BELARUS

This year BTRC decided to internally select their entrant for Düsseldorf to try and increase their chance of getting out of the semis and into the final. The winning candidate was Anastasia Vinnikova with the song “Born in Belorussia” and was presented on TV on the 28th of February

The song is an up-tempo disco number with Eastern European overtones. As the title suggests the song is all about being from Belorussia and refers to the fact that it was once part of the USSR (I am not sure if stating this fact will be a vote winner or vote loser!) During the presentation Anastasia is alone however there are quite noticeable male backing vocals on the track, which have a very chanted military feel to it. The chorus is actually very good. The chorus’ tune is almost instantaneously memorable and sticks with you – its is one of those songs that is so simple and you cannot help but start singing along!

The visuals of this song need to be worked on a lot. I would suggests that the song would really benefit from having a kind of contemporary military feel to the visuals. This would then fit the kind of chanted feel of the vocals as well as helping choreograph some very simple dance routine to go with it. Anastasia obviously likes the song and does get quite carried away with the song. This is no bad thing but it need to be tamed and channelled in the right way

Further to this there are 2 small but problematic areas that need work. First, time length. The presented song is about 30seconds too long. I am sure it can be cut down easily without damaging the song’s power, but will need careful trimming. Secondly, the backing vocals. There seems to be 2 types of backing on the song, the more normal male/female mix and the powerful military vocals. Can they pull this off with 5 backing singers? I don’t know.

A surprisingly cheesy entry from Belarus, with some promise!


SINGER – Anastasia Vinnikova
SONG – Born in Belorussia
MUSIC – Evgeny Oleinik
WORDS – Evgeny Oleinik, Viktor Rudenko