Naš Puĺs Bjecca 3.5

**Naš Puĺs Bjecca 3.5**  (Cyrillic: *Наш пульс б'ецца 3.5*) is the national selection of Belarus for the fifth edition of The Origin Song Contest

## Before the competition

### Rule change

Previous editions, songs could have been performed in any language, but for this edition all songs must be in the Belarusian language. The reason given was to give the country a more separate and recognizable identity in the contest.

### New host venue

The contest venue was changed from the small 600 Metrov Studio to the Summer Amphitheatre in Vitebsk (also known as *Viciebsk*), known for hosting the international festival the Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk. The reason for this was because the audience had a hard time fitting into the studio, and because the Head of Delegation "thought some fresh air would be neat".

### Live auditions

Like previous editions, the first round of live auditions took place on 28 May 2018, and the participants will not be revealed yet. However, Naviband and IOWA have publicly confirmed that they will not be competing this edition, for various reasons.

## Results

### Superfinal

 2
 3

## Final

The final took place on 13 June in the Summer Amphitheatre in Vitebsk, Vitebsk voblast, in northern Belarus. The show started out with Alexander welcoming everyone, and showing footage of the previous edition, and Immerse achieving what is to date the best result for Belarus in The Origin Song Contest - a ninth place. Then the language rule was introduced, and the artists performed. After the artists performed Tobolskiy claimed to be able to see everyone at night with their phones, and telling them to vote and get some sleep, and expressing his intent to "zoom off" to his friends and their baby, because said baby is the only one who understands him.

## Superfinal

The superfinal took place on 26 June, and started out with Alexander introducing the special guest from Italy - Fabrizio Moro, a successful musician. As part of his participation in the program, he challenged Alexander to choose a sport which they would compete in. Alexander chose acrobatics, and they both performed a short acrobatic number. Viewers can vote for their favorite using hashtags to support their favorite athlete, the hashtag #TeamItalyForever is used for Fabrizio and #TeamBeelarus for Alexander. After their acrobatics, the results from eighth to fourth were revealed - and due to some audio problems, and the superfinalists - Angelina Pipper, Dasha Kola and Sonika performed again.

## Superfinal results show

The superfinal results show took place at 8 July at 23:45 Belarusian time, much to the dismay of all Belarusian parents of young children whose offspring refused to sleep until they found out who won. The show was opened by previous winners, Immerse, who performed their winning entry "Ocean". Volha, frontwoman of Immerse, said it had become harder for them to retain their mysterious image after first participating in Naš Puĺs Bjecca, and then The Origin Song Contest, and that they are frequently recognized by strangers. She said it annoyed her, but that people enjoying their music was a gift. After they left the stage, special guest Fabrizio Moro who somehow got upgraded to cohost took to the stage and presented the superfinalists once again. It was revealed that Sonika finished third with 861 points. A short break from the song contest results was taken, and the winner of the acrobatics challenge was revealed to be #TeamBeelarus, which received 8 points, while #TeamItalyForever only received one (from Belgium). Fabrizio was saddened by the results, and questioned whether the televote had been added or not. He presented the rest of the results, and after the tension levels had risen slightly it was announced that "Krok" finished in second place with 911 points and "Dziva" had won a runaway victory, receiving 1065 points. After being announced the winner, Angelina Pipper went up on stage and thanked everyone for voting for her, saying that she dedicated her victory to everyone who had supported her, ever. Except for some creeps on the Internet.

## Incidents

### Live auditions

Several artists showed up with material prepared in Russian or English (and a few other languages too; to name a few Polish, Rusyn, Lemko, Flemish, Brazilian Portuguese and Japanese were all amongst the original languages of some songs). The artists who showed up with material prepared in a language other than Belarusian were given an ultimatum and either had to leave the auditions or translate the lyrics into Belarusian at the same time as they were singing. They were given an extra five minutes to prepare their translations, but the majority (84 out of 102) decided to withdraw. Out of the remaining eighteen only fifteen were capable of singing more than a few lines of their Belarusian translations.

Artist #9, whose song had lyrics in the Rusyn language, and artist #10, whose song was in Lemko, who were in the same audition group and were able to read the other's material got into a heated debate on whether Lemko was not, in fact, only a dialect of the Rusyn language. Artist #10 preceded to break Artist #9's nose after they stated the previous thesis twice. Artist #10 tripped Artist #9 and pinned them to the floor, only hitting them in the middle of their face once with a forceful punch. Artists #8 and #11, who were witnesses to this have stated in later reports that the sound of Artist #9's nose breaking reminded them of the skin of a large drum bursting and a frozen potato being driven over by a massive tractor. After punching Artist #9, Artist #10 stated that if Lemko is only a dialect of Rusyn, then "Rusyn is nothing but a southwestern dialect of the Ukrainian language".

Artist #22 , who is quite well known in some circles, stated that they been properly informed about the language rule and had thought that it was more of a recommendation, but was however the artist who managed to keep singing their new Belarusian for the lyrics, singing the new lyrics without any mistakes for two minutes and forty-two seconds (out of a three minute and forty-five second song).

Artist #52 missed their audition time due to a tractor parade in Mahilyow blocking the road.

Artist #69 was offended at their audition number and withdrew.

Artist #77 were late for their audition time after spotting Alexander Tobolskiy in the Minsk metro, headed the opposite direction of the studio, and thought they were headed the wrong way and followed Alexander, until they realized that Alexander was heading for a suburb to visit friends.

Artist #144, who has later been revealed to be Ivan, brought their pet wolf with them during the auditions, and none of the empolyees at Belteleradio were brave enough to hold its leash during their performance, causing it to run out into the foyer and howl at two chihuahuas belonging to Artist #166.

Artist #199 was disqualified on the grounds of their song having a too obvious commercial message. Their song was called "Moj hamburher" (Мой гамбургер), which features lyrics such as "I take my tractor to Mr. Donald's every day" and "I can't imagine how sad and empty my life would be without those golden arches welcoming me home." The artist also confirmed that they had received large transactions from Mc Donald's Belarus prior to releasing the song.

### During the contest

Coca Cola Belarus has sent numerous angry letters, and posted angry columns in every Belarusian newspaper about the lack of exposure given to them in this season of Naš Puĺs Bjecca, but they have, however, not once mentioned terminating the sponsorship deal.

## Reception and controversy

The language rule has caused the biggest negative reaction to the contest so far. Many different people have written online and contacted Belteleradio saying that it's an unfair rule, and that the Russian language should have the same privileges as the Belarusian language in the competition. A factory owner from Brest started a petition for Belteleradio to revoke the language rule, or extend it and for songs in the Russian language to be allowed as well, on the grounds that Russian has the same constitutional rights as Belarusian, and that according to some figures less than 30% of the Belarusian population are fully capable of writing and speaking Belarusian. Said petition has 6 666 signatures as of 28 May 2018.

A small group of Vitebsk citizens have requested for the contest to refer to Vitebsk as *Viciebsk*, a name which derives from the Belarusian language as opposed to the, in English more common, Vitebsk which is derived from Russian. Both names were used in the final recap.

Several of the artists have complained about the quality of the mixing, which they believe will be considerably worse on an outdoor stage.

Many people, most notably a group of design students from the Minsk State University, have stated their dislike of the new logo, claiming "it looks like something a lazy Swedish teenager would doodle on their phone in a cheap ripoff of Photoshop in 20 minutes instead of studying for their Physics final exam".

The final was by some critics called "the tamest and most boring Naš Puĺs Bjecca ever". A Kasiuk from Rečyca claimed that "it's too polished, lacking all of the humor and silliness which has made this contest enjoyable, and it's all too serious now - a pity".