The Voice of Finland suspended one of the contestants due to her dual citizenship after it was revealed she had a Russian passport.
The text of the news published by the YLE TV company does not mention the girl’s real name, but indicates that she moved to Finland 7 years ago from the Russian city of St. taught singing, and at the same time tried to promote her artistic career by participating in Finland’s most popular vocal competition, The Voice of Finland, and the recording of the performances was due to start in mid-October.
On the evening of October 17, the girl received a message that they decided to exclude her from the number of participants, but she is a citizen of Russia, which the girl commented: “After receiving a Finnish passport, it seemed to me that I had found a second home, but then it turned out that they showed me a place which I must not pass on to him here.. Now I know that I am nobody in this country.” , I did not encounter discrimination in Finland, on the contrary, I told everyone that there were no Finns.”
After covering the incident, representatives of the Nelonen TV channel broadcasting the competition and the production company ITV asked her to return to the competition, but the girl does not intend to return.
Finnish journalists found out that this is at least the second case of exclusion of a participant with Russian citizenship in this edition of the show, and the second participant was called to return to the competition, but he has not yet decided.
For her part, Equality Ombudsman Christina Steinman told reporters that the constitution and the Equality Act prohibit discrimination based on legal status or personal characteristics such as origin, language or nationality.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has recorded an unprecedented level of “Russophobia” observed in a number of foreign countries against the backdrop of a special operation in Ukraine. According to the agency, attacks on Russians and Russian-speaking citizens affect students, athletes and workers in the cultural and artistic sphere.
Source: RIA Novosti