Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020


Belarus originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The Belarusian broadcaster National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus organised a national final in order to select the Belarusian entry for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. However, due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic in Europe, the contest was cancelled.

Background

Prior to the 2020 Contest, Belarus had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixteen times since its first entry in 2004. The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2007 with the song "Work Your Magic" performed by Dmitry Koldun. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the, Belarus had managed to qualify to the final six times. In 2019, Belarus qualified to the final with the song "Like It" performed by ZENA ending in the 24th place with 31 points.
The Belarusian national broadcaster, National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus, broadcasts the event within Belarus and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The broadcaster has used both internal selections and national finals to select the Belarusian entry for Eurovision in the past. Since 2012, BTRC has organised a national final in order to choose Belarus' entry, a selection procedure that will continue for their 2020 entry.

Before Eurovision

National final

Competing entries

On 18 January 2020 it was announced that 95 songs had been submitted for the national final. 49 acts were invited to perform during an audition on 27 January 2020. From this, the expert jury chose 12 finalists that would compete in the televised national final.
ArtistSongComposer
Anastasiya Malashkevich"Invisible"Niklas Bergqvist, Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Simon Johansson
Angelika Pushnоva"True Love"Oleg Sidorov, Anastasiya Belyavskaya, Nikos Sofis
АURА"Barani svajo" Evgeniy Oleynik
CHАKRАS"La-ley-la"Max Aleinikov
Darya Khmelnitskaya"On Fire"Lexy Weaver
KeySi"Chili Pepper"D. Bain, Dmitry Fomich, M. Duke
NAPOLI"Don't Let Me Down"Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Rafaela Truda
Nastasea"Hello"Anastasiya Razvadоvskaya, Sasha Guris, Vitaly Penzin
Nastya Glamozda"Burning Again"Anastasiya Hlamоzda, Dmitry Piven
Sasha Zaharik"Rocky Road"Sasha Zaharik
VАL"Da vidna" Uladzislaŭ Paškievič, Valeryja Hrybusava, Mikita Najdzionaŭ
Yan Yarosh"Fire"Yan Yarosh, Matthew Douglas Funnell

Final

The televised final took place on 28 February 2020 at the "Belarusfilm" studio in Minsk, hosted by Helena Meraai and Evgeniy Perlin. The national final consisted of twelve competing acts participating in a televised production where the winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from a professional jury and a public telephone vote.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Belarus was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.