BELARUS

The Belarusian Final was held on February 28th at at the "600 Metrov" studio in Minsk hosted by Evgeny Perlin and Helena Meraai. The winner was chosen by a combination of televoting and international jury voting. The winner was VAL with the song "Da vidna" (Until the dawn)

The duo of VAL, singer Valerie and instrumentalist Vlad, are joined by a male dancer. They are all dressed smartly in black and Valerie is sporting a rather fetching Amii Stewart-esque disco hairpiece. Behind them the backdrop is ever changing, sometimes to just plain colours, sometimes to abstract blobs and patterns and sometimes images of hands in different positions. This is certainly something that will need to be looked into before May but provides a good contrast to the plain costumes. At the end there are some pryo displays which also help cue the song's finish.

The three of them on stage complete quite an intricate stage routine involving lots of different parts. Vlad, interestingly, plays the keyboard for most of the song but his instrument is on casters so can walk and play at the same time. At the end he switches instruments and can been seen playing an electric guitar It's very novel, if not distracting, but does also keep him part of the performance - he also does backing vocals too! Valerie and the backing dancer do some simple choreography together during the verses and there is a short repetitive armography sequence in the instrumental part. During the last chorus the dancer even does a death drop!

The song starts with a very subdued, quite muted piano. We have two verses with the second verse adding in a slow beat. We then have two versions of the chorus the first quite breathy and low, the second sung full out and with power. This is followed by an instrumental, with a short refrain intertwined within and this is also where the armography comes in. We then have another 2 verses but before going into the two choruses we go back into the instrumental bit. The whole thing finishes with another dose of the instrumental which gets us just short of the 3 minute barrier.

This is a really nice easy to listen and groove to bop. It has a good mix of beats and styles without coming across as overdoing it. Even the language comes across as quite nice to listen to ad the Eastern European language really doesn't jar with a quite western if not slightly Reggaeton style. The song itself has a similar style to Major Lazer's "lean on" which was a big hit. As far as the stage show, they will need backing singers and I think the whole show needs to be bigger. Maybe get some dancers who can sing because more people doing the hand jive in the instrumental will give it another visual hook. They can probably think over their outfits and if we really need the hostess trolley keyboard - would one with a shoulder strap no suffice? I quite like the abstract background because it will make people think about eh sounds of the language rather than try to interpret some kind of story.
I hope the voters, jury and televoters, see how modern and radio friendly this is and can hear past the Belarusian language and can get into the groove of the song.  Hopefully they won't fiddle to much with the track but hone down the craft of the stage show. I would love to see this qualify and I could actually see this as a great show opener for semi 1 which might not be a bad shout for them!

Artist - VAL
Song - Da vidna (Until the dawn)
Composers - Valeryja Hrybusava, Mikita Najdzionaŭ, Uladzislaŭ Paškievič
Lyricists - Valeryja Hrybusava, Mikita Najdzionaŭ, Uladzislaŭ Paškievič

BELARUS

The Belarussian Final was held on March 7th at BTRC Studio 600 Metrov in Minsk, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova & Teo. A month earlier there had been a broadcast audition process where 73 different songs and acts performed and 10 were chosen to advance to the televised final. The winner, solely chosen by a 6-person jury, was ZENA with “Like it”.

The staging of this is quite simple with ZENA in a white crop top and trousers whilst her four female backing singers are wearing black tops and black trousers with white detailing. On the background behind them which changes between pinks, purples and blue shades also flashes up some of the words of the song albeit in a rather thin font. The girls on stage are really tight visually although the choreography is rather simplistic.

The song is an mid-tempo pop song reminiscent of the early Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera era. The verses are quite fast and wordy and because this is in the lower part of her register it is not always clear what she is saying. During the bridge the pace of singing slows down but also moves up her register which piques your interest. The chorus is very repetitive with the ‘yes you’re going to like it’ line repeated over however the first two times are in her lower register followed by two lines in her clearer higher register. This is then followed by a short instrumental and then a more free form ending before finishing on a short version of the chorus,

ZENA copes well with singing and dancing at the same time and her voice sounds as good at the start as it does at the end. The staging is a little bit dated, especially the dancing, and I think this could be made more exciting and dynamic without affecting her vocals too much. The stage in Tel-Aviv will also be much bigger so they will need to think more about moving around more, engaging the arena audience, connecting with the camera and filling the stage. It must also be said that ZENA is only 16 and I certainly would not want her to change anything about the performance that would over sexualise her or look too old. I like the black and white styling but think the backdrop needs to be much more dramatic and possibly changing in time with the beat of the song. If this was an audio contest I feel this would be a nice radio-friendly number that would sound safe and familiar.

Unluckily for Belarus most of its ex-Soviet pals are in semi 2 so friendly votes will be few and far between. I also feel that in a semi with such diverse songs this might be a little too formulaic to be remembered. I feel this is more of a song that the juries might find safer to vote for than the public but I don't this will be quite good enough to progress.

ARTIST –  ZENA

SONG –  Love it

MUSIC -  Yulia Kireeva, Viktor Drobysh

LYRICS - Yulia Kireeva, Viktor Drobysh