BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/11/2006

Belarus: artists interested or confirming interest for national final 'Eurofest'

confirmed interest
Submissions keep reaching organizers of Belarus preselection "Eurofest". Already experienced national final performers as Alexandra Gaiduk, Georgiy and Dmitry Koldun (announced by the website of the singer), Litesound band, Corriana publicly announced their interest to enter competition. DaVinci band performing in Italian has decided to enter their newest radiohit "Arividerci" which is already rotating at Belarus radios, but is not breaking October 1 rule. Band Borneo from Gomel will enter with a song "Fingertips".

undecided still
Still undecided remain Petr Elfimov, who is rumoured as favourite for 3 years in a row, never entering the selection, and Irina Dorofeeva. Angelica Agurbash also declared herself as undecided though mentioning that she is receiving many requests from her fans all over the Europe to enter Eurovision Contest again. Also esckaz.com managed to learn that some high profile Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan singers also finished recording entries to be submitted to Belarus preselection. Head of organizing committee of Eurofest Mr. Tikhanovich stated that all these entries will be accepted and studied by jury on the similar grounds with entries from Belarus artists and composers. Submissions from foreign composers to the pool of songs are also welcomed by organizers. Esckaz.com reports that Russian singer Diana Gurtskaya has submitted new song "How Long" by Kim Breitburg and Karen Kavaleryan (Russia 2002).

more details on Eurofest
The Belarusian national broadcaster (BTRC) has announced its national selection name. It's Eurofest 2007. Through this show BTRC will decide the representative in Helsinki's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Submission deadline has been set for November 20th and foreign authors can also submit songs. The professional jury selects 15 performers and songs for participation in the selection concert. At the same stage a song bank is created for further usage in the project. During the selection concert televoting and voting by jury select two or three performers for further preparation to ESC 2007. If the results of televoting are different from the opinion of the jury, then the performer with highest number of votes (according to the televoting) but not being selected by the jury as one of the two best artists, becomes the third participant of the Project as a candidate from viewers. The professional jury selects the song and performer for ESC 2007.

The newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussia is the official publication for placing all the information (in Russian) regarding the Project including these Rules, composition of the jury, results of all the rounds of the Project, etc. The information about the Project is also available on the official website of BTRC (www.tvr.by). Not later that December 1st 2006 the first round results are announced. Out of all the applications the organisers by means of a professional jury decision select the most appealing variants. The singers of these songs take part in live auditions in Minsk. Out of all the audition participants the commission selects 15 for the second round. The 2nd round Selection show (hereinafter referred to as Concert) is to take place in mid-December 2006. BTRC carries out the live or recorded broadcast of the Concert. The Concert consists of successive performances of the singers.

more on the procedure
The televoting results are approved by all professional jury members in writing. As a result of the procedure (televoting and jury voting) two songs and, accordingly, two singers are selected for the participation in the final. The winner of televoting (if differs) gets to the final irrespective of the jury decision. These singers sign the one-year agreement for the cooperation with BTRC. In January 2007 the selected singers (two or three) are to perform on stage the songs which they could potentially perform at ESC 2007.

Source:

http://www.oikotimes.com/site/index.php?id=6849