Naš Puĺs Bjecca 7.9

Naš Puĺs Bjecca 7.9 is the seventh edition of Naš Puĺs Bjecca , the national selection of Belarus for the ninth edition of The Origin Song Contest .

## Before the competition

Belarus announced its participation in the ninth edition of The Origin Song Contest on the 9th of May in a press release publicized at 18:00 local time. It was also announced that the competition would not be hosted physically, but conducted virtually through multiple livestreams, each one highlighting different Belarusian cities. The competition would consist of three heats with eight songs each, a second chance round with every eliminated song, as opposed to the battles used in the fifth and sixth editions. The top three songs in the second chance round would then qualify to the final, making the number of songs in the final 12, as in the fifth and sixth editions.

## Controversy and incidents

### Criticism of the lack of funding provided for contestants

A petition criticizing at the Belteleradiocompany's decision to not financially support the approved entries or assist in sound production, as is usually done in Naš Puĺs Bjecca, gathered over a thousand signatures. Artists who both have previously competed in Naš Puĺs Bjecca and/or were planning to compete in the upcoming edition vocalized loud complaints, claiming that this greatly disadvantages new and upcoming artists with limited funds, to which promoting their entry to Belarus and beyond through Naš Puĺs Bjecca could kickstart their careers. The head of delegation responded to these criticisms by claiming that it would be financially impossible to both pay employees working with the online stream and financially support the contestants, since the competition is underfunded due to the absence of ticket sale revenue.

### Artists attempting to live audition in person

On May 19th, the day after song submissions closed, a number of artists who had virtually submitted their competing entries showed up at the BTRC building in Minsk, under the presumption that the live auditions would take place as per usual, due to the automated email response confirming the submission of entries not having been edited to fit the current virtual format of the competition. The artists waited outside the building for over two hours under the presumption that the building was locked, until Natasha Bogdanova opened the door, discovering that it was unlocked. The group of artists waited in the lobby for another two hours, frustrated at not receiving any type of contact from the employees at the understaffed BTRC building. When Iskui Abalyan and Natalya Podolskaya tapped an intern on the shoulder with ungloved hands, the group of 10-12 artists was forcibly removed from the premises. None of them made it into the final lineup, and Veronika Tsubikova, Iskui Abalyan, Alyona Lanskaya, Angelika Agurbash and Nuteki have complained about the misinformation and the treatment received by BTRC staff in online media.

### Criticism of host decisions

The city of Homieĺ, host city of the first heat, filed a complaint to the Belteleradiocompany, claiming that the spotlight given to the city during the first heat, was not sufficient and that more focus was put on past NPB winners, rather than the host city. The city had applied for hosting rights of NPB since the competition's second edition.

### Online format and restrictions ridiculed

A certain high ranking official in the Belarusian government apparently mocked the contest's restrictive online format behind closed doors, claiming that "trying to prevent people from meeting one another at musical events is pointless", that "surely Belarusian boys and girls will find ways to meet regardless of whether we cancel the live shows of this silly spectactle" and that "the Belteleradiocompany will struggle to stay afloat without snatching money from their loyal audience's purses". The rest of the information on this topic is confidential.