Speaking to RIA Novosti, producer Viktor Drobysh has said that he will sue the European Broadcasting Union. It’s after the EBU disqualified Belarus’ jury from voting in the grand final.
Drobysh claims that move has strained the Minsk-Moscow alliance.
“[They] inflicted enormous damage on relations between Russia and Belarus, just to people and, in particular, to me as an individual, who suddenly became an enemy of the Russian people, who were not given points,” he said.
“In fact, they didn’t just make it impossible for us to vote, but at the last moment gave an envelope and made them announce the results they came up with. It has nothing to do with the decision of the jury and the people.”
As you’ll recall, the EBU dismissed the jurors from Belarus after the semi-finals for discussing their voting. As per Eurovision rules, it is prohibited for jurors to discuss their votes before the grand final.
In an interview, the Belarusian jurors revealed a lot of information regarding their votes. While they did not reveal an exact breakdown, they discussed their favourites and stated that they almost unanimously agreed on their three winners.
The votes from Belarus in the final were determined by an “aggregated result” instead. That’s a result calculated by using the results of countries that display similar voting patterns as Belarus — in this instance, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia and Georgia.
But not even this seems to have gone to plan. As we previously reported, when the results were revealed on Saturday night, it surprised fans. No points had been given to culturally close Russia, while Israel picked up its only jury points with a hefty douze points from Belarus. The rest of the voting seemed to ignore the big favourites of the jury votes and rewarded the less popular acts.
- Israel – 12 points
- Estonia – 10 points
- Germany – 8 points
- Norway – 7 points
- Spain – 6 points
- United Kingdom – 5 points
- San Marino – 4 points
- Serbia – 3 points
- Iceland – 2 points
- Australia – 1 points
It appears that the EBU accidentally awarded points to the bottom ten ranked songs of the aggregated vote, not the top ten. You can read all about that drama here. But does that really justify a lawsuit?
Is Victor being a bit extra with his claim he’ll sue the EBU? Let us know down below!
You sue because your jurors can’t follow rules?
….Hmm.
skjdjslsk nice to know those ex-soviet countries base their diplomatic relations on how many eurovision points they exchange
Sorry for the mistakes – I translate from Google. The problem is how Eurovision announces the performers: Russia, the Netherlands, Belarus … This makes the jury and the viewers to look for political meaning in their decisions. If the votes were given directly to Sergey Lazarev or Makhmud, Duncan or Kate, and the name of the country was mentioned in the final protocols, Eurovision would be more apolitical than now.
Jury was dismissed: normal.
But this lack of professionalism from UER is incredible. Who the fu** gave those points?! Like Linda in swedish jury. How is it possible to mistake in such an important contest?
Note for 2020: choose people who aren’t cerebrally disabled.
I am againt of juries but if juries did their Jon right, Poland would be in the final and Belarus not. (a member of Czech republic jury give false points, 12 points to the least favourite, 10 points to second least favourite etc.).
eat dirt and die homophobe clown
Take a look at the pic and here’s a piece of information/education that comes from female models. There are two mouth “situations”: open mouth – to appeal to men. Closed mouth – to appeal for females. This girl is 16 YEARS OLD. I don’t know if she knows what this means. Better than ducklips I am tempted to say, but ducklips should be better – stupid, but better.
https://www.change.org/p/bbc-eurovision-drop-the-bbc-from-picking-the-uk-entry-for-2020
If you guys could take a moment of your time, to look at this petition aswell, it would mean so much thank you.
What the…? Are they serious?
Ban this country from Eurovision immediately.
Ban #Belarus, #Iceland, #Czechia, #Russia, #Sweden.
Was this Viktor Drobysh a member of the Belorussian jury? My reading is that he was? Didn’t he write or produce “I like it”? If so, there would be a conflict of interest situation? Clarification please.
To tackle this is: Ask jurors outside of Europe. Think the america’s africa and asia to collaberate
NO.
Has he just admitted that the Belarussian jury always gives points to Russia because of politics? Is the EBU going to do something about that? Probably not. The EBU is a joke now, as well as the jury voting. Something must change next year or Eurovision will be losing all its credibility.
Good luck suing the EBU. The EBU should be also suing you after expressly admitting Belarus votes in a political way.
are they doing anything about norway-sweeden? Greece-Cyprus? Serbia-Montanegro?
At least those countries didn’t throw tantrum over keeping their relations with neighbors via (staged) votes. It’s all still very political, unfortunately. Of course, one’s top 4-6 songs find their way into most top 10s, so we do have (mostly) more quality acts in the finals and in top 5, but a lot of upper mid-list misses out because of neighborvision.
Oh how I wish the day in which Poland could give 12 points to Norway, Russia to Malta, Croatia to Belgium, Latvia to Portugal and so on… based ONLY on song value. 🙂 ”Dare to dream”
Technically, we did give Malta 12 points in 2005 final.
But like…what exactly was political about Poland giving 12 to Australia, Latvia giving 12 to the Netherlands, or Croatia giving 12 to Italy? And hey, Poland has given 12 to Norway (twice, with their last two winners) and Latvia has given 12 to Portugal (for Salvador). Bad examples.
Ok, you got me, there are plenty of those examples, but probably just as much of those with obvious favoritism. Moreover, you are mentioning only 12 points. How many results there are without any neighboring countries in top 10? Even top 5?
This year alone:
– Iceland, Finland, and Denmark gave 12 to Sweden, sure, but aside from Denmark giving 4 to Norway, none of them gave points to any of the other Nordic countries.
– Ireland gave nothing to the UK
– Portugal gave nothing to Spain
– Belgium only gave 6 to the Netherlands
– Finland and Lithuania gave nothing to Estonia
– Russia gave Belarus a low mark
– Slovenia didn’t get a single point from any other former Yugoslav countries
That help?
Yup, thanks. Honestly, it’s good to know there are those who play solely on song preferences. 🙂
Disclaimer: Slovenia did won Croatian final jury vote, though.
70% public voting
30% jury voting
NOWWWWW
Wow, so all that mess and voting issues and he’s worried about Russia? So he basically admits that their votes are based on geography and politics and that Russia expects to get 12 points from Belarus? I feel really sorry for Zena that he is her producer… When it comes to voting problems this year, I don’t know how it is possible that so many jurors didn’t introduce their points correctly. Is this their fault or should EBU teach them better how it all works?
If you read comments on Russian platforms, you’ll find out that, yes, Russians do expect to get 12 points from their friends. They’re literally freaking out every single year about all countries that didn’t give them high points.
Actually, screw that. It’s not how the Russian-Belorussian relations are affected on agenda, but the main bare ingnorance of Russia on the contest by adorable juries. This year too many “accidents” occurred and somehow tried to affect Russian result. I’m so sick of watching that political “boycott” every year, and this time it was so dirty and unfair… Frankly speaking, people liked the performance and Russia gained more 12 points from televoters than the others (11 countries). And yeah, nobody is pressing down on Belarus on Russia’s behalf. Anyway, Belarussian Jury would vote for Russia, as Sergey is well-known and… Read more »
I’m not even sure I understand your point? Russia placed 3rd overall only thanks to juries. If you only take the televote into account, they would have “only” placed 4th… So juries actually helped Russia.
Thank you for showing the dumb political voting of the jury in Belarus. They should also be disqualified next year
And what about the nordic countries that give 12 points to Sweden no matter what? What about the rest of Europe watching year after year Sweden receiving a totally un matched jury – televoting score? At least in the East the juries vote accordingly with the televote, they really do like that stuff, all of them, juries included, it’s not just political. But in Sweden’s case, it’s blatantly politic, every thing/ garbage they send, they receive the top points, only to get humiliated by the televote. I don’t belong to either of these gangs, I just observe, my country in… Read more »
“it is prohibited for jurors to discuss their votes before the grand final.”
Come on, many jurors do it. Look at Georgia for example.
Just remove the juries already.
Please post links of jurors (from any country) publicly revealing their favorites before the contest is over?
So you think it’s ok to break the rules as long as nobody sees it?
Ann, don’t change the topic, you made a statement, now PROVE IT! That’s the only thing Bella was asking…
Or it might be a very smart thing to say, if the goal is to impress Russia, not the EBU and other countries.
The contest is meant to solidify a political alliance or to vote for the best song? I don’t understand!
Ridiculous. Anyway, I’d rather talk about Belarus getting to the final by mistake. The chairperson of the Czech committee Jitka Zelenkova made a mistake and recorded her votes in the first semifinal in reverse order. Had she done it correctly, Poland would have got 3 more points from the Czech jury, which means it would qualify over Belarus (the difference between the two countries was just 2 points). She indirectly confirmed it in an interview with a Czech Eurovision fan club (btw. Slovenia was her first favourite, she placed them 16th, Oto Nemsadze was her second favourite, she placed him… Read more »
I personally always thought that Poland should have gone through instead of Belarus and now I’m angry that they actually should have, only were denied by error! Justice for Tulia! Retroactively, Wiwi and Wiki should update the results for the whole world to know they should’ve been in the finals!
100%
He should be happy his bad song even reached the final over much better songs from Portugal, Poland, Belgium and Hungary. It’s all because of Zena’s convincing performance, not his writing. Moreover, it was THEM who botched the rules by being unprofessional and revealing their votes. So what if Russia didn’t receive Belarus’ top jury marks? He still comfortably qualified and finished third. 12 points wouldn’t make a difference of his placing. As for reverse, did he consider that Russian jury didn’t give them any points because his level of writing is on par with an under average four-grader?
SPOT ON!
“It’s all because of Zena’s convincing performance”.
Err…not sure that’s why they qualified but that’s for another day and another EBU investigation!
Okay… *almost* deservingly qualified… but I wasn’t aware of that when I was writing this down. But the fact they actually finished 11th and not 17th is more thanks to Zena’s energy on stage than Viktor’s rubbish writing.
So you’re admitting that you vote based on your country’s political relations? It’s not only Belarus tho, it’s even worse in West Europe. We saw how Macedonia got so many 12 points, oh may be I should say North Macedonia. So EBU weren’t trying to make the votes more fair by implementing the jury votes, they were just eliminating the immigrant votes. Yes, EBU should be sued, but for other reasons.
Wait. North Macedonia is in West Europe now?
So shall we call it Western European Republic of North Macedonia now?
Are the eastern european countries mad because they dont rule the contest anymore?
Belarus is the ESC dramaqueen, almost every year, there are some issues with them (even the preselection was just a rigged mess) and now, they fear Mother Russia will be mad at them because of five clowns, that weren’t aware of simple rules?
Even though I didn’t like it, but ZENA, and all other representants of Belarus, are just puppets of the government
This contest is so political in Eastern Europe that he considers that the ESC voting “damages relations between Russia and Belarus”… This is ridiculous, and that says a lot about how Russia gets 12 points from Belarus every single year (I mean, we all know it’s not actually thanks to their songs).
+ Sue them on the basis of what? If they broke the rules by revealing their favorites, they broke the rules, full stop.
Like it wasn’t political in Western Europe xD with all the scandinavian countries voting for each other. Oh, right, then it’s “similar taste” xD
Political voting is not ok, not from Russia-Belarus, not from the Scandinavians, not from any country. But please remind me when was the last time that a high ranking official in Western Europe publicly complained about not getting points from a neighbor? Remind me when was the last time that citizens from a Western European country were summoned to courts to explain why they voted for another country?
Also, please don’t use quoting marks for things I never said, making it sounds like it comes from me when I never even said that.
I’m wondering if any belarussian or russian eurofan (or in gneral anyone from belarus or russia) agrees with what he is about to do cause then THAT will be the problem because we all know that public broadcasters are being controlled by their government
So… Belarus brake the rules… then EBU made a mistake in preparing the result of Belarus vote, and now… Belarus presents a complaint.
Whoa.
Belarus goes like:
“Let’s pretend it’s THEM who started”
🙂
Mess. Mess. Mess.
Can you imagine there are countries where juries are not free people? That was a very uncomfortable question.
EBU should sue him for trying to influence their jury results.
While at first sight it might look funny or outrageous, it is actually quite scary how terrified the Belarusian delegation are of not giving top points to Mother Russia.
Agree, bloody dictator Putin holds poor Belarus in his pocket…
Isn’t Belarus the last dictatorship in Europe?
Wow so go figure then, if Belarus would of done everything in their power to please the Russian audience, because if not who would their allegiance be with, and their cultural ties with Russia would not be the same. I mean can we please, can somebody fix these types of issues next year, because we’re supposed to come together as Europeans, not drift apart and be divided.
He wants to sue the EBU… because they didn’t let the Belarussian jury vote for Russia… which they were supposed to do to please Russian people… after revealing the whole semi top 3 that the jury “individually” agreed on… which cleary stood against the rules they were required to know… and that hurt RUS-BEL relations in a supposedly “non-political” contest… I don’t know about you, but I think it’s the EBU that should sue the Belarussian jury, not the other way around.
He is A JOKE for admitting that they want to make Russia happy and vote for them AND NOT FOR THE QUALITY OF THEIR SONG. Belarus is one of the eastern countries that deserves to be disqualified for at least a year as a lesson. On the other hand, EBU messed it upo big time, i wonder if Jon Ola Sand will keep his job? What kind of audits took place for the Belarussian results? None. I mean Israel 12p? It looked so fake! Armenia-Azerbaijan placing each other last for years. At least, Armenia is proved to be ‘brave’ and… Read more »
Why are suits always coming from the wrong persons for the wrong reasons? I wish every single one of us betrayed fans would sue the EBU penniless for their scams.
So much for the juries being “objective”. At least someone is saying it like it is.
When have juries EVER been objective? When you’ve got only 5 people on a jury, whose names are announced beforehand, it’s just so easy to paid off or conspire or what have you. Some of the jury voting is simply atrocious…we see this, year after year….jurors unanimously putting countries last for whatever reason, etc. The ESC isn’t political, you say? What a pipe dream.
So he will sue because he wasn’t allowed to vote a friendly country of Belarus and not the best Song? GURL BYEEEE
It seems that apart from homophobia, Drobysh is also very supportive of the whole narrative of Belarus being a nothing more than a puppet state of Moscow.
Lmao what is he talking about, did Putin threaten to nuke his house?
So after we found out that Drobysh is homophobic jerk now we know he is stupid as well…ok
Homo[phobes are stupid…
Its never ending this year!!! I think this story basically shows that Belarus would give points to Russia regardless of what song they sent to avoid any bad feeling between the two countries and seriously if the results of a song contest damage relations between them then i think they have much more serious things to worry about!!!
Exactly!
So the EBU are going to get sued because the Belarusian jurors revealed their semi-final votes to the public ?! This is just getting more bizarre.
The guys is an idiot and he clearly lives in a different century… perhaps he’s used to live in a dictatorship
All rigged by EBU to steal 12 points for Sergey.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” – Robert J Hanlon
It’s far more likely that the EBU screwed up rather than any anti-Russia bias.
It wouldn’t change the results, hes still third and it won’t change.
More like it just proves that Russia relies on their puppet states to get success
Tajikistan, since you’re Lithuanian, I want to ask you: What do you think was the reasons for Lithuania also giving the 12 points to Russia during the televote? Did you vote Russia as well?
If it doesn’t bother you, of course.
Russia clearly wasn’t a favourite of Lithuanian people, it is easy to tell from the comments on social media and polls before the show. It’s a shame that the most active voters were the political ones.