Belarus sends duo VAL with contemporary pop song ‘Da Vidna’
Last year, then 16-year-old singer Zena was the sixth ever Belarusian Eurovision act to make it into the final of the contest, since they debuted back in 2004. With her 24th place for the pop tune ‘Like It’, she did not come close to the country’s best Eurovision result, which was Dmitry Koldun’s sixth place in 2007. This year, Belarus picked their entry through a national final once more. The band VAL finished second with both juries and televoters, which was enough to receive the most points and win the ticket to Rotterdam with their song ‘Da Vidna’.

VAL is a duo consisting of singer Valeria Gribusova and Vlad Pashkevicha. Their ‘Da Vidna’ is a contemporary pop tune with an upbeat instrumental drop after the chorus. It is fully performed in the Belarusian language, which does not at all take away from its instant catchiness. The production swings and the melody of that drop is hard to lose after you hear it a couple of times. The question is if this cute bop is will hold its own next to 16 other songs in the first semi-final, but I would not at all mind to hear this again on Saturday night during the final.

But is their performance final worthy? They are not quite there yet, but there is potential. Valeria has got a strong voice and owns the song, but visually their show needs work. Both the dance moves and the execution of those dance moves are not doing the song justice at the moment. If they fix up their stage show, I will be rooting for Belarus to make it into the final for the second year in a row.

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