It’s been a bit of a controversial lead up to the competition, as upon the selection it became known that a Russian language version of Alekseev’s entry had been performed in public prior to the 1st of September 2017, and as we know, the Eurovision rules states that the songs cannot be performed before this date. With this news, seven of the other ten finalists wrote an open letter to the Belarusian broadcaster stating they would withdraw if Alekseev was allowed to perform in the national selection, also alleging that the competition has been rigged for Alekseev to win. One of the eleven originally selected acts, Sofi Lapina officially withdrew in mid January.
After all this, the show went on, featuring ten acts including Alekseev. Here are the competitors:
Adagio – Tj I ja
Alekseev – Forever
Shuma – Chmarki
NAPOLI – Chasing Rushes
Anastasiya Malashkevich – World on Fire
Gunesh – I Won’t Cry
Radiovolna – Subway Lines
Alen Hit – I Don’t Care
Lexy Weaver – Ain’t You
Kirill Good – Déjà vu
The voting consisted of both jury and televote, so let’s go through the votes!
We’ll start with the jury voting, and unsurprisingly, the favourite going into the national final Alekseev took out the top Jury points. Coming in second with the jury was Radiovolna with their song Subway Lines. In third was Gunesh with the song I Won’t Cry.
The televoting was make or break for some acts, but for fan favourite Alekseev, there were no worries as he scored the top votes in the televote as well. Second favourite with the audiences was Shuma, and then Kirill Good.
With the scores combined, Alekseev was the winner with the highest amount of points. Coming in second was Gunesh with the song I Won’t Cry, and in third was Shuma with Chmarki.
