Naš Puĺs Bjecca 5.7

**Naš Puĺs Bjecca 5.7** is the fifth edition of Naš Puĺs Bjecca, the national selection of Belarus for the seventh edition of The Origin Song Contest, which will be hosted in Belarus following Parade of Planets' victory with Toi et moi in Sweden in the sixth edition.

## Before the competition

### Format

On 11 April 2019 the Belarusian delegation confirmed their participation in the upcoming seventh edition of The Origin Song Contest, and expressed their desire to host a show "including more songs and shows than ever before", possibly with semi-finals or heats.

On 20 April 2019 it was announced that a total of 24 entries will compete, in three heats with eight songs each. The top two of each heat will be automatically qualified to the final. The third and fourth places of each heat will qualify to a second chance round, from which two of them will make it to the final.

### Hosting

##### Selection

24 Belarusian cities, and one in Ukraine, applied for hosting rights, but after reading their applications, the following seven cities were shortlisted:

* Minsk - capital of Belarus and of the Minsk region, with a population of 1.8 million.
* Brest (also known as *Bierascie*) - capital of the Brest region with a population of 300 000.
* Homiel (also known as *Gomel*) - capital of the Homiel region in eastern Belarus, second largest city in Belarus with a population of 450 000.
* Pinsk - historical city located in the Brest region in southern Belarus near the border to Ukraine, with a population of around 130 000.
* Hlybokaye - a small town located in the Viciebsk region with a population of 20 000.
* Mahiliou (also known as *Mogilev*) - capital of the Mahiliou region, located in eastern Belarus with a population exceeding 350 000, the third largest city in Belarus.
* Polack (also known was *Polotsk*) - one of the oldest East Slavic cities, first mentioned in 862 CE, historically the capital of the Principality of Polotsk, today with a population above 80 000.

##### Winners

The final chosen host cities were Brest (all shows except the second chance round) and Pinsk (second chance round).

## Competition

### Second chance round

The second chance round was hosted in Pinsk by Chuu, as Alexander was busy.

### Final

The final was hosted by both Alexander and Chuu, and the opening acts were "Galileo" by Naviband and "Heart Attack" by Chuu. The show ran smoothly. The interval act featured special Polish guest Grzegorz Hyży, who performed together with Naviband. They performed "O Pani!" (originally by Gregorz and written in Polish) with a special Belarusian translation of the chorus, and Naviband's song Historyja majho žyccia with the second verse translated into Polish.

## Voting

The voting results are comprised of roughly 1/3 jury votes - international juries award 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 points to their top seven entries.

The selected juries, with spokespersons are:

* Austria - Chonnasorn Sajakul
* Belgium - Mustii
* Czech Republic - Gabriela Gunčíková
* France - Amel Bent
* Latvia - Zane Dombrovska
* Moldova - Nicoleta Nuca
* Poland - Grzegorz Hyży
* Romania - Liv Royale

The other approximately 67% of the jury results are the televote and the hashtag points.

### Covers

The results show interval act was a selection of covers of Naš Puĺs Bjecca songs from different editions, both performed by contestants and other singers.

## Incidents

### Before the contest

#### Turkish prank calls

On 16 April a phone number which has later been traced to the Turkish delegation office prank called the Belteleradiocompany's TOSC number 6000 times.

#### Live auditions

During the live auditions, which took place on 15 April in Minsk, Mustii, the Beelgian representative from the third edition of The Origin Song Contest was photographed in the Belteleradiocompany building watching the auditions from backstage. His reasons for being there have not yet been explained, and many theories have been posted online.

#### Design department blood feud

The different design teams responsible for creating the contests intro video, the recap design, and the logo of the contest are currently having a feud and refused to share information with the others on their work, causing it to be somewhat confusing and dissonant.

After the release of the first heat one of the design teams created a blood pact and promised to never collaborate with any of the other design teams ever again. The rest followed suit.

#### Leaked entry

Despite efforts to keep the contestants secret until the shows, one entry competing in the first heat (LILIKA with "Pozdno") was revealed through the YouTube thumbnail which was made public at 17:41 Minsk time on 6 May.

### During the contest

#### Polish jury voting incidents

##### First heat

The Polish voting for the first heat was done through a Belsat Broadcast and included live comments and ratings from prison convict Agata Dziarma Dziarmagowska. However, while Agata was using the prison toilet, another convict decided to comment on and rate song number four - "Ya tebya" by Dima Ermuzevich - and commented that he looked like their boyfriend. After Agata returned from her toilet break she and the other convict started fighting and the other prison inmate smashed Agata's laptop. The rest of the ratings were done the computer repair guy hired by TV to repair Agata's laptop. After being traumatized by very disturbing content and files on Agata's computer he successfully submitted Poland's votes.

##### Second heat

After Agata proved herself to not be fully capable of judging the songs on behalf of Poland, Honorata Skarbek was chosen to judge in her place, but due to a scheduling conflict she was not able to be present and therefore Agata was allowed to continue as a judge. After the third song, Agata fell asleep, possibly due to being under the influence, and Julia her prison guard rated the remaining songs. Despite Agata once again falling asleep during the third song, the episode received good ratings and Julia was considered a success and earned the nickname "the Sasha of Naš Puĺs Bjecca".

#### Falling ratings

After a successful first heat with a new viewer and voting record, the following heats have seen the ratings and votes plummet deeper than the Belaruskali mines. Media researcher and co-president of the Belarusian Tesla enthusiasts society Sasha has been conducting public research which shows that a likely reason for the less-than-satisfactory viewer share is due to the shows being too late at night for families with young children to watch them and that people are unaccostumed to Naš Puĺs Bjecca taking place over more than one or two episodes before getting to the final results. "Voting for a song without the votes counting in the final for it to win is a waste of money!" exclaims Pinsk native Iryna, 45. Sasha himself concludes his study, which he published on 25 May, with the following statement:

*"In conclusion, Belarus is not ready for the new and more advanced Naš Puĺs Bjecca, but it's our duty as cultural appreciators and citizens of this country to make her ready!"*

The ratings went up for the final, suggesting that the viewers at home want drama and not what some Internet users called "endless heats grotesquely overfilled with a testament to our Belarusian mediocrity".

#### Second Chance

Alexander was busy babysitting his godson and was not able to come to Pinsk. Chuu missed the starting time and was busy taking silly selfies in the changing room when the cameras started rolling. The ads were rolled early. After the final song Chuu was supposed to go on stage again and open the voting, but rumors backstage say a small green alien showed up and stole her microphone using The Force.

#### Final

The final was postponed to 5 July due to the 2nd European Games being hosted in Minsk, and Independence Day celebrations. There were some technical minor technical errors and misspellings during Naviband's and Grzegorz' performance.

The Belgian delegation had some technical difficulties while presenting their votes.

Agata hacked the Polish stream and tried to sabotage their votes and rig the voting results in favor of Asketa and Natan Chaim. Their bank account activity show that some substantial transactions were made to a hidden Polish account, which authorities have been able to tie to Agata. Agata was partially electrocuted by Korean girl group f(x), but showed up later during the national selections of Ireland and the Czech Republic.

## Notes

1. ↑ During the livestream "Alone" was shown in third place, but after investigations showing attempts to buy votes they received a 15 points reduction, which moved them down to fourth place instead of third.
2. ↑ If not for the points reduction, "Alone" would have received 121 points.
3. ↑ During the live broadcast of the results, Sonika appeared to finish fourth, but after Asketa, Natan and Kyle's points deduction they move up to third place.