Russian rave band, Little Big, who are known for their 2018 viral success “Skibidi”, have confirmed in an interview that they would have liked to represent Russia at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. They had even submitted a song to Philip Kirkorov, who is known for working with Russian Eurovision entrants, including with Sergey Lazarev in 2016 and 2019.

They were ready for Eurovision

The band’s frontman, Ilya Prusikin – known as Ilyich – also mentioned in the interview that the band were ready to take part in Eurovision this year and they had submitted a song. It was unfortunately just not their year this year and instead, Sergey Lazarev represented Russia with his song, “Scream”, which ultimately ended up finishing in third place.

During the interview with Xenia Sobchak, Ilyich also played a small snippet of the chorus of the song that was sent by the band to Philip Kirkorov. Little Big’s unique sound and dance beat can be heard in the sample, and would have no doubt got the audience in Tel Aviv dancing a bit more than “Scream”.

The snippet can be heard between 3:10 and 3:40

Would their entry simply have been a “joke entry”?

So-called “joke entries” regularly make an appearance at Eurovision such as “Euro Neuro” (Montenegro 2012) and “Irelande Douze Pointe” (Ireland 2008). Would Little Big’s song have just added to the list of “joke entries”?

The band revealed on Russian radio station, Avtoradio, that they would have brought a combination of humour and satire in their performance and they wanted to participate to simply “have fun”.

They also revealed that, due to a very packed upcoming schedule, they would not attempt to represent Russia again at the 2020 contest in The Netherlands. However, they did say if they get asked to represent their country in the future, they would have a great time at Eurovision but it was not something they desperately wanted to do.

With Russia from Love – who are Little Big?

The band – made up of Ilya Prusikin, Sergey Makarov, Sonya Tayurskaya and Anton Lissov – formed in St. Petersburg in 2013, and released their first single “Everyday I’m Drinking” on 1st April 2013.

Since then they have released a further 12 singles, including their most recent single “I’m OK“, released in June 2019. The band has also released four albums and a further two EPs. Their style, which including a lot of humour and satire, can be seen in the title of their first album, “With Russia from Love”, which is a play-on words from the James Bond film, “From Russia with Love”.

“Skibidi” proved a viral success for the band in 2018, gaining more than 250 million views on YouTube. Their style would definitely be different from most Russian Eurovision acts but they would have definitely been remembered after their performance in Tel Aviv!

Would you like to see Little Big represent Russia in the future? What do you think about Russia potentially sending a “joke entry”? Would they have brought a better result than Sergey’s third place?

Let us know in the comments below or join in the conversation on social media @ESCXTRA.