ruslana on the air of "Eurovision-2023"

"What happened this year, was it fair not to include Ruslana? No, it's not fair. She had a place there. But when you put together the first "unfair" and the second "unfair", then together it turns out, which is very fair. This is a boomerang. But everything that happened to her in Liverpool caused me pity," Bodnarchuk said.

As a reminder, this year a scandal arose between the organizers of Eurovision-2023 and Ruslana. The singer was not invited to perform on the main stage of Liverpool, meanwhile, artists who brought Ukraine prizes and entered the top ten finalists sang there. Finally, in the final, Ruslana was shown in a short video, where she was standing in a crowd with the flag of Ukraine against the background of the "Golden Gate". The network was pretty outraged by the absence of the first winner of Eurovision from Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ruslana herself replied that for her the main audience was who loved her, not the stage.

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