In 2011, Anastasia Vinnikova performed a song named ‘I love Belarus’ in the second semifinal for Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest. The song was performed 16th but failed to qualify for the next round, finishing in 14th place. I wanted to analyze one of the performances from Belarus and this performance was very interesting; a very controversial entry into the Eurovision Song Contes from Belarus. This performance touches close to the lines of being very political, expresses national identity and is an interesting novelty song. For some background information, Anastasia Vinnikova was born in Dzyarzhynsk, BSSR on April 15th, 1991. She attended the Minsk State Linguistic University and then started her official journey to becoming a singer. Starting with releasing her first single in 2009, she started releasing music. Her singles are what got her picked to represent Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest – where sang the song ‘I love Belarus’, giving her more fame. After the contest, she didn’t do too much after with her music career.
The lyrics to ‘I love Belarus’ surround the idea of heavy nationalism. Some examples of this would be: “Lets come together so here is my hand” and “When all hearts keep beating as one”. Both lines explain how everyone in the nation must come together since they are on and the same – expressing the concept of national identity. The metaphor of ‘holding hands’ alludes to the people of Belarus living together in harmony and in peace and the line “When all hearts keep beating as one” continues the concept of national identity. The word ‘love’ is also brought up a lot in the song: “Love is all we need and it’s our light” and “Give you all my love”. Both lines express how the love shared between people in Belarus keeps them connected as a strong nation. The use of the word ‘love’ not only express the love that the people of Belarus have for one another but the love that they have for their nation and the love that they have for being Belarusian. Most lyrics express the concept of national identity. The lyrics also have a lot of symbolism within the common theme of words related to the universe/the world. Some examples in the song would be: “Just like a star guiding me through the night”, “Were gonna fly watching lakes in their full view”, “Fields are full of gold” and “I wanna see the sun/shinning from above”. Mentioning all of the sights that can be experienced in Belarus gives off the idea that the country is very beautiful and should be treasured and loved by everyone – not just the people of Belarus. For example, symbolizing the fields of Belarus to gold helps the performers get their main point across; their nation is precious and worthy. The other three lines point out the beauties of the nation and creates a warm feeling when the audience hears the lyrics. Overall, the lyrics express the pride the performances have of their nation and they want to share it to the audience. It is very clear that their love and nationalism run deep in their roots.
There were many different types of lighting throughout the performance. During the chorus, there was a lot going on. On beat, fire would shoot out of side of the stage giving the performance a ‘wow’ factor. Since this was a very energetic song with positive energy, the purpose of the fire was to raise sprits within the audience. Another lighting affected used to create a positive, fun ambiance was the use of the flash strobe lights that were increased during the chorus. On the screens in the back of the stage, there was a red and white pattern fading in and out. After looking at the performance a couple of times, I realized that it was representing the pattern of the Belarus flag on the left side. Since the song is about the nation, it seemed very on theme. The main stage lights also turned red since that is one of the country’s main colors. During the verses, the lights were all white but, in the background, there was still some flashing lights on beat to keep the performance upbeat and fun. To match the idea of flashing lights, their costumes were very shiny and looked like light beams were ricocheting off their clothes to give more attention to lighting. All of their costumes coordinated to the neutral colors of white black and silver. Another factor of the performance that increased the energy is the choreography. The choreography wasn’t much, and only occurred in a few places of the performance but, kept everyone’s eyes glued to stage as they were very in sync. With the lighting, costumes and in sync choreography, the audience was drawn to the performance – which was the point of including various factors into the performance.
This song would be considered a novelty song since it touches on politics. The song isn’t a typical song seen at the Eurovision song contest and gives off a very straight forward message; the main point of the song is very obvious. When I watched this performance, I was surprised that this song made it into the contest since Eurovision has a rule against songs projecting political options and views – it is a strict nonpolitical event. I know this song wasn’t technically supporting any specific political views but while watching the performance it definitely felt like I was watching a propaganda piece for Belarus. Even the background of how the entry was created involves a lot of politics. In the past years, the President of Belarus has intertwined with the song contest and Belarus’s performances – there is no public proof explaining this but rumors of this have been spread. One main reason the public believe the President was involved was because of how Anastasia was chosen to be the main performer for Belarus that year. She was picked by the broadcaster from Belarus’ national television– a close connection to the President – and not by the public. In previous years, there have been more rumors of the President interfering but, in the most recent years, people seem to think that the President has stepped back and stopped meddling with the contest. Such interference with the contest and the participants can get the nation disqualified – it connects politics to the song contest. The rule book has specifically stated: “The ESC is a non-political event. All Participating Broadcasters, including the Host Broadcaster, shall ensure that all necessary steps are undertaken within in their respective Delegations and teams in order to make sure that the ESC shall in no case be politicized and/or instrumentalized.” Due to this, I am assuming that is why there is nothing on the internet about the President involving himself within the contest – Belarus would be disqualified, and many more issues would take place if such news was publicized. More issues were included with Belarus’s entry in 2011 because of a song change within the last few days. Anastasia was set to sing a song called ‘Born in Byelorussian’ but there was backlash on this song because many people believed that it included too much association to the former USSR republic of Byelorussia. Since Belarus had become its own nation, they have been trying to uphold that sense of independence. The former song, ‘Born in Byelorussian’ talks about what Belarus was like years ago and the lyrics are focused on Belarus during the USSR times. For example: “Born in Byelorussia, USSR time. Byelorussia got you on my mind”. In the lyrics, the USSR is mentioned many times and the audience can get the feeling that Belarus is reminiscing and basing their independence and formed nation on the USSR. Even though, understanding the history of one’s nation is important, many people from Belarus are trying to move past and become independent. This is why there was lots of backlash on the song lyrics. Not only did it receive backlash but, the former song was already used in the contest. In 2010, Belarus competed with the former song. So, if they used it in 2011 again, they would have been automatically disqualified. Even though the original song never made it, both are constructed around the concept of nationalism and would be considered novelty songs.
References:
Adams. W (2017, August 4). Why Eurovision Won’t Be Able to Enforce Tighter Rules Against ‘Pollical Posturing’ – Billboard. https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7889930/eurovision-song-contest-rules-politics
Busa. A (2011, March 4). Belaus: Song lyrics changed - Esctoday. http://esctoday.com/16930/belarus__song_lyrics_changed/
Buxton. A (2011, April 27). Belarus – “I love Belarus” performed by Anastasia Vinnikova – BBC. https://web.archive.org/web/20110717105729/http://www.bbc.co.uk/eurovision/songs/2011/belarus.shtml
Word Count: 1435
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