BELARUS

Eurovision 2012 has offically kicked off with the first (well, possibly!) full song and singer chosen by Belarus !

The Belarussian Final was held in Minsk on December 7th, with the winner being chosen by a mixture of televoting and an "expert" jury.  The winner of "Eurofest" with a full points victory from bith jury and televote was last year's disqualified winner Alyona Lanskaya. Last year she won the final with a ballad but was then stripped of her ticket to Baku after vote rigging allegations. This year she returned with a very different song.

"Rhythm of Love" is an uptempo dance song (I have a feeling we'll have a lot of these this year) with a radio friendly feel and a bit of a Girls Aloud/Swedish production edge to it. The start of the song is quite strong and the verses are well paced but the chorus is a little bit lacklustre and a bit too rushed. It doesn't have the punch that the start seems to promise. She is not a bad singer, although the accent can seem a bit garbled at times, and she has good stage presence even when she is lying on the floor! Visually it is not bad and the dancers do add a strength the song needs.

Obviously at this stage it is hard to judge how well a song like this will do when there is nothing to compare it too, however I would suggest this is a "good but not good enough". By the end of the month we should have at least 5 songs and singers to compare her too.
Knowing Belarus, she may have won the vote, but will she be off to Malmo...?


Artist -Alyona Lanskaya
Song - Rhythm of Love
Music - Leonid Shirin, Yuri Vashchuk, A. Shirin
Lyrics - Leonid Shirin, Yuri Vashchuk, A. Shirin