Public Russian Television (ORT) returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a two-year absence following their relegation in 1998.

Prior to the contest, the entry was promoted by a music video and live performances in Riga, Tallinn and Saint Petersburg.

Along with their participation confirmation, it was announced that a national final would be held to select the Russian entry;[5] this aspect was later discarded.

[6] On 1 January 2000, ORT opened a submission period for interested artists and composers to submit their entries through 15 February 2000.

[a][3][8] Among the submissions received by ORT included the song "Desyat mysley" by Chay Vdvoyom,[9] as well as the entries from "Fonograph-Jazz-Band", Alla Sidorova, "Yula Frolova", and Andrey Misin.

[11] Written by Andrew Lane and Brandon Barnes,[8] the song became Russia's first entry to be performed in English at the contest.

[12] David Junk, managing director of Universal Music Russia, stated: "This is a great opportunity for us to introduce Alsou to Europe.

[13][14] To promote the song as the Russian Eurovision entry, a music video for "Solo", directed by Debbie Bourn, was filmed in London.

"Alsou's second-placing was seen by many as a triumph for her homeland, after recent Eurovision contests had brought humiliation for top flight Russian singers at the annual event - broadcast around the world to an audience estimated at 100 million viewers.

Russia's success at the contest was greeted with positive reactions in the Russian press; Vechernyaya Moskva proclaimed the result "a matter of national pride",[38] while Kommersant opined that Alsou "has regained the national prestige that was ruined by Russian hockey" and labelled the result "near-triumph".

[d][44] Fricker and Gluhovic credited Russia's success in 2000 for starting the nation's "more focused and concerted pursuit of Eurovision gold", which included "consciously modeling their singers and musical material on Europop.

"[14] Yana Nevskaya from Amurskaya Pravda expressed that after 2000, Eurovision has become an important and iconic contest for Russian viewers.

[47][48][49][50] In a 2022 Billboard article, Junk said: I wanted our artist Alsou to represent Russia at Eurovision because I was hoping it would help promote her new album in Europe.