Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country Belarus
National selection
Selection processNationalny Otbor
Selection date(s)7 March 2019
Selected entrantZena
Selected song"Like It"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (10th, 122 points)
Final result24th, 31 points
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Belarus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Belarusian broadcaster National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus (BTRC) organised a national final in order to select the Belarusian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Background[]

Main article: Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Belarus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 15 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 Dmitry Koldun. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Belarus had managed to qualify to the final five times. In 2017, Belarus managed to qualify to the final with the song "Historyja majho žyccia" performed by Naviband. In 2018, Belarus failed to qualify to the final with the song "Forever" performed by Alekseev ending in the 16th place with 65 points.

The Belarusian national broadcaster, National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus (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 will continue for their 2019 entry.[2]

Before Eurovision[]

Nationalny Otbor[]

The Belarusian national final Nationalny 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, 113 entries were received by the broadcaster. 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 to proceed to the televised national final. The auditions were webcast online at the official BTRC website.[3] The jury consisted of Alyona Lanskaya, Teo, German, Angelina Mikulskaya, Evgeny Perlin, Andrey Kalina, Elena Atrashkevich, Olga Vronskaya, Igor Melnikov, Valery Prigun and Vasily Golovan. Ten finalists were selected and announced on 4 February 2019.

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.[4] 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, Tatyana Drobysheva, Valery Prigun, Dmitry Koldun, Aleks David, Gleb Davidov and Yana Stankevich.[5]

Final – 7 March 2019
Draw Artist Song Songwriter(s) Points Place
1 Michael Soul "Humanize" Michael Soul, Yuliya Kolovertnykh, Andrey Katikov, Vladislav Pashkevich 59 4
2 Zena "Like It" Yulia Kireeva, Viktor Drobysh, Zinaida Kupriyanovich 69 1
3 Eva Kogan "Run" Leonid Shirin, Natalia Tambovtseva 54 10
4 BLGN and Mirex "Champion" Sasha Balagan, Mirex Silva 65 2
5 Sebastian Roos "Never Getting Close" Alberto Estebanez, Lars Carlsson, Björn Ledelius, Sebastian Roos 62 3
6 Alyona Gorbachova "Can We Dream" Leonid Shirin, Aleksey Shirin 59 4
7 Provokatsiya "Running Away from the Sun" Kirill Good, Denis Yasuchenya 55 8
8 Aura "Čaravala" (Чаравала) Evgeniy Oleynik 55 8
9 Napoli "Let It Go" Aleksandra Tkach 58 7
10 KeySi "No Love Lost" Dmitriy Fomich, Kseniya Fomich 59 4

Promotion[]

Zena made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Like It" as the Belarusian Eurovision entry. On 6 April, she performed during the Eurovision in Concert event at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, hosted by Cornald Maas and Marlayne, to over 4500 spectators.[6] Zena also performed during the London Eurovision Party in London on 14 April at the Café de Paris venue, which was hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.[7]

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.[8]

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 preceding the entry from Serbia.[9]

Semi-final[]

Belarus performed eighth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Hungary and preceding the entry from Serbia. 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[]

In the final, Belarus performed 19th, following the entry from Estonia and preceding the entry from Azerbaijan. At the end of the show, Belarus placed 24th out of 26 countries, receiving a total of 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 will be released shortly after the grand final.[10]

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.[11]

Points awarded to Belarus[]

Points awarded by Belarus[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Belarusian jury:[10]

  • 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)[12]
Draw Country Jury Televote
A. Tikhanovitch A. Mikhalenka V. Prigun A. Mikulskaya O. Rizhikova Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Cyprus 5 10 7 6 5 7 4 13
02  Montenegro 12 11 11 14 15 13 16
03  Finland 13 15 16 15 16 16 15
04  Poland 10 3 5 5 4 5 6 6 5
05  Slovenia 15 12 14 13 10 14 3 8
06  Czech Republic 8 4 4 4 3 4 7 8 3
07  Hungary 4 14 9 9 9 9 2 11
08  Belarus
09  Serbia 9 13 13 12 13 12 7 4
10  Belgium 16 5 12 16 12 11 12
11  Georgia 1 9 2 2 2 2 10 10 1
12  Australia 7 1 3 3 7 3 8 2 10
13  Iceland 11 6 10 11 14 10 1 1 12
14  Estonia 6 2 1 1 1 1 12 5 6
15  Portugal 14 16 15 10 11 15 9 2
16  Greece 2 7 6 7 6 6 5 14
17  San Marino 3 8 8 8 8 8 3 4 7

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. ^ "Belarus: Today: Belarus – Live Auditions Round". eurovoix.com. 4 February 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  4. ^ Herbert, Emily (5 February 2019). "Belarus: Eurovision National Final Running Order Revealed". Eurovoix.
  5. ^ Martinovich, Denis (7 March 2019). "16-летняя подопечная Виктора Дробыша представит Беларусь на "Евровидении"". Tut.by (in Russian).
  6. ^ "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
  7. ^ "18 Eurovision 2019 acts to perform in London on Sunday 14 April". Eurovision.tv. 13 April 2019.
  8. ^ Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  10. ^ a b Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  11. ^ "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.
  12. ^ a b c "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.
  13. ^ a b "Results of the Grand Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
Retrieved from ""