Scandals Around Eurovision 2025: Which Participants Have a Russian Connection
Kyiv • UNN
Eurovision 2025 Scandal Overview: Criticism of Ziferblat's Costumes, Plagiarism Accusations, Support for Russia by Participants, and Song Censorship. Will the scandals affect the contest results?
Tomorrow, May 13, the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 will take place, where representatives of Ukraine, the band Ziferblat, will perform with the song "Bird of Pray". UNN has collected the most interesting scandals associated with the competition and reminded about the participants who have a Russian trace.
Criticism of the stage costumes of the Ukrainian band Ziferblat
In early May, the band Ziferblat revealed what their costumes for the performance would look like. The costume designer was the famous Ukrainian fashion designer Ivan Frolov, who has collaborated with such world stars as Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé, Katy Perry.
However, the first reaction of Ukrainians was extremely negative, many were outraged by the choice of artists.
Criticism of the artists for the design of the costumes poured down on the band's photos and videos on Instagram. People also didn't like the staging of the number and the way the stage looks. Many asked to return the flowers. In general, people wrote:
"I understand that there will be no staging? damn I liked it at the selection"
"Did you remove the grass? It was so beautiful at the selection"
"Where are the flowers like at the national selection final????"
"I respect Cyferov, but the costumes are terrible!"
"This is trash"
"I don't want my country to be represented by leaky woman-like men. It's a disgrace, people"
"Change the costumes. Some minorities. A country at war. Traditions, courage, strength, will, it's not about them. Just a lower position. Spanish shame and surprise why adapt to everyone instead of leading"
Such comments indicate that, unfortunately, Ukrainian society is not becoming tolerant as quickly as we would like, and a certain stigma is present in the heads of some people.
However, there are also enough commentators who liked the costumes and support the artists. Many people made compliments and were pleasantly impressed by the guys' looks.
But there is another scandal around the costumes of the band "Cyferblat".
The band's former stylist, Oleg-Rodion Shurygin-Grekalov, who created the guys' looks for five years, announced allegedly unethical treatment by their label and violation of professional agreements.
In his TikTok account, the stylist stated that after winning the National Selection, he was allegedly suddenly removed from further work without proper explanation.
I was promised that if we make the band win the selection in 2025, we will continue to cooperate and go to Basel to represent Ukraine
He noted that he did not work with the band during the 2024 National Selection.
The stylist stated that the management of the geisha ninja samurai label immediately treated him negatively.
"Alina, the manager, wanted me not to join the team, but tried to pretend that she was very positive with me. I owe this year's cooperation to the band and the former art director Tetyana, who was also very painfully and scandalously fired in December, just before our work on the National Selection," - said Shurygin-Grekalov.
The stylist also claims that his personal wardrobe could often be seen in "Cyferblat" looks and he worked at reduced rates because the budget was limited.
Eurovision 2025: Where to watch and how to vote ahead of the contest 12.05.25, 11:13 • 111281 view
Accusations of plagiarism of FIЇNKA's song at the 2025 National Selection
The performer FIЇNKA, who participated in the National Selection and made it to the top 10, was accused of plagiarizing the song "Culture", pointing to the similarity with the track Rosalía "Con Altura".
However, the music producer of this year's National Selection for Eurovision, Tina Karol, defended the singer and stated that "There is no similarity between the songs in terms of tempo, harmony, rhythm, or content! In Fiyinka, the word "hook" sounds like "culture", and in Rosalia - "con altura" (which means to behave with dignity). This accusation of similarity of songs in the comments (there are not many of them, thank you to the conscious ones) is not competent", -commented Karol on the accusations of plagiarism.
Scandal around the representative of Georgia Mariam Shengelia
Singer Mariam Shengelia, who is representing Georgia at Eurovision this year, was caught in a scandal due to her support for the pro-Russian ruling party "Georgian Dream". She participated in promotional videos and concerts in support of the party in 2023-2024.
Censorship of Miriana Conte's song from Malta due to wordplay
This year Malta will be represented at Eurovision by singer Miriana Conte.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) banned the Maltese word kant, which was used in the lyrics of her song by the representative of Malta, Miriana Conte. The song itself was called Kant.
The fact is that the word "kant" from Maltese translates as "singing", but for the English-speaking audience it is very consonant with the English slang "c*nt", which is used in an offensive way to refer to female genitalia.
As a result, a new name was chosen - Serving.
Demands for Finland to change the performance due to sexual content
Also under censorship was the representative of Finland at Eurovision 2025, Erika Vikman. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) asked her to change the stage number, as it is allegedly "too sexual". The requirements concerned her costume and the staging itself. The video shows the staging and image that they asked to change.
Outrage over Estonia's song and its performer Tommy Cash
Unfortunately, this year Eurovision will have a "Russian trace". This refers to the scandalous artist Tommy Cash, who will represent Estonia at Eurovision 2025 with the song "Espresso Macchiato".
The video for the competition song was created by a team of representatives from Ukraine and Russia. The operator of the video was Ukrainian Dmytro Nedrya, who filmed the famous film "I, Pobeda and Berlin" based on the story by Kuzma Scriabin, the choreographer was Kostiantyn Koval. And the producer of the video is Russian Alina Pyazok, who previously collaborated with Russian artists.
This is not Tommy Cash's first collaboration with Russians. In 2015, the singer recorded a video with the Russian band Little Big, which was supposed to represent Russia at Eurovision 2020, which did not take place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In 2021, the artist visited the temporarily occupied Crimea, and in 2022, he refused to express a clear position on the full-scale invasion.
In addition, Tommy Cash released a joint track in 2025 with the scandalous Dutch rapper Joost Klein, who was disqualified from Eurovision last year. In the joint song "United By Music", they criticized the European Broadcasting Union.
They also decided to cynically and brazenly combine the incompatible. In the song, they mention Ukraine and Russia. "We want peace, they want war", "I want to fly to Kyiv and go to Moscow", - the artists sing.
Tommy Cash was born in Tallinn in an area where many Russian speakers live. His mother is half Ukrainian and his grandmother has a Russian passport.
Cash himself said that he feels half Estonian and half Russian.
Criticism of the representative of Austria Johannes Pich for supporting Anna Netrebko
Austria at the competition will be represented by singer Johannes Pich, who performs under the pseudonym JJ. He was caught in a scandal because of his love and support for the Russian opera singer Anna Netrebko.
The network found evidence of the singer Pich's admiration for the artist, who actively supports the Putin regime and the war against Ukraine.
Johannes also admitted that he is often inspired by Netrebko to create new compositions. His competition track "Wasted Love", with which he will represent Austria at Eurovision, was no exception.
Scandal around the song of the representative of Ireland, written by a Russian author
Continuing the theme of the Russian trace, it turned out that the representative of Ireland at Eurovision, Emmi, will sing a song written by a Russian woman.
One of the authors of the song "Laika Party" is Russian Larisa Tormi (Vildanova), who currently lives in Ireland.
The composition itself glorifies the tragic story of the dog Laika, which the USSR sent into space in 1953. However, 7 hours after the launch of the spacecraft "Sputnik-2", the animal that was in it died.
Language scandal in Poland over a song in dialect with Ukrainian words
During the National Selection for Eurovision in Poland, a language dispute broke out online over a song that made it to the final.
Eurovision 2025: Where to watch and how to vote ahead of the contest 12.05.25, 11:13 • 111281 view
The duo Sw@da x Niczos submitted to the competition with the song "Lusterka", which is written in the Podlasie dialect, which is a mixture of Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian languages.
Despite the fact that many Poles appreciated the song, there were also critics. Some even accused the duo of allegedly indulging the growing Ukrainian minority in Poland.
PUDELEK noted that one of the commentators claimed that, according to his grandmother, most of the phrases are Ukrainian or Polesian dialects. Others stated that "this has nothing to do with our beautiful Poland".
The duo Sw@da x Niczos did not win the National Selection and Poland will be represented by Justyna Steczkowska with the song "GAJA".
Opening ceremony of Eurovision 2025 and Palestine
On May 12, the opening ceremony of the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 took place in the Swiss city of Basel. According to the official website of Eurovision 2025, the event began near the Basel Town Hall and stretched across the historic bridge leading to the Messe Basel exhibition center. During the procession, thousands of fans and media representatives saw 37 participating delegations.
It is worth adding that the opening ceremony of Eurovision 2025 was accompanied by pro-Palestinian actions. A group of pro-Palestinian activists even managed to block the tram where the delegation from Israel was sitting for a short time.
