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      BELARUS       

Song : "Hasta La Vista"
Performer : Ruslan Alehno
Music : Taras Demchuk
Lyrics : Eleonora Melnik

Running Order : #9 in the second semi-final 

 Audio file
Preview video
Live Performance

THIS YEAR'S ENTRY

Having failed to qualify from the Eurovision semi-finals on its first three attempts, Belarus not only qualified in Helsinki in 2007, but went on to finish in the Top 10. The change in the format of this year's contest meant that there was no automatic qualification for Belgrade which apparently upset Belarussian television. However once again Belarus was one of the first countries to pick its 2008 entry. A semi-final staged on December 21st reduced the field from 15 potential entries to four finalists, which "Hasta La Vista" qualifying for the final, by a clear victory in the public televote. A month later on January 21st, the four finalists once again performed their songs in front of a jury, who chose "Hasta La Vista" performed by Ruslan Alehno to go to Eurovision.

Ruslan Alehno was born in 1981 in the Belarussian town of Bobruisk. His musical abilities were revealed in early childhood, when he started to take bayan classes. However it was not enough for the young talent, and on leaving musical school Ruslan could already play the guitar, tube, piano and drums.

When he was 16, Ruslan wrote his first musical composition. At that time Ruslan couldn't even imagine that the real life story, which had evoked the content of his first composition, would appear again someday in his future hit "Hasta La Vista".

In his motherland, Belarus, Ruslan Alehno has now established himself as successful singer. This was confirmed by the huge number of his victories at different vocal competitions, song contests and festivals. In 2001 Ruslan was the winner of Belarussian TV project "Hit-Moment" , in 2003 he was the winner in "Clear Voice" and won the nomination for the "Crossroads of Europe" festival in Belarus and in the same year also laureate of "Molodechno-2003" vocal contest in Belarus.

The international festival "Malvy 2004" in Poland brought to Ruslan another victory, but the most important achievement in the musical career of Ruslan Alehno was his victory in Russian TV-project "People's Artist-2" (the Russian version of "Pop-Idol"). It gave him the possibility to access the wider Russian audience of pop music fans, for them to discover a new performer and pin up.

In 2005, Ruslan released his first album "Sooner or Later". In 2008 Ruslan Alehno became the winner of National Television Musical project "EuroFest", which gave him the opportunity to represent Belarus at the Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade.

Since winning the Eurovision ticket, Ruslan has done a considerable amout of promotion for his entry, appearing in several television show, mainly concentrated in Eastern Europe. Since the beginning opf April he has been working with a team of top Greek choreographers in Athens, and once again Belarus is promising to have one of the most spectacular stage shows in the competition.

The songwriting team behind this year's Belarus entry, while well know in Belarus, are both newcomers to the Eurovision Song Contest.

Belarus is considered to be one of the songs in contention for one of the lower qualifying places in the final, if bookmakers odds are correct, while the song has made little significant impact on most internet fan polls.

SAMPLE LYRICS

The story is close to the final cut
It won't be the end, but a running start
So don't be upset, please don't ask me why
I say goodbye

 

BROADCASTER

RATINGS

Bookmakers

Eurovision history

Runnning order
Fan Poll
Webmaster

LAUNCH PAD

  1. Ruslan Alehno's website
  2. Belarussian television website
  3. The song's lyrics (from Diggiloo.net)
  4. Information on the Belarus selection

 

BELARUS AT EUROVISION

First entry: 2004
Number of previous entries: 4
Best result: 6th (2007)
Worst result: Second last in semi-final (2006)

TEN YEAR FORM GUIDE

 

 

WEBMASTER REVIEW

Of all the songs in this year's contest, this is the one with the greatest sense of deja vu for me. I've heard this kind of song many times at Eurovision and it's while it's not a bad entry, I think it may need something pretty special to make it out of a semi full of better uptempo songs.  

REVIEWS

"For a weak song it used to be in the beggining, this song really benefited from the rework. Still it faces the uphill battle and a lot depends on the performance, but it has a good chance of qualifying. If Ruslan does it very good with some pyrotehnics then it's surely in the final." - Iggy (Croatia)

"Great choice, great rhythm, good vocals and nice looks. The lyrics are OK, but what troubles me is the pronunciation and the accent of Ruslan. He needs to work harder. Overall a nice result." - Atmantas (Greece)

"Ok even though everyone thinks the original version was better I think the rockier version improves it a bit. I thought live Ruslan was very static and stiff and would need to make big improvements for May. Everytime i think of the lyrics i think of Olexandr 2003 for Belarus which was catchier to say the least!" - Aidan O'Connor (Ireland)

"More or less a sequel to last year's song. A modern, commerical pop song. Listenable, friendly and catchy. Nothing new maybe. But it doesn't always have to be. Good arrangement." - Steinar

"The new version just ruins the fun. The original was so cheap and tacky it was almost amusing." - Alesta (Norway)

"After their moment in the sun in Helsinki it’s business as usual for Belarus this year. Just one of the myriad of countries this year that chose the wrong song from their national selections. I found the song cheap and annoying to begin with, but the new version is even worse – dull and boring! And can Belarus please sing in their own language one year?" - John Withers (U.K.)

"Somewhat of a disappointment. This is a worthy yet dull sub-rock plodder and Ruslan doesn’t seem particularly charismatic. Expect to see it in the final though." - David Bridgman (U.K.)