Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Eurovision Song Contest 2015
Country  Belarus
National selection
Selection process National Final
Selection date(s) 26 December 2014
Selected entrant Uzari & Maimuna
Selected song "Time"
Selected songwriter(s)
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2014 • 2015

Belarus will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, Austria. Their entry was selected through a national final, organised by the Belarusian broadcaster National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus (BTRC). The country will be represented by the song "Time" performed by Uzari & Maimuna and written by Uzari and Svetlana Geraskova.

Background

Prior to the 2015 Contest, Belarus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eleven times since its first entry in 2004.[1] Its best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2007 with the song "Work Your Magic" performed by Dmitry Koldun. Since the introduction of a semi-final to the format of the contest in 2004, Belarus had managed to qualify to compete in the final four times. In 2014, Belarus qualified to the final and placed sixteenth with the song "Cheesecake" performed by Teo.

On 8 September 2014, BTRC confirmed that they would participate in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.[2] On 25 September 2014, the broadcaster revealed that it would select the Belarusian entry through a national final.[3]

National final

BTRC organized a national final in order to select the Belarusian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The competition took place on 26 December 2014 where fifteen songs competed and the winning song was selected by votes from a jury panel and a public televote.[4] The competition was broadcast on Belarus 1 and Belarus 24.[5]

Competing entries

Artists and composers were able to submit their applications and entries to the competition between 21 October 2014 and 21 November 2014.[6] At the closing of the deadline, over 110 entries were received by the broadcaster.[7] An audition round was held on 4 and 5 December 2014 at the BTRC "600 Metrov" studio where a jury panel selected fifteen entries from the 89 attendees to proceed to the televised national final.[8] The audition round was webcast online at the BTRC website.[5] The jury consisted of Vasily Rainchik (musician/composer), Alexander Tikhanovich (singer), Elena Treshchinskaya (head of the radio station "Radius FM"), Olga Ryzhikova (television host), Evgeniy Papkovich (executive producer of the BTRC channel Belarus 1), Andrey Kholodinskiy (music editor at the radio station "Radio-Roks") and Marianna Drabovich (head of the Department of Arts, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus).[8] The finalists were announced on 5 December 2014 during the Belarus 1 program Panorama.[5][8]

Final

The national final took place on 26 December 2014 at the "600 Metrov" studio in Minsk, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova and Denis Dudinskiy.[9] Prior to the competition, a draw for the running order took place on 7 December 2014.[10] A seven-member jury (7/8) and a public televote (1/8) selected the song "Time" performed by Uzari & Maimuna as the winner.[11] The members of the jury were Gennadiy Davidko (BTRC Chairman), Eduard Zaritskiy (People's Artist of Belarus/composer), Marianna Drabovich (head of the Department of Arts, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus), Andrei Mikheev (music critic), Sergei Andrianov (journalist), Elena Treshchinskaya (head of the radio station "Radius FM") and Dimitri Novik (television presenter).[11]

In addition to the performances from the competitors, the show featured guest performances by 2014 Belarusian entrant Teo, 2013 Belarusian entrant Alyona Lanskaya, Drozdy, Victoria Aleshko, Misters, Eliz, Dubravin & Krasovskiy, Aura, 4L and Olga Gornichar.[11]

Draw Artist Song Composer(s) Televote Jury Total Place
1 NAPOLI "My Dreams" Olga Shimanskaya, Aleksey Zubarevich 1,159 7 29 36 6
2 Lis "Angel" Denis Lis, Dmitriy Minin 424 2 17 19 9
3 Daria "Love Is My Colour" Daria, Pavel Baranovsky 193 0 14 14 11
4 Gunesh "I Believe in a Miracle" Gunesh Abasova, Svetlana Geraskova 531 3 59 62 3
5 Muzzart "Only Dance" Vladimir Krutikov, Yana Butskevich 2,862 12 18 30 7
6 Valeria Sadovskaya "Summer Love" Leonid Shirin, Alexei Shirin 403 0 28 28 8
7 ROSTANY "Electric Toys" Viktor Rudenko 373 0 9 9 13
8 Janet "Supernova" Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, William Taylor 200 0 5 5 14
9 Alexey Gross "Stand As One" Leonid Shirin, Alexei Shirin, Yuri Vashchuk 917 5 40 45 5
10 Milki "Accent" Alexander Rybak, Yaroslav Rakitin 2,226 10 37 47 4
11 Uzari & Maimuna "Time" Yuri Navrotsky, Svetlana Geraskova 1,188 8 68 76 1
12 Beatrees "Fighter" Jamie Sellers 939 6 10 16 10
13 Vitaly Voronko "Drajv" (Drive) Vitaly Voronko, Vladimir Kubyshkin 268 0 1 1 15
14 Anastasia Malashkevich "Don't Save My Name" Pavel Klyshevsky, A. Vahomchik 710 4 62 66 2
15 Tasha Odi "Giving Up Your Love" Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Peter Hageras, Niclas Haglund 408 1 9 10 12

At Eurovision

All countries except the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the host country, 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 five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[12] On 26 January 2015, an 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 19 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Belarus Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (8 September 2014). "Belarus: BTRC confirms participation in Eurovision 2015". ESCToday. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (25 September 2014). "Belarus: BTRC opts for a national final". ESCToday. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Jiandani, Sanjay (20 November 2014). "Belarus: National final on 26 December". Esctoday.com. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Финалисты национального отбора на "Евровидение-2015" определены" (in Russian). BTRC. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "BTRC announces launch of national selection for Song Contest "Eurovision-2015"". BTRC. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "Шансы каждого из претендентов на победу в белорусском отборочном туре «Евровидения-2015» — один к семи" (in Russian). Interfax Belarus. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Olena, Omelyanchuk (5 December 2014). "Belarus: Who will compete in the national final?". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 5 December 2014.
  9. ↑ "Белтелерадиокомпания продолжает подготовку к проведению финала национального отборочного тура Международного конкурса песни "Евровидение-2015"" (in Russian). BTRC. 15 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  10. ↑ "Порядок выступления финалистов национального отбора "Евровидения" определен" (in Russian). BTRC. 7 December 2014. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Omelyanchuk, Olena (26 December 2014). "Uzari & Maimuna won in Belarus!". Eurovision.tv. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Brey, Marco (26 January 2015). "Today: The Semi-Final Allocation Draw". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Escudero, Victor M. (26 January 2015). "Allocation Draw results: Who's in which Semi-Final?". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 January 2015.