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 2016 with the song Help You Fly written by Viktor Drobysh, Alexander Ivanov, Timofei Leontiev and Mary Susan Applegate. The song was performed by Ivan, which is the artistic name of singer Alexander Ivanov. The Belarusian entry for the 2016 contest in Stockholm, Sweden was selected through a national final organized by the Belarusian broadcaster National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus (BTRC). The national final consisted of ten competing acts participating in a televised production where public televoting selected the winner.
Help You Fly performed by Ivan was selected as the winner with 23,167 votes.
Belarus was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2016. Help You Fly was not announced among the top 10 entries and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Belarus placed twelfth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 84 points.