Thirty-nine countries are competing with the aim to lift the trophy in Malmö. The thirty-third country to be introduced is Belarus. The country debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 and this year Alyona Lanskaya will fly the Belarusian flag in Sweden.

Basic information

Performer: Alyona Lanskaya
Song: Solayoh
Language: English
Music: Marc Paelinck
Lyrics: Martin King

The song

Solayoh is a dance moving song. Alyona Lanskaya sings about a Friday night scene as she hears a tune and she immediately starts moving her body to the beat.

Friday night was going nowhere…
Sitting in a small café,
Feeling lonely, a little tired,
I’ve been working hard all day.

Then a noise caught my attention,
And I heard a wonderful sound;
Coming at me like a tsunami,
Nearly took my feet off the ground.

A rush of excitement flowed into my ears.
Oh, beautiful people, ah ha-hi ha-hi-ha!
Hi-ia-ia-ia!

Solayoh, Solayoh, where the sun is always shining on ya.
We play-oh, we play-oh to the rhythm of a cha-cha.
Solayoh, Solayoh, turn the music up, it’s gonna get ya.
We play-oh, we play-oh, we can make it into a hot night.

The performer

Alyona Lanskaya is not new in the Eurovision business. In 2012, Alyona Lanskaya tried to represent Belarus by competing the national final with the song All my life. She won the Eurofest, however few days later it was announced that Lanskaya was disqualified after the Belorussian President conducted an investigation leading to her “unfair” win in Eurofest. She was replaced by Litesound, who got second place in Eurofest finals In 2011 she won the Slavianski Bazaar Contest in Vitebsk. Last summer the songs for Alyona’s new English album were recorded.

The songwriters

The song is written by Marc Paelinck and Martin King. Paelinck is not new to the Eurovision scene. The Belgian composer wrote the 2004 Belgian entry and the 2009 Maltese entry. Infact Paelinck is a re-owned writer who collaborated with Chiara on different projects. Martin King who moved to Belgium, writes music for EMI and is a senior historical consultant for the History Channel.

The national selection

In December the final show of Eurofest took place and Alyona Lanskaya won with the song Rhythm of love. In March BTRC revealed that Alyona will compete with Solayoh in the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest.

Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Belarus entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 and was not very successful at the beginning being eliminated in the semi-final on its first three attempts. However, it changed in 2007 when Koldun qualified for the final and finished sixth overall. In 2008 and 2009, the country did not make it to the final again but in 2010 the country appeared in the Saturday evening show for the second time. In the last two years the country failed again to qualify to the final.

Statistics

This will be Belarus’ tenth participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. It is the fourth time that the country is represented by a female solo singer. The last time the country presented a female solo singer was in 2011 with Anastasia Vinnikova Belarus remains one of the few countries that have all of their entries performed entirely in English.

Belarusian vote in Eurovision

Belarus gave its most points to Russia while it received the most votes from Georgia. If the semi-final votes are considered, Belarus voted more for Ukraine while Russia awarded the most points to Belarus.

The betting odds

According to oddschecker.com, Belarus is currently standing at number 13 to win the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the odds, Alyona Lanskaya shouldn’t worry about qualification as it is the sixth favourite to qualify from semi-final one.

Ми хочемо, Олена Ланська та Білорусі і всього самого доброго і хороших результатів у Мальме!
Мы хотим, Алена Ланская и Белоруссии и много удачи и хорошего результата в Мальме!

Videos

Preview clip

Song presentation

Rhythm of love

Tomorrow another country will be introduced (hint – tomorrow you will know which country is next!)

Have your say

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You can view previous parts of this series by clicking here