Belarus goes for ZENA with 'Like It'!

07 March 2019 at 22:31 CET

ZENA BTRC

ZENA has won the Belarus' national selection and will represent Belarus at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with her song 'Like It'. The 16 year old took first place with 69 points, four points ahead of second placed BLGN & Mirex. Sebastian Roos came third with 62 points. The ten acts performing in tonight's final were picked from the 113 acts that had auditioned before.

ZENA will perform her song Like It in the first Semi-Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday 14th of May.

About ZENA

ZENA, real name Zinaida Kupriyanovich, was born on 17th September 2002 in Minsk. She graduated from the children's music school of arts in Minsk, and now studies in the gymnasium #36 of Minsk. ZENA's music catalogue already includes more than twenty songs and ten music videos. She has received many awards, including the Grand Prize of the Special Fund of the President of the Republic of Belarus. The award supports talented young artists from the country. She also won the first national music award Our League 2017 in the category Discovery of the Year. ZENA is also the Russian voice of Disney's Moana and was one of the hosts of the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held in Minsk last November!

The show

These are the ten entries that participated in this year's Belarusian national final:

Michael Soul - Humanize (59 points)
ZENA - Like It (69 points)
Eva Kogan - Run (54 points)
BLGN & Mirex - Champion (65 points)
Sebastian Roos - Never Getting Close (62 points)
Alena Gorbacheva - Can We Dream (59 points)
PROvokatsiya - Running Away From The Sun (55 points)
Aura - Charavala (55 points)
NAPOLI - Let It Go (58 points)
KeySi - No Love Lost (59 points)

Besides ZENA, other notable contestants on the list are the group NAPOLI which took part in the Belarusian national selection every year since 2014! Tonight's winner was determined by the votes of a jury panel made up of seven experts.

Belarus in Eurovision

Belarus joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004 but has yet to win the Eurovision Song Contest. The country qualified for the Grand Final in 2007 for the first time, when Dmitry Koldun scored the best ever placing for Belarus, sixth. Koldun was one tonight's jury members.

While Belarus has never won the Eurovision Song Contest, Alexander Rybak, the winner of the 2009 contest for Norway, is from Belarusian origin. The country has achieved great success in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest winning the competition twice, in 2005 and 2007. The country hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in the capital Minsk in 2010 and 2018.