About Belarus...

2006 Result
History (1956 to 2005)
This year's entry
What I predicted...
What you thought...
What actually happened...
What the bookies thought...

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2006 Result

Points in Semi Final: 10
Position in Semi Final: 22nd

Points in Final: Failed to qualify
Position in Final: Failed to qualify
More about the 2006 result for Belarus

2007 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final

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History (1956 to 2005)

Belarus's previous appearances: 2 year(s) out of 50 [note]
Years participated: 2004- [note]
Best result: 13th in Semi (2005)

Belarus was one of four countries participating for the first time in 2004, but while some of the newcomers did very well (Serbia & Montenegro in 2nd, Albania in 7th), Belarus unfortunately did very badly, 'My Galileo' finishing 19th in the Semi Final with just 10 points.

Undeterred, the country came back for another go in 2005, its entry one of the big stories of that year's Contest. To start with, the Belarussian broadcaster caused a bit of a stir by ditching the song that televoters had chosen, having been alarmed at the critical reaction to the song - 'Boys and girls', performed by Angelica Agurbash - among fans. It thus went ahead and commisioned a new song for Angelica, 'Love me tonight', from the team responsible for Sakis' 'Shake it' in 2004 - the Greek duo Nikos Terzis and Nektarios Tyrakis. With a promotional budget that allowed Angelica to visit an incredible 16 countries prior to the Contest, the Belarussian's clearly thought that their qualification to the Final was sewn up. Unfortunately, Belarus' 2005 experience proved that vast amounts of promotion and hype are of little value if your chosen performer is unable to carry a tune. Despite one of the campest performances Eurovision had ever seen, the televoters were generally unimpressed, 67 points and 13th place falling some way short of what was required. Nevertheless, Belarus is back for another go, and will be hoping that some of its success in the Junior Eurovision (Kseniya winning it for Belarus in 2005) can rub off on the adults.
Get 'The Eurovision Song Contest: The Offical History' at Amazon.co.uk

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This year's entry

Position in Semi Final draw: 5
Position in Final draw: Failed to qualify

What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"Following the unusual selection procedure adopted in 2005, Belarus held its National Final on 10 February, with televoting to select the top three songs from the fifteen on offer, with an internal committee then choosing which of those three artists should represent the country in Athens. In 2005, this resulted in Angelica Agurbash being selected to represent Belarus in Kiev, despite finishing behind Polina Smolova (back for another go after finishing 8th in 2004) and her song 'Smile' in the original televote. After that, of course, Angelica decided that her original song wasn't very good anyway and changed it.

However, it's finally third time lucky for Polina in 2006, with the televoters placing her English-language song 'Mama' a clear first, and the jury agreeing that she should indeed be this year's Belarussian representative at Eurovision. One of Polina's most remarkable features is her luxuriant hair, to the extent that her website features numerous photographs of her flowing locks from subtley different angles. Polina also bears a striking facial resemblance to Slovenia's Karmen Stavec, but where Karmen sang 'Nanana' Polina gives us 'Mamama' - well, 'Mama' at least. On past experience, of course, there was no guarantee that 'Mama' would even end up being the Belarussian entry; indeed, broadcaster TVR's initial announcement conspicuously avoided any mention at all of the song, only announcing Polina as the Belarussian performer. However, 'Mama' survived various murmurings about replacing it, so wil indeed be the song that Polina sings in Athens.

For what it's worth, 'Mama' is a modern rock stomper something in the vein of Kelly Clarkson's 'Since you've been gone'. It's all rather noisy, with the kind of slightly aggressive delivery favoured by recent Russian entrants, and has a very repetitive but instantly memorable chorus mostly consisting of 'Mama Mama Mama' repeated over and over. A little unkindly, the TVR website's coverage of Polina's 2005 entry refers to her "rather original manner of performance and unusual voice", a comment that I doubt was intended to read as an insult. To be fair though, Polina's live performance of the song at Belarus' National Final was really rather good, with a strong vocal (presumably live, though it wasn't entirely apparent), a great stage presence, and an effective choice of outfit and dance routine.

Incidentally, the title of the song seems to vary depending on where you look - originally 'Mama', it then appeared to morph into 'Ma' before being credited as 'Mum' on the official CD. However, given that Polina sings 'Mama Mama Mama' all the time, why not just call it what it is?"

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What I predicted...

My prediction for Semi Final: 17th to 19th
My prediction for Final: Will not qualify
See all my predictions for the 2006 Semi Final
See all my predictions for the 2006 Final

What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"Mmmm... I don't think anyone really expects that Belarus is going to reach the Final with this. It's not bad, but it's not great either. Most importantly, it follows in the great tradition of Belarussian Eurovision entries by garbling the English language to the point of unintelligibility - at least apart from all the 'Mama' bits. Please, please sing in Belarussian next year - honestly, no-one's going to mind. In the meantime, I predict a Semi Final placing of between 17th and 19th, probably thanks to points from Russia and Ukraine and nobody else."
Want an alternative prediction? See Simon Hylands' 'Je t'adore, Eurovision!' site

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What you thought...

View the final leader board

In the run up to the Contest, 1,721 visitors to this site awarded points to their favourite songs in the Soult.com Eurovision Jury Vote 2006, voting as a representative of their own country's 'jury'. The votes awarded by representatives of each country were totalled, with each of the 38 participating countries (plus the 'Rest of the World') then awarding points - 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - based on the overall voting preference of its representatives. The points awarded to the entry from Belarus are shown in the tables below:

Points awarded to Belarus overall:
AL	0	HR	0	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	0	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	X	EE	0	IL	0	MC	0	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	0
BA	0	FR	0	LT	0	NO	0	SI	0	UK	0
BG	0	DE	0	WO	0	Last updated: 18 May 2006 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 0, from 0/39 juries
Position: 36 out of 37

Points awarded to Belarus in the Semi Final:
AL	0	HR	0	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	0	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	X	EE	0	IL	0	MC	1	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	0
BA	0	FR	0	LT	0	NO	1	SI	0	UK	0
BG	0	DE	0	WO	0	Last updated: 18 May 2006 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 2, from 2/39 juries
Position: 23 out of 23

Points awarded to Belarus in the Final:
AL	0	HR	0	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	0	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	X	EE	0	IL	0	MC	0	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	0
BA	0	FR	0	LT	0