Life in the Russian provinces has never been easy. The absence of common utilities even now is not a rarity in villages: water is gathered from wells, stoves have to be heated up, the cattle watched, in the summer the vegetable patch needs tending…

All these tasks, and household chores in general, fall on the shoulders of the womenfolk, and in the villages where the young have left, they fall on the shoulders of the ”babushkas” – the grannies. Dealing with this workload has always been helped by song. Normally it’s those songs taught to you by your mother or grandmother in early childhood. The songs are passed from generation to generation gathering all the love, tenderness, happiness and sadness of the people who lived before.

These grannies from the village of Buranovo in the central Russian region of Udmurtia started their folk ensemble almost 40 years ago to sing these songs. Recently they have started to sing popular hits from Russia and overseas in their own language (more similar to Finnish than Russian). They were chosen by popular demand to represent Russia in the Eurovision 2012 competition. Their vitality, love and the sharp understanding of life inherent in their collective experience is an uncommon virtue, even among the young.
Even if these wonderful seniors don’t get first prize in the competition, I feel their story will make them winners.