This morning Belarussian broadcaster BTRC announced the running order for this year’s national final, where 14 acts will sing it out to represent Belarus in Copenhagen. The final will take place on Friday evening at 20:00 CET, broadcast live from Minsk. You can watch show online at Eurovision.tv.
The broadcaster has also revealed the names of the entries, along with the artists which were announced at the end of November last year. You can listen to all the entries here.
1. Natalia Tamelo with “Not What I’ve Been Looking For”
2. Nuteki with “Fly Away”
3. Artsem Mikhalenka with “Rapsodiya #1?
4. Matvei Cooper and with “DUX” band “Strippers”
5. TEO with “Cheesecake”
6. Daria with “Starlight”
7. Elena Siniavskaya with “Via Lattea”
8. Alina Moshchenko with “Angel Crying”
9. Janette with “You Will Be Here”
10. Anastasia Malashkevich with “Runaway”
11. Switter Boys feat. Kate&Volga Karol with “Vechnaya lyubov”
12. NAPOLI with “Stay With Me”
13. Max Lorens & DiDyuLya with “Now You’re Gone”
14. Tasha Odi with “Empty Universe”
Participant Alexei Gross was due to compete as Belarus’s 15th finalist. However, it turned out that his entry, “If I Could Do It All Again”, has already been publicly performed by another singer, therefore in breach of the Eurovision national selection rules. Alexei has now withdrawn from this year’s national final as a result.
Alyona Lanskaya represented Belarus last year at Malmö with her entry “Solayoh”, finishing 16th in the final with 48 points.
What do you think of the line-up? Will Belarus stick with the winner this time?
Anthony Ko contributed this report from the U.K. Follow him on Twitter at @bjorneo. You can also keep up-to-date with the latest Eurovision news and gossip by liking our Facebook page.
Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)
I don’t even know why Belarus bothers with having a “national final”. Every year, they choose a song and a singer through a national final then a month later, Lukashenko aka dictator/ emperor, changes either the entry or the entrant. Democracy in practice!