President Vladimir Putin has congratulated a group of Russian grannies who won second place and the hearts of millions at the Eurovision Song Contest, promising to pay a visit to their village soon.
The Buranovskiye Babushki, a choir of elderly village women aged up to 76, finished runners-up to Sweden's 28-year-old Loreen with their disco song "Party for Everybody" performed in English and their local Finno-Ugric language.
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Putin is "delighted by the talent and gusto shown by the Babushki in the contest" in the Azerbaijani capital Baku, his press service said in a statement quoted by Russian news agencies.
He praised the use in their song of their little-known local language from the central region of Udmurtia as a "wonderful popularisation of the multi-national culture of our country."
"Vladimir Putin intends soon to personally meet the Babushki during a trip to Udmurtia and visit their village," the statement added.
He wants to see "how the village's residents live and see if it really is true, as has been said, that there is just one television in the village hall for the entire village."
The rise to unlikely old-age stardom has enthused people across Russia who admire the way the group has stayed faithful to their local traditions after being discovered and heavily promoted by state television.
Hundreds of people crowded into a hall to watch the contest in their native village of Buranovo, which now sells souvenir dolls of the Babushki and where a church is being built with the proceeds of their success.
But despite the fame, the group has done everything to stay down to earth.
"My mother has been worried out in Baku about how the potatoes are growing at home, if the cow is getting on," said Valentina, the daughter of group member Natalya Pugachova, told Russian television.
Two of the women worked as milk maids, one was a teacher, another worked at a kindergarten, one was a bookkeeper and one did various jobs in construction, farming and at a factory. Now retired, they rear animals and tend plots.
"They haven't seen much in this life except work. So it's great that they are getting such happiness," the choir's leader and youngest member Olga Tuktareva, 43, told an AFP correspondent who met the band in April.
