BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/12/2006

Belarus: live coverage

The Belarussian preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest, Eurofest is held right now and will select two acts by way of a professional jury. They will procede to an internal selection panel. A televote will also be held, and if the televote winner is not one of the two acts chosen by the jury, they will also go forwards to the internal selection panel, making a final shortlist of three.

After Mum, the winner of the 2006 Belarussian final was presented, the main part of the competition started.

Anna Sharkunova (Sorvatsa i vniz) opened the contest. The simple but effective choreography worked well with the song and was a good choice for the nice radio pop song. Nevertheless, one can hardly tell if the overall performance was special enough to make Belarus qualify for the Eurovision Song Contest final for the first time.

Borneo had to perform second, which might not be the best starting position. The three boys wore summer outifits while presenting Fingertips, another song that was well received by the audience. All in all, the song might easily become a summer hit in Belarus.

Dimitry Koldun gave a strong vocal performance of Angel mechty. The overall performance was quite spectacular including fireworks to illustrate the rock attitude of the song. Nevertheless, it is hard to tell if this song would do well in Helsinki.

Lena performed her song Call me (September 11th) very well. The simple but dramitic stage appearance worked very well with the song. Refering to the terroristic attacks in New York, 2001 planes and pilotes were shown on the video wall in the background.

Five membered group Svayaki gave the strangest performance so far. Salodki myodzik is interesting but can hardly been taken serious, and not only because of the outifits. The vocal performance was ok, but not the best of the evening.

Irina Yarina from Ukraine performed her interesting song Krotkiy dozhd now. Her background dancers didn't really work with the song and the overall performance seemed a bit too exerted for the entry.

Most people might have regarded Mechtai so mnoy as a comedy entry - at least the Dali members were all dresses up as anngels in blue jeans. All in all the performance is nice for a national final but probably nothing that could do well in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Natalia Tamelo was another singer that gave a very strong vocal performance, even if it might be too energetic for some people. Her song So badly high may have good chances to achieve a gut result - both in the national final and the actual song contest since it is not too simple but also not too extraordinary. The basecap was not the best choice though.

Litesound performed the first classic rock song of the evening. As expected, Summer trip was not supported by any special show effects and might therefore not be the right choice to compete in an international music festival.

Another comedy performance, but one that was supposed to be funny: The Project's S.u.p.e.r.s.t.a.r. is a catchy tune and was well received. Nevertheless, it is hard to tell where the song is going but the idea of featruing several musical instruments on stage seemed to work quite well.

Oleg Karpenko didn't sing his entry I feel good tonight very well: the voice was quite low and it was hard to understand anything. The song itself is quite repetitive and could not be called one of tonight's favourites.

Female group New Generation tried to impress the audience with contrariness. Although the song was called Belarus, the performance was definitely American. One may call it an overall average national final performance.

Blind singer Diana Gurtskaya performed very well. She has a strong voice and How long is a nice, classical ballad. While the singer was dressed in black, wearing big sunglasses, the four male background dancer wore white clothes which seemed a bit too kitsch especially regarding the dance routine.

XXXLight's I don't know is another rock song. The catchy tune was well performed but might be too old-fashioned. Another entry whose final position can hardly be predicted.

The final song Sooner or later reminds of some songs of the Latvian band Brainstorm but is presented in a more classical way: Victor Pshenichniy was accompanied by a piano player and he was dressed in a black suit. It is definitely a good song and might do well tonight.

With all songs presented, the televoting is now opened. The TV audience can cast their votes over ten minutes. Worth noting: The calls are for free!

Source:

http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/7021