European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is set to find a solution so that the Russian wheelchair-bound singer Yulia Samoilova can compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, EBU Senior Communications Officer Dave Goodman told TASS on Friday.
Commenting on Ukraine’s ban for the Russian singer and Russian Channel One’s refusal to broadcast her performance live via satellite from Moscow, Goodman said, “Our preferred solution is that the Russian artist will perform in Kyiv and we continue to work hard to achieve this.”
“It is the EBU’s wish that all artists competing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest can do so in the host city of Kyiv in accordance with the rules, and the tradition, of the competition,” he said.
“We are in contact with the Ukrainian authorities to do everything in our power to allow this to happen,” he added, saying that the proposal to Channel One “to exceptionally allow a performance via satellite is made as a secondary option, should it be necessary, to ensure that Russia along with the other 42 participating nations can stay in the competition and remains open.”
Earlier in the day, an adviser to the Ukrainian Security Service’s (SBU) head, Yuri Tandit, said that the SBU would not reconsider its entry ban for Samoilova.