Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Last updated

Belarus in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Eurovision Song Contest 2019
CountryFlag of Belarus.svg  Belarus
Selection processNatsionalny Otbor
Selection date7 March 2019
Competing entry
Song"Like It"
Artist Zena
Songwriters
Placement
Semi-final resultQualified (10th, 122 points)
Final result24th, 31 points
Participation chronology
◄201820192020►

Belarus was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Like It", written by Zinaida Kupriyanovich, Yulia Kireeva and Viktor Drobysh, and performed by Kupriyanovich herself under the stage name Zena. The Belarusian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel was selected through the national final Natsionalny Otbor, which was organised by the Belarusian participating broadcaster Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC). The national final consisted of ten competing acts participating in a televised production where a jury panel selected "Like It" performed by Zena as the winner.

Contents

Belarus was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2019. Performing during the show in position 8, "Like It" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May. It was later revealed that Belarus placed tenth out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 122 points. In the final, Belarus performed in position 19 and placed twenty-fourth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 31 points.

As of 2025, this was Belarus' final entry in the contest, with BTRC's planned entry in 2020 not being able to compete due to the event's cancellation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, BTRC's intended entry in 2021 being disqualified, and the broadcaster's membership in the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) being indefinitely suspended later that year.

Background

Prior to the 2019 contest, Belarus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifteen times since its first entry in 2004. [1] The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2007 with the song "Work Your Magic" performed by Koldun. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Belarus had managed to qualify to the final five times. In 2017, Belarus managed to qualify to the final with the song "Story of My Life" performed by Naviband. In 2018, Belarus failed to qualify to the final with the song "Forever" performed by Alekseev.

The Belarusian national broadcaster, Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC), broadcasts the event within Belarus and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster has used both internal selections and national finals to select the Belarusian entry for Eurovision in the past. Since 2012, BTRC has organised a national final in order to choose Belarus' entry, a selection procedure that continued for their 2019 entry. [2]

Before Eurovision

Natsionalny Otbor

The Belarusian national final, titled Natsionalny Otbor, took place on 7 March 2019. Ten songs participated in the competition and the winner was selected exclusively via a jury. The show was broadcast on Belarus 1, Belarus 24 and Radius FM as well as online via the broadcaster's official website tvr.by.

Competing entries

Artists and composers were able to submit their applications and entries to the broadcaster between 23 January 2019 and 31 January 2019. At the closing of the deadline, a record 113 entries were received by the broadcaster. [3] Auditions were held on 4 February 2019 at the BTRC "600 Metrov" studio where a jury panel was tasked with selecting up to fifteen entries from the 73 attendees to proceed to the televised national final. [4] The auditions were webcast online at the official BTRC website. [5] The jury consisted of Alyona Lanskaya (singer, represented Belarus at Eurovision in 2013), Teo (singer, represented Belarus at Eurovision in 2014), German (singer), Angelina Mikulskaya (producer), Evgeny Perlin (television host), Andrey Kalina (producer), Elena Atrashkevich (head of the Belarusian Union of Composers), Olga Vronskaya (singer), Igor Melnikov (vocal coach), Valery Prigun (singer) and Vasily Golovan (deputy head of the department of special cultural events at the Belarusian Ministry of Culture).[ citation needed ] Ten finalists were selected and announced on 4 February 2019. [6]

Final

The televised final took place on 7 March 2019 at the "600 Metrov" studio in Minsk, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova and 2014 Belarusian Eurovision contestant Teo. Prior to the competition, a draw for the running order took place on 5 February 2019. [7] The votes of seven jury members made up of music professionals exclusively selected the song "Like It" performed by Zena as the winner. Each jury member assigned scores to each song ranging from 1 (lowest score) to 10 (highest score) immediately after the artists conclude their performance. The jury consisted of Elena Atrashkevich (head of the Belarusian Union of Composers), Tatyana Drobysheva (singer, vocal teacher at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts), Valeriy Prigun (singer), Dmitry Koldun (singer, represented Belarus at Eurovision in 2007), Aleks David (singer-songwriter), Gleb Davidov (television and radio host) and Yana Stankevich (producer). [8] [9]

Final – 7 March 2019
DrawArtistSongSongwriter(s)PointsPlace
1Michael Soul"Humanize"Michael Soul, Yuliya Kolovertnykh, Andrey Katikov, Vladislav Pashkevich 594
2 Zena "Like It"Yulia Kireeva, Viktor Drobysh, Zinaida Kupriyanovich691
3Eva Kogan"Run"Leonid Shirin, Natalia Tambovtseva5410
4BLGN and Mirex"Champion"Sasha Balagan, Mirex Silva652
5Sebastian Roos"Never Getting Close"Alberto Estebanez, Lars Carlsson, Björn Ledelius, Sebastian Roos623
6Alyona Gorbachova"Can We Dream"Leonid Shirin, Aleksey Shirin594
7Provokatsiya"Running Away from the Sun"Kirill Good, Denis Yasuchenya558
8Aura"Charavala" (Чаравала)Evgeniy Oleynik558
9 Napoli "Let It Go"Aleksandra Tkach587
10KeySi"No Love Lost"Dmitriy Fomich, Kseniya Fomich594
Detailed jury votes
DrawSong
E. Atrashkevich
T. Drobysheva
V. Prigun
D. Koldun
A. David
G. Davidov
Y. Stankevich
Total
1"Humanize"987899959
2"Like It"910101010101069
3"Run"879877854
4"Champion"7910101091065
5"Never Getting Close"101091087862
6"Can We Dream"979988959
7"Running Away from the Sun"788887955
8"Charavala"888788855
9"Let It Go"998977958
10"No Love Lost"998978959

Promotion

Zena made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Like It" as the Belarusian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, Zena performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Edsilia Rombley and Marlayne. [10] On 14 April, Zena performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell. [11]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Belarus was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. [12]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Belarus was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from Hungary and before the entry from Serbia. [13]

The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Belarus on Belarus 1 and Belarus 24 with commentary by Evgeny Perlin. The Belarusian spokesperson, who announce the top 12-point score awarded by the Belarusian jury during the final, was 2015 Belarusian representative Uzari.

Semi-final

Zena during a rehearsal before the first semi-final ESC2019 - Belarus 01.jpg
Zena during a rehearsal before the first semi-final

Zena took part in technical rehearsals on 4 and 9 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May. This included the jury show on 13 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. [14]

The Belarusian performance featured Zena wearing a crop top and pants in comic-inspired print as well as thigh-high white boots, performing on stage together with two male dancers and two female dancers, the latter which also performed backing vocals. The performance began with Zena sitting on a music equipment boxes, carried by the male dancers to centre stage. [15] [16] The LED screens displayed various coloured animations, while the stage featured several music equipment boxes as well as smoke and pyrotechnic flame effects. [17] The four dancers that joined Zena were: Ali Gudiev, Mike Isaev, Radmira Mantuliny and Sofia Mantuliny. An additional off-stage backing vocalist was also featured: Olga Dorozhey. [18]

At the end of the show, Belarus was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Belarus placed tenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 122 points: 44 points from the televoting and 78 points from the juries.

Final

Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Belarus was drawn to compete in the second half. [19] Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Belarus was subsequently placed to perform in position 19, following the entry from Estonia and before the entry from Azerbaijan.

Zena once again took part in dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. Zena performed a repeat of her semi-final performance during the final on 18 May. Belarus placed twenty-fourth in the final, scoring 31 points: 13 points from the televoting and 18 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final. [20]

The Belarusian jury was fired after the first semi-final for partially revealing their results early and was not replaced by another jury. The "jury" vote for the final was an average of the jury votes of other countries with similar voting records. Due to an error by tabulators Digame and Ernst & Young, the wrong jury vote was presented during the live broadcast and the bottom 10 countries in the aggregate were incorrectly awarded the Belarusian points. The erroneous votes were: Australia 1, Iceland 2, Serbia 3, San Marino 4, United Kingdom 5, Spain 6, Norway 7, Germany 8, Estonia 10 and Israel 12 points. Several days after the broadcast, the EBU corrected the Belarusian jury votes, which are reflected in the table below. [21]

Points awarded to Belarus

Points awarded by Belarus

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Belarusian jury: [20]

  • Valeriy Prigun (jury chairperson) singer
  • Anastasiya Tikhanovitch singer, producer
  • Artsem Mikhalenka singer, TV host, represented Belarus in the 2010 contest as member of 3+2
  • Anzhela Mikulskaya TV producer
  • Olga Rizhikova singer, TV host, songwriter
Detailed voting results from Belarus (Semi-final 1) [22]
DrawCountryJuryTelevote
A. TikhanovitchA. MikhalenkaV. PrigunA. MikulskayaO. RizhikovaRankPointsRankPoints
01Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 5107657413
02Flag of Montenegro.svg  Montenegro 12111114151316
03Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 13151615161615
04Flag of Poland.svg  Poland 1035545665
05Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 15121413101438
06Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 844434783
07Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 4149999211
08Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus
09Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 9131312131274
10Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 1651216121112
11Flag of Georgia.svg  Georgia 19222210101
12Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 7133738210
13Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 116101114101112
14Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 6211111256
15Flag of Portugal (official).svg  Portugal 14161510111592
16Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 276766514
17Flag of San Marino.svg  San Marino 388888347

An aggregate jury result was used for the final and corrected after the fact; the following table shows the revised aggregate jury result and the full televoting rankings. [23]

Detailed voting results from Belarus (Final) [23]
DrawCountryJuryTelevote
RankPointsRankPoints
01Flag of Malta.svg  Malta 11219
02Flag of Albania.svg  Albania 1422
03Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czech Republic 1115
04Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 2323
05Flag of Russia.svg  Russia 101112
06Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 1512
07Flag of San Marino.svg  San Marino 19101
08Flag of North Macedonia.svg  North Macedonia 21018
09Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 9211
10Flag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia 1265
11Flag of Cyprus.svg  Cyprus 3820
12Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 56210
13Flag of Greece.svg  Greece 8324
14Flag of Israel.svg  Israel 2521
15Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 2238
16Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 2025
17Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland 1747
18Flag of Estonia.svg  Estonia 2413
19Flag of Belarus.svg  Belarus
20Flag of Azerbaijan.svg  Azerbaijan 6556
21Flag of France.svg  France 1314
22Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 4783
23Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia 1816
24Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland 7474
25Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 1692
26Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 2117

References

  1. "Belarus Country Profile". EBU . Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. Granger, Anthony (30 January 2019). "Belarus: Eurovision 2018 participation confirmed". Eurovoix.com. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  3. Granger, Anthony (1 February 2019). "Belarus: 113 Submissions Received for Eurovision 2019". Eurovoix. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  4. "Eurovision 2019 - ZENA (Belarus) / ЗЕНА (Беларусь)". esckaz.com. Retrieved 16 October 2024.
  5. "Belarus: Today: Belarus – Live Auditions Round". eurovoix.com. 4 February 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  6. Groot, Evert (5 February 2019). "Belarus unveils ten hopefuls for Tel Aviv, jury to make the final call". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  7. Herbert, Emily (5 February 2019). "Belarus: Eurovision National Final Running Order Revealed". Eurovoix.
  8. Martinovich, Denis (7 March 2019). "16-летняя подопечная Виктора Дробыша представит Беларусь на "Евровидении"". Tut.by (in Russian).
  9. "Беларусь на «Евровидении-2019» представит 16-летняя Зинаида Куприянович (Zena)". show-biz.by (in Russian). 8 March 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  10. "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
  11. "This was the London Eurovision Party 2019". eurovision.tv. 19 April 2019. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  12. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  13. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Archived from the original on 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  14. Van Eersel, Dennis (28 April 2019). "Rehearsal Schedule Eurovision 2019". ESCDaily. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  15. "Belarus' ZENA debuts 'Like It' on the Eurovision 2019 stage". eurovision.tv. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  16. Jumawan, Tim (4 May 2021). "LIVE DAY 1 REVIEW: 🇧🇾 ZENA giving us a youthful and polished performance – Belarus 🇧🇾". escXtra. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  17. "Day 1 continued with first rehearsals from Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary, Belarus and Serbia". EuroVisionary. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  18. "Первая репетиция Беларуси на конкурсе Евровидение-2019". OGAE Russia (in Russian). 4 May 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  19. "First Semi-Final qualifiers celebrate the love together!". eurovision.tv. 15 May 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  20. 1 2 Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  21. "EBU Issues Statement on the 2019 Grand Final Result". eurovision.tv. 22 May 2019. Archived from the original on 24 May 2019. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  22. 1 2 3 "Results of the First Semi-Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  23. 1 2 3 4 "Results of the Grand Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 July 2022. Retrieved 13 July 2022.