Lira (awards)


The Lira is a national music award of Belarus in the field of popular music, founded on December 24, 2010, at the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus.
In 1994, the predecessor of this award was Залатая ліра. Since 2011, it was carried out annually by the Capital TV channel, since 2014 it was conducted by the All-National TV channel every second year.

History

Prehistory

On October 15, 2010, the chairman of the National State Television and Radio Company of Belarus Alexander Zimovsky announced that the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus had proposed the creation of the republican television contest “National Music Awards” in December. The awards were to be presented in the nominations “Best Song of the Year,” “Best Performer,” “Best Band,” “Opening of the Year,” and “For Contribution to the Development of Belarusian Pop Music.”
On December 24, 2010, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus adopted Decree #1885 “Аб зацвярджэннi Палажэння аб рэспублiканскiм конкурсе „Нацыянальная музычная прэмiя ў галiне эстраднага мастацтва“.” In paragraph #2 of the Regulation, the purpose of the competition was to promote the work of talented Belarusian pop singers, as well as composers, songwriters, sound engineers, arrangers, producers, and journalists. Clause #3 of the document determined the list of nominations for which the competition may be held: 3.1. nominations the winners in which are determined by the expert council taking into account the results of Internet and SMS voting : “Best Song of the Year,” “Best Performer,” “Best Collective of Performers,” “Opening of the Year,” “Best Composer,” and “Best songwriter”; 3.2. nominations whose winners are determined by the expert council : “Best Belarusian-language Song of the Year,” “Best Music Album,” “Best Arrangement,” “Best Concert Program,” “Best Concert Abroad,” “Best Music Video of the Year,” “Best Journalist,” “Best Sound Engineer,”“ Best Producer,” and “For Contribution to the Development of Belarusian Pop Music.” According to paragraph #4, “the competition is held annually from January to December” and “the winners of the competition are determined by the results of their activities for the current year.” In addition, “the results of the competition are announced in December.” According to paragraph #6, “the organizers of the competition are the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus and CJSC „Capital Television,“ which provide “preparation and broadcasting of the gala concert.” So, “the production of a television version of the gala concert, the announcement, and informational support of the contest” as well as “the creation of information and advertising clips, their airing on television and radio” are carried out by CJSC „Capital Television“ single-handedly.
According to paragraph #7, “the composition of the organizing committee is approved by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus in coordination with CJSC „Capital Television.“” In paragraph #8, it was noted that the organizing committee “determines the nominations for which the competition is held” and “approves the composition of the selection committee, expert council, and counting commission.” According to Chapter #3 of the Regulation, the competition is held in 3 stages. In nominations provided for interactive voting on the air of radio broadcasting and on the websites of radio stations, the selection at the first stage is carried out based on the results of such a vote. The selection committee determines 3 contestants for each nomination at the first stage, among which the expert council selects the winner at the second stage. At the final third stage, the counting commission sums up the points of the expert council based on the results of the interactive voting during the gala concert of the contestants in the nominations with such a vote. According to paragraph #26, “the winner in the nomination „Best Song of the Year“ receives a cash prize of 95 basic units and a certificate for creating a music video. The performer and songwriters are awarded in the nomination.” In other categories with interactive voting, awards equal 77 basic units. According to paragraph #27, “the winner in the nomination „Best Belarusian-language Song of the Year“ receives a cash prize of 73 basic units. The award in the nomination “For Contribution to the Development of Belarusian Pop Music” was 70 BU, the awards in other nominations were 62 BV each. In addition, the award for “Best Music Album” is shared by the performer and producer, and for “Best Music Video of the Year” by the screenwriter, director, cameraman, and editor.

Lira 2011

On April 1, 2011, Michail Kazlovič, the head of the Arts Department of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus, specified that the grade at the end of the year the gala concert would be estimated at 50% by the opinions of a professional jury and 50% by viewer’s voting results. On November 1, 2011, the 1st Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Belarus Uladzimier Karačeŭski announced that applications for participation in the competition should be sent starting from November 15 to the Youth Variety Theater. Karačeŭski announced that viewers would be able to vote for artists who compete for 5 of the 16 awards. The following nominations were determined for 2011: “Best Belarusian-language Song of the Year,” “Best Song of the Year,” “Best Female Singing,” “Best Male Singing,” “Best Music Group,” “Discovery of the Year,” “Best Author of Music,” “Best Author of Lyrics,” “For Contribution to the Development of the Belarusian Pop Music,” “Best Album of the Year,” “Best Concert of the Year,” “Best Music Video of the Year,” “Best Journalist,” “Best Producer,” “Best Tour," and “Star of the Year.” Sculptor Andrej Chacianoŭski designed the figurine to be presented to the winners, which incorporated the Belarusian ornament, a star, and sheet music. Deputy General Director of Capital TV Paval Karanieŭski said that composer Jaŭhien Aliejnik wrote music for the presentation of the awards, which combines classic, pop, and folk styles. Karanieŭski admitted that applications from Belarusian performers from abroad were going to be accepted for the competition.
Songs written from December 2010 to November 2011 were accepted for consideration. The expert council included 100 people. The directors of the gala concert at the Palace of the Republic determined on December 13 were Viačaslaŭ Panin and Aliaksandar Vavilaŭ. Tickets for the show ranged from BYR 20 to 50 thousand. On December 1, 2011, the head of the Capital TV production center Nastaśsia Huzieĺ-Hudzijeva announced that the voting for the “People’s Choice Award” had begun on the channel’s website. The expert council was headed by. The competition received 545 applications.
On December 13, 2011, the winners became known:
Special awards were given in the categories:
On November 16, 2012, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Belarus Uladzimier Karačeŭski announced that the II National Music Awards would be awarded in 19 nominations. The receiving of applications lasted 2 weeks until December 1. On December 12, 2012, at the gala concert at Minsk Sports Palace, the winners were handed out awards in the following categories:
Special awards were given in the categories:
All told, about 1000 applications were submitted to the competition.

Lira 2013

In the period from November 1 to November 21, 2013, applications were collected for the III National Musical Awards. Songs released from November 1, 2012, to October 31, 2013 were being received via dedicated Capital TV’s e-mail address. Awarding was appointed on December 16 at the Palace of the Republic. Tickets for the show cost from BYR 50 to 150 thousand. On December 16, prizes were awarded to laureates in the following categories:
All told, about 300 applications were submitted to the competition.

Lira 2014

On October 30, 2014, the National Music Awards was renamed to «Ліра». The selection began to be carried out via the All-National TV, over the site of which a hit parade of almost 70 songs was posted. On November 22, the beginning of five qualifying concerts was determined. Awarding was planned on January 2015. For 4 nominations, the selection included voting by a professional jury and spectators: “Best Musical Work in Belarusian,” “Best Performer of the Year,” “Best Song of the Year,” and “Best Music Video of the Year.” In another 9 nominations, the result was determined by the judges’ decisions: “Best Author of Music,” “Best Author of Lyrics,” “Best Arranger,” “Producer of the Year,” “Best Organizer of Concerts,” “Best Musical Television Project in the Field of Popular Art,” “Opening of the Year,” “Patron of the Culture of Belarus in the Field of Popular Music Art,” and “For Contribution to the Development of Popular Music Art.” Among 65 songs in the competition, 10 were in the Belarusian language. On January 31, 2015, at the Palace of the Republic, the bronze diva figurines were awarded to laureates in the categories:
On October 27, 2016, after a one-year break, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus announced the start of selection for the Lira Awards in 12 nominations. Songs released from January to December 2016 were accepted for consideration. The award was 77 base units. The voting began over at the All-National TV channel’s website in 6 nominations: “Best Song in Belarusian,” “Best Performer of the Year,” “Best Performer of the Year,” “Best Collective of Performers,” “Best Song of the Year,” and “Best Music Video of the Year.” The jury selected the winners in 3 nominations: “Best Author of Music,” “Best Author of Lyrics,” “Best Arranger.” The organizers of the competition determined the winners at the suggestion of the jury in the remaining 3 categories: “Opening of the Year,” “Style of the Year,” and “Ours Abroad.” On January 27, 2017, the nominees were determined in the category “Best Song in Belarusian:” «Той дзень», «Блізка», «Гісторыя майго жыцця».. On February 9, 2017, awards were presented:
At the beginning of 2013, in his column over at Charter 97, Źmicier Padbiarezski of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty lamented that the organizers of the award in their nominations “do not notice” quite popular but partially censored artists in the country: Siarhei Mikhalok, Lavon Volski, Alexander Kullinkovich. At the request of BelaPAN, he also revealed the vicious practice of the massive use of playbacks at concerts, while the agency's journalists themselves found the evidences of plagiarism in some songs of the performers.
In 2014, Alexandr Chernuho, editor of Ultra-music.com, following the coverage of three ceremonies, sharply negatively assessed the implementation of the awarding of music awards, “Year after year we have been watching colossal flaws, mistakes, and profanations: Larisa Gribaleva, who sits in the jury, receives the award for the best song of the year, Irina Dorofeeva is confused with Iskui Abalyan, Valeriy Dayneko’s playback cuts short, and it turns out that he does not know the lyrics of the song.”
In a number of op-eds over at naviny.by, singer Irina Vidova, winner of the People’s Choice Award in 2011, agreed with criticism of the implementation of the award from a number of journalists, citing her examples of the organizers' negligence too, and emphasized the need for greater transparency in voting, pluralism in the process of nominating contestants and the forming of the composition of the jury, constancy in the rules of the competition, attracting specialists from alternative TV channels and the media to its organization, nevertheless concluding the significance and importance of the project on a national scale as a whole.
In 2013, Źmicier Biezkaravajny, founder of the music portal Experty.by, noted that the award is “a big project that is shown on television” and “for winning in which people get money,” while the critic questioned the quality of the composition of the jury on the example of the analysis of the II ceremony what, coupled with other shortcomings, casts doubt on its national status.
He also, at the request of Taras Tarralitsky of Belorusy i rynok, confirmed the opinion of the interviewer that economic problems had reached the national stage with the cancellation of the “directive and artificial” ceremony in 2015, “If there is an order, some designated channel conducts it. If there is no order, no one does. This is an indicator of the level of professional relationships within the pop community of Belarus, its spoiledness by state attention. Neither the professional community, as in many countries, nor an initiative group stand behind the award. The Ministry of Culture should not get involved in such projects.”
In a review of all music awards of Belarus for 2013, Pavel Sverdlov, editor of KYKY.ORG, described the second ceremony as an act that “resembled the distribution of the USSR State Prizes” but “with the difference that, no-no, representatives of the alternative scene slipped in among laureates though.”