BTRC, the Belarusian national broadcaster has opened the submission period for artists wishing to represent Belarus at the forthcoming 2015 Eurovision Song Contest and released the rules for the 2015 Belarusian Eurovision national selection.

Belarus will opt for a national final in order to select its Eurovision entry and act for Vienna as ESCToday reported earlier.  A total of 15 acts will battle for the golden ticket to Vienna next January. The date of the national final is yet to be confirmed, BTRC confirmed to ESCToday that the 2015 Belarusian national final will be held no later than 25 January.

The Belarusian national broadcaster is now accepting applications for the Eurovision 2015. Artists wishing to apply to enter the competition can submit their applications to BTRC at the following addresss:  220807, Minsk, str. Makaenka, 9, BTRC, marked National qualifying round of song competition Eurovision-2015. The deadline for artists to apply to participate in the national final has been set on 21 November.

The selection is carried out in accordance with the Regulations and Rules of Competition, established by the European Broadcasting Union.

Terms and conditions of the qualifying round of the National Song Contest Eurovision-2015 are published on the official website of BTRC www.tvr.by. The official printed edition for posting information about the contest is the newspaper SB. Belarus today
Participation in the selection of songs is allowed for citizens of the Republic of Belarus, as well as foreign citizens and stateless persons permanently residing in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, which at the filing date of participation have reached the age of sixteen.

For the participation only songs (music and (or) text) are allowed, which were not commercially released: distributed via the Internet, as well as on any media (audio cassettes, compact discs, mini-discs, etc..), sold or otherwise distributed, transmitted by radio or television broadcast, as well as performed publicly until September 1, 2014. The maximum length of a song is three minutes.

Requirements for project participants and their compositions remain the same. Age of the applicant should be 16 and older. Live performance must have the duration not more than 3 minutes. The voting rules have changed. The overall result of each participant will consist of 8 ratings, 7 of them are the marks of the jury and 1 point will come from the audience.

The project will be carried out in three stages – accepting applications, trial hearing and the final. The final show will be attended by only 15 of the best performances. The names of the jury will be kept secret up to the live broadcast of the finals, so that no one can influence their assessment.

The finalists for the 2015 Belarusian national final will be selected by the jury by 5 December whilst the 2015 Belarusian representative will be selected by 25 January. A professional jury will be responsible to select the lucky 15 hopefuls who will battle for the right to represent Belarus at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

In 2014 Belarus opted for a national selection in order to select its Eurovision representative and entry. Teo won the 2014 Belarusian national final and flew the Belarusian flag at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in  Copenhagen with his entry Cheesecake, achieving a 16th place place in the grand final.

Belarus debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 and is yet to win the event. The country’s best result in the contest was in 2007 with Koldun‘s Work your magic, when Belarus placed 6th.

The 2015 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 19, 21, 23 May at the Wiener Stadthalle, in Vienna.

Stay tuned to ESCToday.com for the latest news on the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.