Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010


The Belarus entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was organised by BTRC. It had been originally planned for ONT to take over after criticism over BTRC's selection methods. However, as ONT's application for the European Broadcasting Union, the Contest's organisers, had been rejected, BTRC again selected the Belarusian entry for the seventh year. An internal selection was held by the broadcaster after a public call for song submissions, and after 41 entries were received the band 3+2 were selected. The band performed the song "Butterflies" at the contest, having changed their song on 19 March from their initial choice "Far Away".

Background

Belarus has previously taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest six times since their first entry in 2004. Belarus has qualified to the final of the contest twice: in 2007, when Koldun placed sixth for the country with "Work Your Magic", and in 2010. All other Belarusian entries have been relegated in the semi-final stage, with Belarus' worst performance coming in 2006, when Polina Smolova finished in 22nd position in the semi-final with "Mum", receiving only ten points in total.
From 2004 to 2009 the Belarusian broadcaster responsible for the country's participation in Eurovision was BTRC, who organised a televised national selection to select the Belarusian entry. In 2010 plans were announced for this to change.

Before Eurovision

Plans of change in broadcaster

Shortly after the 2009 Contest had finished, the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko expressed his dissatisfaction over the management of BTRC's organisation for the Contest. He expressed his frustrations over divisions within the team, finding it necessary to completely replace the 2009 team for 2010, and that ONT should take over preparation for Eurovision from BTRC. In late July 2009, ONT launched the Song for Eurovision competition in order to find the entry for the 2010 Contest.
However, during his visit to Minsk on 18 September 2009, the EBU director for Eurovision Bjørn Erichsen had stated that ONT's application for full active EBU membership would be considered only in December, after the application deadline for Eurovision 2010 passed on 15 November 2010. He had suggested that BTRC should submit a formal application to join Eurovision 2010 and that after December the two broadcasters should internally decide on the question of Eurovision participation. It had been strictly noted that before being accepted as a member, ONT had absolutely no right to use the "Eurovision" brand in its preselection campaign, with EBU considering legal action if such usage continued by ONT. In accordance to this ONT removed Eurovision references from its pages.

Original plans

ONT had intended to hold a national final to select the seventh Belarusian entry. A call for songs was made by ONT for either a male soloist or for a group of six female soloists. Composers could submit the songs either by post or on the broadcaster's website, with the deadline for submissions set for 1 October 2009.
However, on 23 September 2010, information on the national final had been completely removed from the ONT website, and the channel had stated that original plan of "female band selected through castings hadn't really worked out". It was announced that ORT did not have the right to organise or prepare for the country's Eurovision participation as they did not have EBU membership.

Musical Court

"Musical Court" was originally to be the Belarusian selection for Eurovision, organised by ONT.
The Belarusian selection for Eurovision was to be held over two stages. The first, "Musical Court", was held over November and December 2009. 25 songs competed over five semi-finals, with each song performed by participants of the "New Voices" competition. These songs could be performed by professional artists in the final stage of the contest. Ten songs progressed to the final, two from each semi-final, and the winner was selected by regional televoting, which was "Don't Play In Love" performed by Artem Mihalenko. The second stage of the selection was to be held in February 2010, however these plans were derailed after ONT failed to get EBU membership in time for Eurovision 2010.
ORT had stated that Musical Court was "not necessarily" the national selection for Eurovision 2010, but was intended "to choose songs to represent the country in any international competitions".

Internal selection

In January 2010 Belarus' only EBU member, BTRC, announced that an internal selection would be used by them to select the Belarusian entry for Eurovision 2010. BTRC opened a submission period for interested artists and songwriters to submit their entries from 29 January 2010 until 15 February 2010. There were no limitations regarding the nationality of the singers and songwriters taking part in the open selection. From all 41 submissions received by BTRC, an expert panel reviewed all the submissions, and announced on 25 February 2010 that the band 3+2 as the Belarusian entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Far Away". The song and the group had come second in ONT's "Musical Court" before the song was submitted to the BTRC selection.
On 19 March 2010, three days before the deadline to submit songs to the Contest's organisers, it was announced that 3+2 had changed their song for the contest, and would now perform the song "Butterflies" at the contest. The song was composed by Russian producer Maxim Fadeev and by Swedish Robert Wells, with lyrics by Malka Chaplin.

At Eurovision

Belarus competed in the first semi-final of the contest on 25 May, performing in the second half of the draw. Belarus was one of the ten qualifiers to the final, and performed in the final on 29 May, for the first time since 2007.

Split results

Semi-final 1

Final

12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point
  • 12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

    5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point