Belarus’ Eurovision broadcaster BTRC has been expelled from the European Broadcasting Union. This rules out a Belarusian participation in Italy 2022 and makes Belarus’ return to the Eurovision Song contest and the Junior Eurovision Song contest extremely unlikely.
Let’s take a look at what Belarus has brought to the Eurovision Song Contest since 2004.
Belarus participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany, selecting their entry internally for the second time in a row.
In January 2011, Serbian newspaper Blic reported that Željko Joksimović would compose the Belarusian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, to be performed by Irina Dorofeeva. This was later confirmed to be untrue, as BTRC opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their applications and entries. On 28 February 2011, Anastasia Vinnikova was announced as the Belarusian entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song Born in Byelorussia which was later retitled as I Am Belarusian.
On 12 March 2011, BTRC announced that I Am Belarusian was disqualified because the song had been performed too early. The new entry I Love Belarus, written by Evgeny Oleynik and Svetlana Geraskova, was presented on 14 March 2011.
Belarus placed fourteenth in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song contest with 45 points and failed to qualify for the final.