Vitebsk or Vitsyebsk is a city in northern Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Vitebsk Region and Vitebsk District, though it is administratively separated from the district. As of 2024, it has 358,395 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest city. It is served by Vitebsk Vostochny Airport and Vitebsk Air Base.
Belarus is an Eastern European country with a rich tradition of folk and religious music. The country's folk music traditions can be traced back to the times of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The country's musical traditions spread with its people to countries like Russia, Canada, United States, Kazakhstan and Latvia. The people of Belarus were exposed mostly to Russian pop music during this period and also after independence in 1991. In 2002, however, President Alexander Lukashenko has signed a decree requiring 50% of all FM broadcast music to be Belarusian in origin, and since 1 January 2005 the rule has been even stricter. However, it does not regulate the language of the songs, so most of the music which is broadcast is still in Russian.
Belarusian culture is the product of a millennium of development under the impact of a number of diverse factors. These include the physical environment; the ethnographic background of Belarusians ; the paganism of the early settlers and their hosts; Eastern Orthodox Christianity as a link to the Byzantine literary and cultural traditions; the country's lack of natural borders; the flow of rivers toward both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea; and the variety of religions in the region.
Natalia Yuryevna Podolskaya is a Belarusian singer who performed for Russia at the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest and was ranked No. 15. In 2008, she became a Russian citizen. In 2015, she won the Golden Gramophone Award.
Ksenia Mikhailovna Sitnik, sometimes also transliterated as Kseniya Sitnik or Xenia Sitnik, is a Belarusian pop singer. She represented Belarus in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005, which she won with the self-penned song "My vmeste".
Ruslan Fyodorovich Alekhno is a Belarusian-Russian singer who rose to popularity after winning Narodniy Artist – 2, the Russian version of Pop Idol. Alekhno received the Medal of Francysk Skaryna in 2019.
beZ bileta is a Belarusian alternative rock band from Minsk active since 1998.
Kasia Miednik is best known as a young girl singer from Poland.
Alexey Alexandrovich Zhigalkovich is a Belarusian singer. He participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 and won with one point more than the Armenian runner up. He sang the song "S druz'yami". It was a song with a fast tempo and energetic dancing. He wrote this song himself.
Vlatko "Lozano" Lozanoski is a Macedonian singer. Together with Esma Redžepova, he represented Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden.
Petr Petrovich Elfimov is a singer from Belarus who represented his nation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. He won the national selection of Belarus on 19 January 2009 with the rock/pop song Eyes That Never Lie. The song competed in the first semi-final as the fourth act. On 16 May it failed to win a place in the final, finishing 13th of 18 acts, receiving a total of 25 points. However, he has participated in the contest in the past as one of the backing singers for Aleksandra and Konstantin in the 2004 contest.
Federation Internationale des Organisations de Festivals was an organization to hold and organize festivals worldwide. It was established in 1966, and headquartered in Split, Yugoslavia with Secretary General professor Armando Moreno. Later, it was headquartered in California, United States, where it was registered as a Section 501(c) non-profit organization. It was the member of the U.S. National Music Council. The organization ceased to exist in 2005 after the death of its founder.
Alyona Lanskaya is a Belarusian singer. In 2011, she won the Slavianski Bazaar Contest in Vitebsk. Alyona represented Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden with the song "Solayoh", qualifying from the semi-final of the competition and placing 16th in the final by scoring 48 points.
Dayana Yurievna Kirillova is a Russian singer. She is a multiple laureate of Russian and international song contests, the Russian representative at the 2013 Slavianski Bazaar, and the Russian representative at the 2013 Junior Eurovision which took place on 30 November in Kyiv.
"Into a Fantasy" is a song by Norwegian singer-songwriter Alexander Rybak. It was released on 12 June 2014 as a digital download in Norway. The song features on the How to Train Your Dragon 2 soundtrack, though it only appears in the European versions of the film. The song was written by Alexander Rybak and produced by Knut Bjørnar Asphol.
Naviband is an indie pop band from Belarus (Minsk) that has been Warsaw-based since 2020. The band was founded as a duo between singer/songwriter and guitar player Artsiom Lukyanenka and singer/songwriter Kseniya Zhuk (Lukyanenka), later also featured guitar player, producer Aliaksandr Tabolski, bass - Uladzislaŭ Čaščavik, drums - Uladzimir Beher, Yaroslav Tomilo as a sound engineer and manager.
VAL is a Belarusian band comprising Valeria Gribusova and Vladislav Pashkevich.
Zinaida Alexandrovna Kupriyanovich, sometimes known professionally as Zina Kupriyanovich or Zena, and now known as Zina Bless, is a Belarusian singer, actress, and television presenter. Kupriyanovich represented Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Like It", placing 24th in the final. She has additionally cohosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Minsk, and voiced the Russian dub of the eponymous character in the film Moana (2016).
Gunesh Alisafayevna Abasova, often known simply as Gunesh, is a Belarusian-Azerbaijani singer-songwriter. She represented Belarus in the Turkvision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Son Hatıralar".
Larisa Vladimirovna Gribaleva is a Belarusian singer, TV presenter and actress.
