Introduction

In Belarus there is always a national pre selection. This year the popular singer and TV celebrity Alyona Lanskaya has been chosen by jury and televotes to represent Belarus in Malmö at the Eurovision Song Contest. Alyona has already been chosen last year with “All My Life”, but due to rumours of an unfair win, this song has been replaced by another song and band! This year the previous chosen entry “Rhythm Of Love” has been changed into “Solayoh” later on. This method of last minute changes has become normal in Belarus and also in other countries to change songs later on and often to the worse! 

Alyona Lanskaya was born in 1985 in Mogilev, in the Eastern part of Belarus. As a child she entered the school choir and joined several groups and sang as solo artist. She graduated from Belorussian-Russian University in Mogilev. After that she started her professional career as a singer in 2005 she attended the Slavinski Bazaar Festival in Vitebsk, Belarus. She also participated in an international music festival in Bulgaria, and she could win the Atlantic Breeze Festival in 2010. Her first solo album “Mazes Of Love” was released in 2010 and included songs in Belorussian, Russian and English language. The 27 years old singer has been honoured as the youngest artists of Belarus 2011. Alyona has released her latest album this year.

The song “Solayoh” is a pop song with an obvious almost obtrusive Mediterranean touch. This kind of ESC entries could have been heard in the early ages of this Millennium, maybe a bit outdated a little bit of “Wild Dances” a little bit of “Everyway That I Can”. The formerly announced song “Rhythm Of Love” would have had much higher international chances. In the first Semi Final there are only 16 entries and the competitors are very strong, so Belarus may fail again for the qualification.

History

Participations: 10

Debut: 2004

Biggest success: 6th place 2007 “Work Your Magic” by Koldun

Belarus celebrates its 10th participation in the ESC this year! Since 2004 Belarus takes part regularly in the Eurovision Song Contest. For the TV viewers, who only watch the grand final, they will have missed the majority of the Belarusian songs, because only two songs out of eight reached the final. Belarus has won the Junior ESC already, but in the original Eurovision Song Contest, the best place was the 6th with “Work your magic” by Koldun in 2007. The second time Belarus has been voted into the final has been 2010 with “Butterflies” by 3+2 (25th in the final). The votes mainly come from the former Soviet countries, but this recipe won’t always work to survive the qualification round.

The most outstanding songs were “My Galileo” by Aleksandra & Konstantin in 2004 (19th in the semi final), “Love me tonight” by Angelica Argubash in 2005 (13th in the semi final) and “I love Belarus” by Anastasia Vinnikova in 2011 (14th in the semi final).