Russia has put a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest on its wanted list
November 20, 2023, 8:21 am ET
• 2 min reading
MOSCOW – Russia has added a Ukrainian singer who won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest to its wanted list, state news agencies reported on Monday.
According to reports, singer Susana Jamaladinova was wanted in an Interior Ministry database for violating a criminal law.
Independent news site Mediazona, which reports on opposition and human rights issues, said Jamaladinova was charged under a law passed last year that bans the spread of so-called fake information about the Russian military and ongoing fighting in Ukraine.
Jamaladinova, who performs under the stage name Jamala, is of Crimean Tatar descent. She won the 2016 Eurovision competition with the song “1944,” a title that refers to the year the Soviet Union deported Crimean Tatars en masse.
Their victorious performance came almost exactly two years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea, when political unrest gripped Ukraine. Most other countries consider the annexation to be illegitimate.
Russia protested the entry of “1944” into the competition, saying it violated rules on political expression at the Eurovision Song Contest. But the song made no specific criticism of Russia or the Soviet Union, although it did have such implications and began with the lyrics: “When strangers come, they come to your house, they kill you all and say ‘We’re not guilty.'”