News & Events in Belarus

MINSK, 23 January (BelTA) – Singer IVAN will represent Belarus at the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden, BelTA informs.

The winner of the national contest was named after the final public phone and SMS vote. The singer received a glass heart, produced by Neman Glass Works, as a prize.

IVAN is a stage name of Alexander Ivanov. The Belarusian singer is already known to the Russian audience. He won the Five Stars competition, reached the Main Stage semifinal and got the Producers’ Choice Award in the project.

Alexander Ivanov’s song How to Fly was written by Viktor Drobysh who patronized the young Belarusian singer in the project Main Stage and then became his producer.

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest will take place in the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm following Sweden's victory at the 2015 Contest in Vienna with the song Heroes, performed by Mans Zelmerlow.

A record-high number of countries, 43, will participate in the contest. The contest will consist of two semifinals on 10 and 12 May and the final on 14 May 2016.

Belarus will have to go through the semifinal in order to reach the final of the competitions.