Singing Russian Grandmothers Go Viral, End Up Saving Their Village

The Buranovskiye Babushki (or Grandmothers of Buranovo) are a group of elderly ladies from the small, impoverished and rural town of Buranovo, Russia who took everyone by surprise back in May when they ended up placing second at the European pop music contest Eurovision. The video of the Babushki performance — in which the women shuffle about, singing, “Party for everybody — dance! Come on and dance! Come on and dance! Come on and boom boom!” — then took off online and has since garnered nearly 9 million hits on YouTube.

In uplifting news, the Grandmothers of Buranovo’s online success has translated into some truly good fortune for the women’s struggling village. The local government is now in the process of building a water pipeline, installing streetlights, laying new gravel on the roads and installing high-speed Internet for the village’s only school as a way of showing appreciation for the group’s near win.

Says one villager, “God forgot this place before the grannies sang.”

The Grandmothers Sang ‘Come On and Dance!’ and a Village Got New Life [NY Times]