A new wave of passion and competition is to launch, with TV viewers being given more opportunity to influence final results. The organisational committee, led by Culture Minister Boris Svetlov, has updated the regulations to better reflect public opinion.
Last year, audiences voted alongside the professional jury, with the latter having more votes, leaving many TV viewers dissatisfied. This time, a telephone and SMS vote will decide the final candidate, with the jury only selecting singers for the preliminary round.
The head of the Eurovision project in Belarus, Olga Shlyager, is convinced that the move is an excellent idea. “Choosing a representative exclusively via public voting is the most transparent way of defining a worthy candidate,” she comments. “Of course, preliminary selection will be supervised by a professional jury, and they’ll be tough, with no allowance made for poor performance. Singers will have a single chance to impress.”
By Irina Ovsepyan
