[Beanie]

Welcome to TDP bilko - good to read your thoughts - it prompted me to go and do a bit more digging myself.

I did perhaps overstate the popularity outwith Russian communities...he has enjoyed some chart success in Ukraine and toured extensively throughout Eastern Europe - typically crowds of 5000-10000 which isnt too bad considering gigs aren't quite the event that they are in western europe.

Having said that, the point re: Russian communities throughout Europe remains.

I'm currently trying to get together some stats for expat communities in Europe just to see how much of an advantage Russia(and other like Turkey) have in this respect.

I guess with Dima the question is how much it was the song that propelled him to 2nd. As much as I didnt rate it, the performance went down a storm on the night.

Here's another look:



Comparing that to his live performance from the Russian finals:



Put next to each other there isn't much contest - iffy vocals on both, far better stage performance(the piano thing was inspired) in 2006, a more appealing song, and dare I say(from an entirely heterosexual point of view!) that he was looking a bit better in 2006, altho best get a woman to confirm that

Yeah, 2nd thoughts are that this isn't really a contender at all - guaranteed a high finish but in terms of generating mass support needed to win, I'm not sure yet.