Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008
Country	Russia
National selection
Selection process	National Final
Selection date(s)	1 June 2008
Selected artist(s)	Mikhail Puntov
Selected song	"Spit angel"
Finals performance
Final result	7th, 73 points
Russia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
◄2007 • 2008 • 2009►

Russia participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Lemesos, Cyprus. The Russian entry was selected through a national final, organised by Russian broadcaster All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK). The final was held on 1 June 2008.^[1] Mikhail Puntov and his song "Spit angel" won the national final, getting 10.81% of votes.

On 2 March 2008, VGTRK announced that a national final would be held to select Russia' entry for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008. A submission period for interested artists was opened and lasted until 20 April 2008. A professional jury selected twenty artists and songs from the applicants to proceed to the televised national final.

The selected artists and songs competed at the national final which took place on 1 June 2008 at the "Rossiya" concert hall in Moscow, hosted by Oskar Kuchera and Oksana Fedorova. In addition to the performances from the competitors, the show featured guest performances by Masha Pestunova, Aleksandra Golovchenko, Vlad Krutskikh and Tolmachevy Sisters. The members of the jury were Yury Entin, Artur Gasparyan, Gennady Gokhstein and Grygory Gladkov.

During the allocation draw on 14 October 2008, Russia was drawn to perform 4th, following Belarus and preceding Greece. Russia placed 7th, scoring 73 points.^[2]

Mikhail Puntov was joined on stage by dancers from band "Volshebniki Dvora".

In Russia, show were broadcast on Russia-1 with commentary by Olga Shelest. The Russian spokesperson revealing the result of the Russian vote was Sarina Urman.

Points awarded to Russia[3] Score Country 12 points[a]  Belarus 10 points  Armenia 8 points  Lithuania 7 points  Ukraine 6 points  Malta 5 points  Georgia 4 points  Cyprus 3 points  Greece 2 points  Bulgaria  Serbia 1 point  Macedonia  Netherlands

Points awarded by Russia[3] Score Country 12 points  Georgia 10 points  Belarus 8 points  Ukraine 7 points  Lithuania 6 points  Armenia 5 points  Malta 4 points  Macedonia 3 points  Serbia 2 points  Romania 1 point  Belgium

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Puntov
Background information
Birth name	Mikhail Aleksandrovich Puntov
Born	(1994-12-23) December 23, 1994 (age 29) Krasny Sulin, Rostov Oblast, Russia
Instrument	Vocals
Years active	2007–present (singer)

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Puntov (Russian: Михаил Александрович Пунтов; born 23 December 1994, Krasny Sulin, Rostov Oblast, Russian Federation) competed in the 2008-edition of Junior Eurovision Song Contest with the song Spit Angel (Sleeping Angel). In the final in Limasol the then 12-year-old Mikhail came 7th out of 15 contestants, scoring 73 points.^{[4][better source needed]} At that time Mikhail was a member of the group Street Magic just like Vlad Krutskikh who represented Russia in 2005. The background vocals were some other members of Street Magic: Seva Terasov (also one of the writers of Spit Angel) and Andrei Raspopov. Nowadays Mikhail together with Vlad, Seva, and Andrei form the band Geroi.