Russia’s folk group Buranovskiye Babushki (Buranovo Grannies) has qualified for the final stage of the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Party for Everybody, according to RIA Novosti.
Eighteen contenders competed in the first semifinal in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, and ten, including Romania’s Mandinga, Moldova’s Pasha Parfeny, Iceland’s Greta Salóme & Jónsi, Hungary’s Compact Disco and Ireland’s Jedward, made it to the finals.
The colorful grannies, with some of them over 70 years old of age, do not speak English and their folk style performance includes own songs and covers of many international music hits. They mostly sing in Russian and Udmurt.
The Buranovskiye Babushki sextet comes from the village of Buranovo in the Urals republic of Udmurtia. The band first tried for the Eurovision contest in 2010, but lost in the selection round. The oldest member of the band has turned 86.
The Eurovision 2012 contest is held in Baku on May 22-26. The second semifinal is scheduled for Thursday. Twenty groups will compete in Saturday’s final.
Last year’s Eurovision winner was the Ell & Nikki duet from Azerbaijan. Russia finished 16th at Eurovision-2011.
