BELARUS

A few weeks ago the dong “Born in Belorussia” was presented on TV. Soon after, the song was re-written to be more modern. It was then revealed that the son had been performed as early as April last year, and so the song was officially disqualified. In the meantime a new song has been recorded and a new film clip made. On March 14th, the last official day for entries, Anastasia Vinnikova’s new song “I Love Belarus” was previewed.

The song has a rock mix of traditional and modern instruments, and does sound very Eastern European. The song is quite formulaic and the chorus is quite simple. Anastasia’s voice does not co across very well and at times her voice seems garbled. This type of song is also not the type of song people vote for, especially if the title is “I love (insert country name here that is not your own!)”
I am still not 100% convince this girl will be able to put this off live, especially the middle parts which are quite strained, even with help from several backing singers. I thin she will be able to perform and emote to the audience and camera, but if the voice us bad, she will have no chance.

As far as the presentation in the video, I found that the mix between modern and folk in the music was not matched in the video. I also found the backing singers punching the air very predictable. I think the whole thing would have been much better if it was all one or the other. I think the more folk way of dressing up the song would be softer, as the more modern take, sounds and looks a bit too threatening. I will be very intersted how they decide to style this on the stage.

This is a shame as I don't think this is anywhere as immediate a song as "Iam Belarussian" and not as catchy. I think the song title may well put people off voting for it.


SINGER – Anastasia Vinnikova
SONG – I Love Belarus
MUSIC – Evgeny Oleynik
WORDS – Evgeny Oleynik, Svetlana Geraskova

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