Belarus at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

2004

Number of participations

16 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

6 ( 2007 )

Highest Score

145 (2007)

Lowest Score

10 ( 2004 SF , 2006 SF )

Points average (since first post)

48.44 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

1.02 (as of 2019)

This article deals with the history of Belarus as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

In 2007, Dmitry Kaldun achieved Belarus' best result in the competition with 6th place

Although the Belarusian broadcaster BTRC became a member of the European Broadcasting Union in 1993 , the country did not take part in the competition until 2004. The debut was not very successful, however, because the duo Aljaxandra & Kanstanzin only landed 19th out of 22 in the semifinals. In 2005, the Belarusian entry was eliminated in the semifinals. In 2006 the singer Palina Smolawa only landed on the penultimate place in the semi-finals with 10 points, which is still the worst result in the country. So the success came all the more surprising in 2007, when the singer Dmitry Kaldun took 4th place in the semifinals and thus Belarus reached the final for the first time. The country then landed in 6th place with 145 points, which is the best Belarusian result to date. 2008 could not build on this success, however, because the singer Ruslan Aljachno only landed third from last place in the semifinals. In 2009 the Belarusian contribution was eliminated in the semi-finals. In 2010, however, the band achieved 3 + 2 feat. Robert Wells for the first time since 2007 the final again. However, the contribution Butterflies only landed on the penultimate place. In 2011 and 2012, however, the Belarusian contributions were eliminated in the semifinals. It wasn't until 2013 that things started to get better for the country.

In 2013 the singer Aljona Lanskaja made it to 7th place in the semi-finals, so that the country took part in the final for the first time since 2010. In the final, the second best result to date was achieved with 16th place and 48 points. In 2014 they made it into the final after the singer Teo took 5th place in the semifinals. This is the first time that two Belarusian finals have taken part in a row. Finally, Teo also ended up in 16th place in the final. In 2015 and 2016, however, the Belarusian entries only ended up in 12th place in the semi-finals, which means that the country missed the final again. In 2017, Naviband made it to the final again, as they finished 9th in the semifinals. In the final, her contribution Story Of My Life, sung in Belarusian, reached 17th place. In 2018, Alekseev missed the final again. In 2019 the singer ZENA just managed to qualify for the final with 10th place in the semifinals and ended up only in third from last place in the final.

Overall, only one of the 16 entries ended up in the left half of the table. With only six finals since the semifinals were introduced in 2004, Belarus is also one of the countries that has been eliminated most often (ten times) in the semifinals. Only Switzerland was eliminated more often (eleven times) in the semi-finals. With no final place, but some placements among the last five, but also no positions among the top five, Belarus is one of the rather unsuccessful participants in the competition.

List of posts

Note: The names correspond to the transcription of Belorussian Cyrillic. The English transcriptions of Russian were always used at the international finals.

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
2004	Aljaxandra & Kanstanzin Аляксандра і Канстанцін	My Galileo M: Aljaxandra & Kanstanzin ; T: Aleksey Solomaha	English	My Galileo	Eliminated		19/22	10	Eurofest 2004
2005	Anzhalika Ahurbasch Анжаліка Агурбаш	Love Me Tonight M: Nikos Terzis; T: Nektarios Tyrakis	English	Love me tonight	Eliminated		13/25	67	Eurofest 2005
2006	Palina Smolawa Паліна Смолава	Mum M: Sergey Suchomlin; T: Andrei Kostiugov	English	mummy	Eliminated		22/23	10	Eurofest 2006
2007	Dmitry Kaldun Дмітры Калдун	Work Your Magic M: Filipp Kirkorow ; T: Karen Kawalerjan	English	Handle your magic	6/24	145	4/28	176	Eurofest 2007
2008	Ruslan Aljachno Руслан Аляхно	Hasta la vista M: Taras Demchuk; T: Eleonora Melnik	English	Goodbye	Eliminated		17/19	27	Eurofest 2008
2009	Pyotr Jalfimau Пётр Ялфімаў	Eyes That Never Lie M: Pjatro Jalfimau ; T: Walery Prochoschy	English	Eyes that never lie	Eliminated		13/18	25th	Eurofest 2009
2010	3 + 2 feat. Robert Wells	Butterflies M: Maxim Fadejew ; T: Malka Tschaplin	English	Butterflies	24/25	18th	9/17	59	internal selection
2011	Anastassija Vinnikawa Анастасія Віннікава	I Love Belarus M: Yevgeni Oleynik; T: Yevgeni Oleynik, Svetlana Geraskova	English	I love Belarus	Eliminated		14/19	45	internal selection
2012	Litesound	We Are the Heroes M / T: Dmitriy Karyakin , Vladimir Karyakin	English	We are the heroes	Eliminated		16/18	35	Eurofest 2012
2013	Aljona Lanskaya Алена Ланская	Solayoh M: Marc Paelinck; T: Martin King	English	Fictional planet of joy	16/26	48	7/16	64	Eurofest 2013
2014	Teo	Cheesecake M: Yuriy Vaschuk ; T: Dmitry Novik	English	Cheesecake	16/26	43	5/15	87	Eurofest 2014
2015	Uzari & Maimuna Узари и Маймуна	Time M: Uzari ; T: Gerylana, Maimuna	English	time	Eliminated		12/16	39	Eurofest 2015
2016	Ivan Иван	Help You Fly M: Viktor Drobytsch; T: Mary Applegate	English	Help you fly	Eliminated		12/18	84	Eurofest 2016
2017	Naviband	Story of My Life M / T: Artem Lukjanienko	Belarusian with English title	story of my life	17/26	83	9/18	110	Eurofest 2017
2018	Alekseev	Forever M: Kyrylo Pavlov; T: Yevhen Matyushenko	English	Forever	Eliminated		16/19	65	Eurofest 2018
2019	ZENA	Like It M: Yulia Kireeva, Viktor Drobysh; T: Yulia Kireeva	English	To like it	24/26	31	10/17	122	Eurofest 2019
2020	VAL	Da widna Да відна M / T: Vladislav Pashkevich , Valery Grybusava , Nikita Naydenov	Belarusian	Until dawn	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				Eurofest 2020

National preliminary decisions

All Belarusian contributions, except 2010 and 2011, were selected via the Eurofest preliminary decision . In 2010 there was confusion about the preliminary decision, because after the decision of President Aljaksandr Lukashenka not BRTC was entrusted with the preliminary decision , but ONT, the second state broadcaster. Since this is not a member of the European Broadcasting Union, the preliminary decision Musykalni sud , which had already started, was canceled and BRTC decided on an internal selection. The choice fell on group 3 + 2 and the song Far Away , who had already participated in Musykalni sud . The song was later changed to Butterflies . In 2011, the contribution was selected internally from the start, but the text had to be rewritten later because the text was too political. In 2013, Aljona Lanskaja's contribution from Rhythm of Love was changed to Solayoh , because according to the rules of the preliminary decision, the participants are entitled to change the winning title. The Eurofest itself has so far taken place under different modes.

Classic preliminary decision

In 2004, the winner was chosen from 15 participants by telephone vote . Since 2013 there has always been a broadcast with ten to 15 participants. From 2013 to 2015 as well as 2017 and 2018, 50% of the jury voting and 50% of the televoting determined the winner. In 2016, the televoting alone determined the winner, in 2019 only a jury determined the winner.

Preliminary decision with superfinals

In 2005 and 2006, from 15 candidates, the three best were selected by televoting, then a jury decided on the winner in the superfinal .

Preliminary decision with semi-finals

From 2007 to 2009 and 2012, a semi-final with three to four candidates took place before the final. The rules of these events said that the singers had the opportunity to change their songs. That is what Anschalika Ahurbasch did in 2005 after the finals (from Boys and Girls to Love Me Tonight ) and Koldun in 2007, where he sang Angel metschty in the semi-finals and only then switched to Work Your Magic .

languages

With the exception of 2017 and 2020, all contributions were presented entirely in English ; the country's two official languages ​​- Belarusian and Russian - did not occur until 2017. Belarusian was only heard in 2017, making it the last official language in Europe at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Work Your Magic, Hasta la vista and Eyes That Never Lie were recorded in Russian as well as English, while the 2011 contribution, I Love Belarus , was recorded in both Russian and Belarusian. The 2009 contribution was sung in Belarusian during the preliminary decision, but was then translated into English for the ESC.

In the preliminary round of 2004, all contributions had to be sung in at least English, but had Russian song titles (Aljaxandra and Kanstanzin's winning title at the time was Moi Galilei ).

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to Belarus (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Russia 166 2  Ukraine 126 3  Azerbaijan 071 4th  Norway 066 5  Sweden 053

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  Ukraine 50 2  Russia 41 3  Azerbaijan 32 4th  Georgia 31 5  Moldova 26th

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Ukraine 215 2  Russia 212 3  Moldova 104 4th  Lithuania 101 5  Norway 099

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Ukraine 155 2  Russia 089 3  Georgia 087 4th  Lithuania 083 5  Moldova 077

Award of the highest rating

Since 2004 Belarus has given the highest number of points in the final to seven different countries, twelve of them to Russia. In the semifinals, however, Belarus gave the highest number of points to twelve different countries, six of them to Ukraine.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 2004  Russia 11 2005  Russia 15th 2006  Russia 2 2007  Russia 3 2008  Russia 1 2009  Norway 1 2010  Russia 11 2011  Georgia 9 2012  Russia 2 2013  Ukraine 3 2014  Russia 7th 2015  Russia 2 2016  Russia (J&T) 3 2017  Bulgaria (J&T) 2 2018  Cyprus (J) 2  Ukraine (T) 17th 2019  Malta (J) 14th  Russia (T) 3 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2004  Ukraine 2 2005  Israel 7th 2006  Russia 3 2007  Moldova 10 2008  Ukraine 1 2009  Iceland 1 2010  Russia 7th 2011  Ukraine 6th 2012  Ukraine 8th 2013  Ukraine 3 2014  Greece 7th 2015  Russia 1 2016  Belgium (J) 3  Ukraine (T) 2 2017  Bulgaria (J&T) 1 2018  Albania (J) 8th  Armenia (T) 15th 2019  Estonia (J) 4th  Iceland (T) 3 2020 Competition canceled

various

• Belarus could only qualify for the final until 2017 if the ESC took place in a Scandinavian country: 2007 in Helsinki, 2010 in Oslo, 2013 in Malmö and 2014 in Copenhagen. This was not the case for the first time in Stockholm in 2016. In 2017, in Ukraine, Belarus also qualified for the final, for the first time outside of Scandinavia.
• Four times in a row (2010–2013) the first contribution selected in the Belarusian preliminary decision was replaced by another contribution. 2010 by the broadcaster, 2011 because of a political text, 2012 because of a fraud in the vote and in 2013 by the singer.
• Belarus was the first country to take part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest before the first ESC participation.

Impressions

• 

  Ruslan Aljachno 2008

• 

  3 + 2 2010

• 

  Litesound 2012

• 

  Aljona Lanskaya 2013

• 

  Teo 2014

• 

  Uzari & Maimuna 2015

• 

  Ivan 2016

• 

  Naviband 2017

• 

  Alekseev 2018

• 

  ZENA 2019