Belarusian national broadcaster will not air Eurovision 2021

Belarus’s national broadcaster, Belteleradio (BT), will not air the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest because the country was refused admission to the competition, BT told RIA Novosti,

Earlier, the independent Belarusian news outlet Euroradio drew attention to the fact that BT hadn’t included the Eurovision Song Contest in its program schedule for this week.

The competition’s semi-finals will take place in Rotterdam from May 18 to 20, and the final is scheduled to take place on May 22. The competition is also available for viewing on Eurovision’s YouTube channel.

In addition to being Belarus’s main state broadcaster, Belteleradio organizes the country’s Eurovision selection and broadcasts the song contest in Belarus. BT held a close selection for the country’s 2021 Eurovision entry. It then nominated a song by the band Galasy ZMesta, which opposed the Belarusian opposition and the protests that took place after the 2020 presidential elections.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which organizes Eurovision, rejected Belarus’s entry due to its political overtones. After BT proposed a different song by the same artists, Eurovision’s organizers rejected that one too. The EBU then announced that Belarus wouldn’t take part in the 2021 competition after failing to submit an eligible entry by the extended deadline.