Just as horse manure always attracts flies, Alyona Lanskaya has a habit of courting controversy. The Belarusian diva—whose 2012 victory at the national selection was later revoked—now finds herself facing mounting suspicion over her song “Solayoh”.
First a bit of background. Lanskaya entered and won this year’s national selection in Belarus with the song “Rhythm of Love”. It’s nothing special, but in a mediocre year, it’s definitely above average. Yesterday she released “Solayoh”—a Latin-feeling number that flicks at her love of sunshine—on iTunes. Bloggers have subsequently suggested that she will officially announce this is her new Eurovision entry later this week.
That’s all well and good, but there is one catch, which our readers have already been discussing. The songwriters behind “Solayoh” uploaded an earlier version of the song in 2008 called “Soleo”. Eurovision rules make it clear than an artist cannot sing a song that was released publicly before September 1 of the preceding year (so, in this case, September 1, 2012).
What do you think? Does “released publicly” mean it was sold commercially? Or does it include songs that were published on the Internet? Do earlier versions count? Let us know as we have no idea.
Update: Sietse Bakker, event superviser of the Eurovision Song Contest, has tweeted that the song meets the requirements “based on the information provided by BTRC.”
The original version from 2008:
The new version from 2013:
@David Thielen,
After seeing actual unedited photos of Alyona, it’s either blue or grey eyes but it’s still difficult to tell due to 1. Photoshop and 2. The possibility of Alyona wearing coloured contact lenses (seems unlikely though).
I have a related question – what color are her eyes? In some pictures they’re green, in others blue. It’s like everything about her is adjustable.
It doesn’t even sound like she’s singing the chorus, so that’s pretty lame. Rhythm of Love was a pretty good club hit, so I don’t know why they ditched it. This is a much weaker song. If Belarus doesn’t want to use the song from its National Final, than don’t have a NF.
@take care yes, Todomondo had an entire campaign against Marius Moga’s entry but it had the full support of TVR which hasn’t treated very nicely ever since. Even though I am not a fan of his compositions, I admit from time to time he has some amazing sparks and can create memorable pieces of music.
Honestly, I forgot there wasn’t an internal selection in Belarus… and kinda sucks for those who had paid to chose Rhythm of Love. A reimbursement would make things even for me, however.
Yes, she is.
The public voted for “Rhythm Of Love”, and so that should be the song that she sings in Malmo. If Belarus intend on changing the song then they should reimburse those who wasted money voting in their farcical NF.
As far as the contest is concerned: No harm, no foul. Any action before March 18 is bonus material for Eurofans to enjoy with a pinch of salt. Is revealing nothing at all any better?
But as far as the selection process is concerned, several questions and suspicions arise. In the absence of more detailed information, I’m calling it “incompetence.”
@george, it wasnt TVR that wanted the song disqualified! it was the other contestants, especially Todomondo! TVR just said ok, they broke the rules, we cant make fouls of ourselves and cheat so it was disqualified….i still remember all the talkshows from other television 0tv, with todomondo invited and going on and on on how they should disqualify the song! belarus in my opinion is cheating every year and i wont support or even like a country like that! your people chose a song, stick with it! if not, then select a singer through other means and than the actual… Read more »
i second that @Scott
Maybe I am just old school, but if a country picks a song to go to Eurovision….it should be that song or an arrangement of it. Not a completely new song….that aint what the country chose in the first place!
Absolutely disgusting, but it is happening more and more often now.
I also remember the unfortunate event in Romania that year. First, the television could not prove it was a plagiarism and then they came up with that damn video and so the band was disqualified. That was mean, it’s not like the Romanian television is a saint who respects every rule. They wanted them out, so they had tried until they did it. As far as Alyona’s song is concerned, I guess it’s no big deal. She should be allowed to perform it. Moreover, this uptempo song somehow cheers up this Eurovision edition. And even though nobody’s concerned, I think… Read more »
in romania in 2007 one song that was suppose to win, got disqualified because a band member sang in august part of the lyrics in front of a crowd and one idiot taped it and put it on youtube…and it was just one small part ….rules are rules!
Also, Sietse Bakker has tweeted that Solayoh is cleared on the information provided to the EBU.
Michael, it’s official. Belarus has changed their entry and Alyona WILL be singing the song “Solayoh”, providing it gets the go-ahead obviously.
We don’t even know for sure if it is the Eurovision song anyway. We should wait until it is confirmed before we start accusing it of breaking rules.
They changed the rules earlier this year to allow for the song to be released prior to the deadline at the discrepancy of the EBU (or possibly SVT). It’s why Birds is still allowed to be an entry even though Anouk performed over a minute of it in its demo version back in 2011. So presumably, because Solayoh was a demo and never actually released, it’s also allowed.