Belarus brings first song in their own language to Eurovision
Belarus doesn’t exactly have an impressive record when it comes to their results in the Eurovision Song Contest. Out of their 13 participations, they only managed to reach the final on four occasions and only in 2006 they finished in top 10 with Dmitry Koldun’s 6th place. After failing to qualify in the past two years, there are higher hopes around the Belarusian entry for this year. They send the folky pop duo Naviband with their song ‘Story Of My Life’.
Although they translated the title of their song to English, ‘Story Of My Life’ will be performed completely in Belarusian, which is a first for the Eurovision stage. If you ask me, it is their best entry since 2006’s ‘Work Your Magic’. ‘Story Of My Life’ is a mix of singer-songwriter pop and folk with an upbeat vibe and unmistakable feel good vibes. Both Arciom and Ksienija have pleasant vocals and proved to be able to impress in a live setting as well. Although towards the end they go a little overboard with the ‘heya ho’, you have to be in quite a bad mood if this does not cheer you up even a little. The bookmakers are not so certain about Belarus qualifying at the moment, but quite some Eurovision press believe in their chances to qualify after seeing the rehearsals in Kiev. I’d say this entry would definitely provide some welcome variation on Saturday night’s show!
UPDATE – Review on semi final performance:
Belarus brings a track in their own language to the Eurovision stage for the very first time and although most of Europe won’t understand a word, they made sure it is still catchy enough. Naviband brings a whole lot of happy vibes to the stage and vocally they deliver a decent enough performance. The ‘heyaya’ parts get a bit repetitive towards the end and the arm movements that come with it are a bit distracting, but based on last night’s performance I’d say Belarus deserved their spot in the final, where they will put a smile on my face once again with their endearing folk pop.
UPDATE – Review on final performance and result (17th):
Belarus deservedly made it into this year’s Eurovision final, but their folk pop performed in Belarusian was clearly too light to make much of an impression in the results show. Their performance was once again decent although the waving with the hands during the chorus looked a bit infantile. ‘Story Of My Life’ gets repetitive towards the end, but the charming stage presence of the duo is endearing to watch. They can be proud of their result either way!
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