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.
The Belarusian national final for the Eurovision Song contest 2012 consisted of a semi-final and a final. Fifteen songs participated in the competition and the winner was selected through a jury and a public televote.
The semi-final took place on 21 December 2011 at the BTRC studios in Minsk. A 50/50 combination of votes from a jury made up of music professionals and a public telephone vote selected the top five songs to qualify to the final.
The final took place on 14 February 2012 at the Sports Palace in Minsk. Before the final, Gunesh withdrew her original song And Morning Will Come and changed to Tell Me Why? A 50/50 combination of votes from a professional jury and a public telephone vote selected the song All My Life performed by Alyona Lanskaya as the winner.
Later, Alyona Lanskaya was disqualified because she and her producers had rigged the public vote. Alyona Lanskaya was replaced by Litesound as the Belarusian entry with the song We Are the Heroes which was written by Dmitriy Karyakin and Vladimir Karyakin.
At the ESC Belarus competed in the first half of the second semi-final. Belarus received 35 points and placed 16th, thus failing to qualify for the Grand Final.