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Galasy ZMesta group from Belarus: indignation among opposition members
Photo: BTRC / ESC
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on Thursday rejected the contribution Belarus submitted for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.
The country risked a disqualification if it does not change the song or send another one into the race, it said in a message from the organization.
The song "Ya Nauchu Tebya (I'll Teach You)" comes from the group Galasy ZMesta, which in the past published songs that made fun of the protests against the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The election of the Belarusian television broadcaster BTRC caused indignation among opposition members, and a Swedish EU parliamentarian had already called for Belarus to be excluded from the current competition.
In its communication, the EBU wrote that it had come to the conclusion that the song "called into question the non-political nature of the song contest."
In addition, reactions to the proposed contribution threatened to damage the reputation of the ESC.
The contribution, which the Belarusian broadcaster submitted without a public preliminary decision, has lines in the chorus that can be translated as follows: »I will teach you to dance to the melody (...) I will teach you to follow the line .
You will be satisfied and happy with everything «.
He has been on the official YouTube page of the ESC since Tuesday - with over half a million views, there were 5800 likes and 40,000 thumbs down.
In the meantime the song has been removed there.
Critics fear that appearing in the international competition with this song could justify the violent suppression of the protests against Lukashenko after the election in August.
The opposition accuses the president, who has ruled for 27 years, of election fraud.
The contribution of Galasy ZMesta is "a contempt for the Belarusian people, of everything that is going on in this country," criticized Angelica Agurbash, who represented Belarus at the ESC in 2005, to the Reuters news agency.
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feb / Reuters