Buranovskiye Babushki

Buranovskiye Babushki (Russian Бура́новские ба́бушки, Udmurt Брангуртысь песянайёс, German Großmütter aus Buranowo), English spelling Buranovskiye Babushki, is a Russian singing group. It has existed for more than 40 years and represented Russia with the song Party for Everybody at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, where they came second with 259 points. The Buranovskiye Babushki sing in English and Udmurt language.

Band history

The eight women, including six singers, with an average age of around 66 years, had prevailed over Dima Bilan and 24 other competitors in March 2012 at the preliminary round in Moscow with the song Party for Everybody, having already performed in the national preliminary round in 2010 and taken third place. The oldest singer was 76 years old.

They also covered songs like Hotel California by the Eagles and Yesterday by the Beatles. The women perform in the traditional costume of their Uudmurt homeland in the western Ural region. As a goal they had announced to earn enough money to renovate a church in their native village.

Cast

The formation consists of the following members (as of 2012):

• Granya Ivanovna Baissarova (Граня Байсарова, * June 2, 1949).
• Alevtina Gennadievna Begisheva (Алевтина Бегишева, * March 3, 1958).
• Zoya Sergeyevna Dorodova (Зоя Дородова, b. April 15, 1940).
• Galina Nikolaevna Koneva (Галина Конева, * October 15, 1938).
• Valentina Semyonovna Pyachenko (Валентина Пятченко, * October 21, 1937).
• Natalya Yakovlevna Pugacheva (Наталья Пугачёва, b. November 28, 1935; † October 26, 2019).
• Ekaterina Semyonovna Shklyaeva (Екатерина Шкляева, * November 2, 1937).

The artistic director of the group is Olga Nikolaevna Tuktaryova (Ольга Туктарёва, * April 26, 1968). Yelizaveta Sarbatova (Елизавета Зарбатова, b. 1926; † January 13, 2014) occasionally performed as a guest singer.

During the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, the singers Granya Baissarova, Galina Koneva, Valentina Pyachenko, Natalya Pugacheva and Ekaterina Shklyaeva were on stage next to Olga Tuktaryova. The rest were not allowed to perform, as ESC rules prohibit more than six people on stage. The central figure of the performance was Pugacheva, whose small stature and cordiality were highlighted during the performance. She also carried across the stage the baking tray that Koneva had taken out of the oven during the show.