Belarusian news portal TUT.by has confirmed via its sources that Eurovision 2019 alum ZENA — real name Zina Kupriyanovich — is among the “around half a hundred” applicants to the state broadcaster’s selection for Eurovision 2021.
ZENA has submitted a song for Eurovision 2021
It has long been rumoured that the “Like It” singer would participate in this year’s Belarusian selection process. In January, the 18-year-old used her Instagram stories to answer a question asking when she would return to Eurovision. Then, ZENA answered “this year”, but fans were left wondering whether the Minsk native was joking or not.
Back in December, Zina also performed a 3-minute-long song on BTRC’s New Year’s programming. Debuting a new look, the singer performed her first single since Eurovision, called “Танцы под луной” (“Dances under the moon”).
Meanwhile, TUT.by’s sources from BTRC could also confirm that Natsionalniy Otbor 2020 runner-ups CHAKRAS entered a song too.
How will Belarus select its Eurovision 2021 entry?
In late December, BTRC announced that it had opened its submission window until 31 January. In early February, the broadcaster shared it had received “around half a hundred” submissions. The broadcaster did not confirm an exact number or reveal the names of applicants.
However, since then, no updates have been made. On social media, several candidates have expressed that they feel left in the dark with regards to the selection after the submission window closed on 31 January. Last year, it only took the broadcaster ten days to announce the finalists of the selection.
Earlier, Belarusian state broadcaster BTRC shared that the method of selecting its entry would be announced no later than 1 March. With only a few weeks left for countries to send in their entries, it seems to get less and less likely that Belarus will actually hold a national selection to the level of previous years.
Belarusian Eurovision expert and PR manager Sergey Adrianov told TUT.by that he finds the situation comparable to what happened during the country’s selection process for Junior Eurovision 2020. Then, the country went internal for the first time in its history after a long silence.
“The names of the applicants have not revealed for the first time since 2011, when they sent Anastasia Vinnikova to Eurovision with the song “I Love Belarus” through a closed selection,” Adrianov said to the news portal.
This year, some artists decided against entering a song in the Belarusian selection. The manager of seven-time finalist NAPOLI revealed that the singer would not bring a song to the national final.
Read all our Belarus Eurovision 2021 news here.
Compared to what we got, i’m sad they didn’t rig it to her favour this time. At least she had spunk.
But her Instagram account got hacked few days ago sadly. She must be struggled for restoring her account for posting new photos and stories 🙁
No thank you. She was so annoying in 2019!
No one in Belarus would be happy to see her as the representative as Zena was participating in political events supporting Lukashenko. No matter who is going to Eurovision from Belarus they going to be boooed and asked a lots of uncomfortable questionts. So good luck!
2019 was full of scandals, i remember there was a glitch with 2019 SF1, then Belarus jury votes and something else that i cannot recall at the moment.
???? #stopBTRC
Considering the 2019 selection was blatantly rigged in her favor, Zena has a good shot of being internally selected. I’d hate to be the Belarussian representative who constantly has to answer questions about Lukashenko, so I hope she’s prepared for that.
Well they will probably not allow such questions like it happened with Armenia & Azerbaijan but also Israel.
Under different circumstances I would be really happy to see ZENA on the ESC stage again. Her performance in 2019 surprised almost all of us. I “Like it”.
I’m really not happy with what is happening in Belarus but if the country takes part in the contest then it would be nice to see Zena back. Her song in 2019 wasn’t good and it was a pity when you know she is very talented. Imo she really nailed it in Tel Aviv even if she was only 16 yo.
Let’s see 🙂
Minsk 2022
Yeah… no one’s going to Minsk for Eurovision.
Say what you want, but nobody on Wiwibloggs or the Eurovision fan base gave Zena a chance to qualify for the final, but she qualified anyway. This was an accomplishment. Good for Zena. Meanwhile the Portugal song that so many people on Wiwibloggs loved came in last place in the semi.
Mind you. We got 15th not last :))
@McRoro2003 you’re right. 15th place overall. Last place with the jury though.
Yeah I know ahaha. I thought we could’ve gone to the final in 2019 but oh well
Yes Zena returning to Eurovision would be epic!
If they send him they just gonna have the uk’s bad luck….
We’re not gonna like it. Belarus should withdraw, it’s disappointing how EBU is not reacting to the Belarussian regime and their oppresion of freedom.
I mean, do you actually think that a dictator would care about not being able to compete at a music competition? Do you really think he would resign because of that? Also, there are more countries than Belarus that have a dictator but still participate at Eurovision.
Yeah totally.
He is not going to resign but it will HURT a lot if Belarus is banned from ESC and other major events in protest of his regime. There are several reports that he has invested in ESC as we all know that success in big events can bring a happy atmosphere to the country and thus ignoring the harsh reality (see Azerbaijan being desperate to win).
Being outright banned from an international contest suggests you’re an international pariah so being allowed to participate is important for Belarus’ participation even if the EBU is unable to use this as a lever to ge the government to stop behaving badly.
I was half convinced Belarus just withdrew behind the scenes because we haven’t had an update until now….anyway ZENA will probably have a better song than the rest of the selection in Belarus even if said song is completely unremarkable.
I guess they didn’t like it *ta dum tss*. I’ll see myself out.
In all honesty though, if Zena does comeback, I think it would be a treat but I still think Belarus shouldn’t compete this year because it might just give L*k*sh*nk* that kind of validation he clearly doesn’t deserve.
western-imperialist propaganda has rotten your brain
Who cares
Her performance was a top 10. Absolutely luv her
I sincerely hope those politic stuff won’t affect Belarus’s performance and grade this year. If it is a good song, a good performance, please vote! Artist shouldn’t be punished because of some politic reason.
Kazna or nothing, Belarus.
Chakras is better, by far.
One of my favourites from 2019!
i’m usually against artists returning, i always like seeing new talent every year… but zena’s charisma was rarely found in belarus’ selections so i can’t complain about her coming back and giving us another top notch performance !
same here
So its Zena for Belarus then. No way would they choose Daz Sampson & Katya Ocean over Zena. And I doubt many other established artists would want to represent Belarus at least this year. I hope this won’t cause a big backlash on Zena though…
I also think that it will be either Zena or Kazna
Wasn’t Zena related to someone on Belarusian delegate. I could understand why she wouldn’t be against represanting her country during this time.
I really liked her last year and I think she deserved a higher placement. Hope she would have a better song now
yay!
YES
Her new look is literally unreconizable, I couldn’t tell it was her…
Since KEiiNO is out,If Zena ends up representing Belarus we will have 2019 reunion with Duncan after all!
omg yes there is hope for Belarus. Zena’s last song is such a bop!