The folk-singing duo Aleksandra Kirsanova & Konstantin Drapezo and the song Moy Galiley will be representing Belarus at its first (adult) Eurovision Song Contest appearance in Istanbul this May.
Aleksandra & Konstantin, as they call themselves on stage, and their song gained 2,304 telephone votes and as many as seven (sic) Internet votes. The song was composed by the pair themselves, the lyrics written by Aleksey Solomaha.
ESCKaz.com offers some interesting background information on the two folk singers.
The starting-off point for their career was a participation in the televised contest Zornaya rostan. The prize won in this project was 100 free recording hours in the studios of BTRC¹, the Belarussian state broadcaster. Here, the two also recorded their first album Za lihimi za marozami.
Aleksandra and Konstantin have won several national and international contests; Aleksandra ran off with the victory in the Slavyanski Bazar 2002, and the pair was awarded Best Arrangement in the 2003 International Astana contest (Kazakhstan). Last, but not least, they also won the Etnosphere 2002 (Poland), a contest for folk music.
Moy Galiley, which unsurprisingly translates as 'my Galileo', will have to go through the qualification round on 12th May before perhaps going on to the grand final.
However, Belarus are not total newcomers to the Eurovision. 10-year old Volha Satsuk took the first Belarussian steps on the Eurovision stage when in November of last year she represented the country in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
¹BTRC=Belteleradio Company (Belteleradiokompaniya/Белтелерадиокомпаня)
