The official Belarusian Eurovision entry likely to get booed off the stage

The official Belarusian Eurovision entry likely to get booed off the stage
The official Belarusian Eurovision entry likely to get booed off the stage / wiki
By bne IntelliNews March 15, 2021

The officially backed Belarusian candidate for this year’s Eurovision song contest, Galasy ZMesta, is likely to get booed off the stage if it is allowed to compete.

ZMesta has been nominated for the competition by the country's state broadcaster but the band is overtly political, featuring songs that mock the mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko that broke out following the massively falsified presidential elections on August 9.

While the international community has been almost unanimous in its condemnation of the elections and the EU has sanctioned three dozen of the Belarus’ elite, including Lukashenko himself, ZMesta has thumbed its nose at international opprobrium and includes lyrics such as "I will teach you to toe the line."

With ZMesta’s nomination flying in the face of the international condemnation of Lukashenko’s attempt to hang on to power, it has sparked calls from the European Parliament lawmaker for Belarus to be suspended from the popular competition, Reuters reports.

ZMesta has already been sentenced by the court of popular opinion, with its entry receiving 5,800 likes but 40,000 dislikes on the competition's official YouTube page since March 7, with more than half a million views.

Critics say that ZMesta entry would legitimise Lukashenko’s rule and so the band should be barred from entering. Eurovision has yet again been put in a difficult position as the self-professed politically neutral competition has been hijacked by political arguments, as has happened several times in the past.

Galasy ZMesta, a guitar, drums and tambourine band, has been an outspoken critic of the protests and called them an attempt to destroy the country.

Asked about the number of dislikes on the YouTube video, the band's frontman Dmitry Butakov told Reuters: "It's normal. People have to show off somehow, and that's what they do."

He declined further comment about the entry.

Galasy ZMesta, which translates as "Voices of Reason" or "Voices from the grassroots", has singled out opposition figures including Pavel Latushko, a former diplomat, in its songs.

Latushko was fired as head of the Belarusian state theatre last year. Galasy ZMesta mocked him for subsequently fleeing abroad to Poland.

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