Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

The Belarusian national final took place on 20 January 2017.[3] Thirteen songs participated in the competition and the winner was selected through a jury and public televote. The show was broadcast on Belarus 1, Belarus 24 and Radius FM as well as online via the broadcaster's official website tvr.by.

Artists and composers were able to submit their applications and entries to the broadcaster between 4 November 2016 and 24 November 2016. At the closing of the deadline, 67 entries were received by the broadcaster. Auditions were held on 30 November 2016 at the BTRC "600 Metrov" studio where a jury panel was tasked with selecting up to fifteen entries to proceed to the televised national final. The auditions were webcast online at the official BTRC website. The jury consisted of Olga Salamakha (deputy director of the TV channel Belarus 1), Inna Mardusevich (chief specialist of the concert and festival art management projects of the Ministry of Culture of Belarus), Elena Treschinskaya (head of the radio station "Radius FM"), Dmitry Dolgolev, Oleg Averin (musician/composer), Ludmila Kutz (singer and vocal teacher), Sergei Andrianov (journalist), Mikhail Revutsky (head of the section of culture at TV Infoservice) and Evgeny Perlin (television host). Thirteen finalists were selected and announced on 30 November 2016.[4]

The televised final took place on 20 January 2017 at the "600 Metrov" studio in Minsk, hosted by Olga Ryzhikova and 2014 Belarusian Eurovision contestant Teo.[3] Prior to the competition, a draw for the running order took place on 9 December 2016.[5] A 50/50 combination of votes from seven jury members made up of music professionals and public televoting selected the song "Historyja majho žyccia" performed by Navi as the winner. The song became Belarus' first entry to be performed in the Belarusian language at the Eurovision Song Contest.[6] The jury consisted of Valery Dayneko (chairman of the jury, singer), Olga Salamakha (deputy director of the TV channel Belarus 1), Elena Treshchinskaya (head of the radio station "Radius FM"), Alexander Kapenkin (director of the TV channel TV BelMuz), Vladimir Bogdan (producer, presenter, director of the radio station "Radio New"), Ludmila Kutz (singer and vocal teacher) and Inna Mardusevich (chief specialist of the concert and festival art management projects of the Ministry of Culture of Belarus).[7]

In addition to the performances from the competitors, the show featured guest performances by the hosts Olga Ryzhikova and Teo, 2015 Belarusian Eurovision contestant Uzari and 2016 Belarusian Eurovision contestant Ivan.

Naviband made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Story of My Life" as the Belarusian Eurovision entry. On 25 March, Naviband performed during the Eurovision PreParty Riga, which was organised by OGAE Latvia and held at the Crystal Club Concert Hall in Riga.[8] Between 3 and 6 April, Naviband took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where she performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[9][10] On 8 April, Naviband performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[11]

Naviband during a rehearsal before the second semi-final

Naviband took part in technical rehearsals on 3 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 10 and 11 May. This included the jury show on 10 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.[17]

The Belarusian performance featured the members of Naviband performing on a boat prop on stage with two large spinning fans. The band were in white outfits: Arciom Lukjanienka wore a tan waistcoat, while Kseniya Zhuk wore a long flowing white dress. The LED screens displayed a fast moving cloudy sky, a large blue globe and traditional symbols, while the performance also featured smoke and pyrotechnic effects.[18][19] Naviband was joined by four off-stage backing vocalists: Alena Verbitskaya, Anna Chet, Michael Soul and Olga Rozaleon-Sashalskaya.[20]

At the end of the show, Belarus was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Belarus placed ninth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 110 points: 55 points from both the televoting and the juries.

Shortly after the second semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the reverse order the countries appeared in the semi-final running order. Belarus was drawn to compete in the first half. Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Belarus was subsequently placed to perform in position 3, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from Austria.[21]

Naviband once again took part in dress rehearsals on 12 and 13 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. The band performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 14 May. Belarus placed sixteenth in the final, scoring 83 points: 33 points from the televoting and 50 points from the juries.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Belarus and awarded by Belarus in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

The following members comprised the Belarusian jury:[24]

• Inna Mardusevich (jury chairperson) – chief specialist of the concert and festival art management projects of the Ministry of Culture of Belarus
• Ludmila Kuts – singer and vocal teacher
• Victoria Aleshko – singer
• Alexey Gross – singer
• Leonid Shirin – composer, guitarist, arranger, poet, sound director

Detailed voting results from Belarus (Semi-final 2)[22]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Mardusevich	L. Kuts	V. Aleshko	A. Gross	L. Shirin	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Serbia	6	8	6	8	10	7	4	17
02	Austria	5	4	4	5	5	5	6	11
03	Macedonia	14	17	17	16	16	16		12
04	Malta	7	7	7	7	6	6	5	16
05	Romania	17	14	15	15	14	15		6	5
06	Netherlands	3	3	1	4	4	3	8	13
07	Hungary	13	9	9	11	13	12		2	10
08	Denmark	10	6	10	10	12	9	2	14
09	Ireland	11	13	14	14	15	14		8	3
10	San Marino	16	16	16	17	17	17		15
11	Croatia	8	10	13	6	7	8	3	7	4
12	Norway	2	2	2	2	2	2	10	5	6
13	Switzerland	15	15	12	13	11	13		9	2
14	Belarus
15	Bulgaria	1	1	3	1	1	1	12	1	12
16	Lithuania	4	5	5	3	3	4	7	10	1
17	Estonia	9	12	8	12	9	10	1	3	8
18	Israel	12	11	11	9	8	11		4	7

Detailed voting results from Belarus (Final)[23]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Mardusevich	L. Kuts	V. Aleshko	A. Gross	L. Shirin	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	11	13	11	14	15	10	1	16
02	Poland	9	11	25	8	9	9	2	17
03	Belarus
04	Austria	10	6	7	6	6	7	4	20
05	Armenia	17	14	6	19	10	13		15
06	Netherlands	4	7	4	7	7	6	5	22
07	Moldova	14	15	12	10	14	12		2	10
08	Hungary	15	23	13	18	19	19		3	8
09	Italy	13	16	24	11	12	16		12
10	Denmark	7	10	9	9	8	8	3	21
11	Portugal	2	1	5	2	1	2	10	4	7
12	Azerbaijan	18	8	16	12	11	11		11
13	Croatia	22	18	18	20	21	21		14
14	Australia	3	4	8	4	4	4	7	19
15	Greece	23	25	19	24	22	24		23
16	Spain	24	19	20	25	25	25		24
17	Norway	5	5	3	5	5	5	6	6	5
18	United Kingdom	25	21	21	22	23	23		18
19	Cyprus	20	12	10	13	16	14		13
20	Romania	12	24	22	16	17	20		9	2
21	Germany	21	20	23	23	24	22		25
22	Ukraine	19	22	14	17	13	18		10	1
23	Belgium	16	9	15	15	18	15		5	6
24	Sweden	6	3	2	1	2	3	8	8	3
25	Bulgaria	1	2	1	3	3	1	12	1	12
26	France	8	17	17	21	20	17		7	4