Belarus originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. 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 2020 contest in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. However, due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Europe, the contest was cancelled.
Prior to the 2020 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 Dmitry Koldun. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Belarus had managed to qualify to the final six times. In 2019, Belarus qualified to the final with the song "Like It" performed by Zena ending in the 24th place with 31 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 2020 entry.
Before Eurovision[]
Nationalny Otbor[]
The Belarusian national final Nationalny Otbor took place on 28 February 2020. Twelve songs participated in the competition and the winner was selected through a jury and public televote. 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 9 January 2020 and 17 January 2020.[2] At the closing of the deadline, 95 entries were received by the broadcaster. 49 entries were shortlisted and auditions were held on 27 January 2020 at the BTRC "600 Metrov" studio where a jury panel was tasked with selecting up to twelve entries to proceed to the televised national final.[3] The auditions were webcast online at the official BTRC website. The jury consisted of Tatyana Yakusheva, Georgiy Koldun, Zena, Elena Atrashkevich, Naviband, Yuriy Seleznyov, Yana Stankevich and Vladislava Artyukovskaya. Twelve finalists were selected and announced on 27 January 2020.[4]
The televised final took place on 28 February 2020 at the "Belarusfilm" studio in Minsk, hosted by Evgeny Perlin and 2017 Belarusian Junior Eurovision contestantHelena Meraai. Prior to the competition, a draw for the running order took place on 28 January 2020.[5] A 50/50 combination of votes from jury members made up of music professionals and a public telephone vote selected the song "Da vidna" performed by VАL as the winner. The jury consisted of Stig Karlsen, Dmitry Koldun, William Lee Adams, Olga Vorobyova, Zena, Alex Panayi, Tali Eshkoli, Yuriy Seleznyov and Joana Levieva-Sawyer.
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 2020, 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 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[6] However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.
Belarus