Belarus: Alekseev is heading to Lisbon with his song “Forever”.
The Belarusian national final took place tonight and the combination of public and jury voting declared as winner of the night Alekseev , with his entry “Forever”. Alekseev will fly the flag for the country in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest next May in Lisbon.
Host of tonight’s national final were Olga Ryzhikov and Theo (Belarus 2014).
The 10 finalists who competed this evening for the golden ticket to Lisbon were:
- Adagio – You and I
- Alekseev – Forever
- Shuma – Hmarki
- Napoli – Chasing rushes
- Anastasia Malashkevich – World on fire
- Gunesh – I will not cry
- Radiovolna – Subway lines
- ALEN HIT – I do not care
- Lexy – Ain’t you
- Kirill Hood – Deja vu
The winner was determined by a 50-50% percentage of public and jury voting. Alekseev was awarded in both voting categories with the maximum 12 points.
Alekssev was born 18 Μay 1993, in Kiev city of Ukraine. He started his career in 2014 through the Ukrainian edition of the talent show The Voice. His first single was Pyanoye solntse. Apart from singing Alekssev played tennis and football. He has graduated from university with the degree of Marketing. So far he has won 12 music awards.
To Forever, talk about the stronger emotion on earth which is the feeling of love. It’s a dynamic ballad which certainly will draw the audience’s attention next May in Lisbon. Composers of the song are Kyrylo Pavlov and Evhen Matyushenko.
The Belarusian public broadcaster had received a total of 95 applications for the country’s representation, which, after live auditions that followed, were limited to 11. However, Alekseev’s entry, arose many objections because the Russian version of his song was previously performed in many concerts since last May, with several videos being released online, which is explicitly forbidden by the EBU regulations. So six of Alekseev’s 10 opponents threatened to withdraw if the artist wasn’t disqualified from the national final, by signing a joint letter. Eventually, only one of them left, with the final being held today with 10 competing acts. The artist, meanwhile, has made the necessary changes to the melody of his “Forever” track so that he is no longer the same as the one performing at his concerts. Therefore the national broadcaster allowed the artist to participate since there was no violation of EBU rules.
Listen to Alekseev’s entry that will represent Belarus in Lisbon next May:
