In the show “Bravo! Bis!” on NTV, ZENA, Belarus’ representative at Eurovision 2019, claimed that her country should have placed 5th in the Grand Final, but, according to what she was told, she was only allowed to perform under the condition that she would end up last or be disqualified, due to the leak of the Belarusian jury’s voting!
These statements immediately triggered reactions, as they do not align with the actual facts of the contest. Let’s review what is true.
1. Belarus did not finish last
Despite ZENA’s claim, Belarus in 2019 placed 24th, not last. Neither the score nor the ranking indicates anything connected to a “penalty” or a predetermined outcome.
2. Leak of jury votes is a rules violation, but there is a standard procedure
Publishing a jury’s votes before the final is indeed a violation. In Belarus’s case, the EBU replaced the scores with a statistically calculated result, based on countries with similar voting profiles. This is explicitly provided by the rules and does not affect the contestants.
3. The cancellation of a jury does not affect the contestant
The most important point:
The cancellation of a national jury has absolutely no effect on the score a country’s representative receives in the final. The EBU does not have the ability to “downgrade” an entry by imposing conditions or restrictions. There is no mechanism that would allow such a scenario.
4. The semifinal results do not support a top-5 expectation
In the 2019 semifinal, Belarus placed 10th, only 2 points ahead of Poland, which failed to qualify.
With such a marginal qualification, there is no evidence supporting that the country could contend for a spot in the top five.
As it appears, ZENA’s claims are not confirmed by the EBU regulations nor by the Eurovision 2019 results. Most likely, they stem from incorrect information or a misunderstanding of what took place at the time.
Below you can also watch her statements:
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