Yuri Vashchuk, Belarus’ representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2014
At the Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark’s Copenhagen Belarus was represented by winner of the national selection Yuri Vashchuk (stage name Teo).
Yuri Vashchuk (Teo): interesting facts
Yuri Vashchuk took up music and singing in childhood: he graduated from an art school (button accordion) and won the Proleski contest and the TV project Zornaya Rostan.
He received professional music education at the Grodno State College of Arts and the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts. In 2000 he became a soloist of the famous National Academic Concert Orchestra of Belarus conducted by Professor Mikhail Finberg.
Yuri Vashchuk’s stage name is Teo. But Yuri is also a composer and arranger. He writes songs for Belarusian and foreign singers. He helped write music for the movies Mayor Vetrov and In June 1941. Teo’s performances in clubs are widely known in Belarus.
In 2013 Yuri Vashchuk together with Leonid Shirin won the National Music Prize in the nomination Best Music Writer (his song Belarus the Great was played during the Independence Day fireworks).
Teo helped to write songs for participants of the national selection for the contest "Eurovision": I Far Away for the band "3+2" in 2010 and tracks All My Love and The Rhythm Of Love for Alyona Lanskaya in 2012-2013 years.
For several years Yuri Vashchuk has been co-presenter of the TV program Forward Into The Past about Belarusian musical heritage. Not long ago he also became presenter of the BelarusLife project timed to the IIHF World Championship.
Teo’s preparation for Eurovision 2014
An international group of specialists helped Teo prepare for the song contest. Among them was voice teacher Alex Panayi, who is among the top three singing teachers of Eurovision. Another specialist was Swedish director Tine Matulessy whose task was to improve choreography and help stage the show.
The country introduction video was shot at Chizhovka Arena, one of the two venues of the forthcoming IIHF World Championship.
Teo recorded a cover version of Cheesecake together with participants of the folk band Pavalyaki (Lyuban District, Minsk Oblast) who sang verses in Belarusian in their original creative manner.
Several cover versions of Cheesecake were included in Teo’s promo CD.
A Cheesecake party was held in Minsk in February. During the party Teo presented a gigantic 100kg cheesecake which diameter was 2.10m. It was possible that an original desert made of Belarusian potatoes (bulbacake) would be cooked for the guests of the traditional party in Copenhagen.
Teo’s song Cheesecake
On 8 May Teo competed in the second semifinal at Copenhagen’s B&W Hallerne located on the island of Refshaleoen. His song Cheesecake is a comic story about a girl that calls him a sweet pie.
Belarus’ singer performed 10th on Danish scene with back singers Artyom Akhpash, Yury Seleznev, Denis Lis, dancers Alexander Zalessky and Andrei Martynov.
In spite of bookmakers predictions Teo's memorable performance provided Belarus getting into top 10 of countries participating in the finals of prestigious competition.
In the final on 10 May Teo performed 2nd and in the result of the audience voting took 16th place with 43 points. Belarusian representative at "Eurovision-2014" repeated last year's success of Alyona Lanskaya.
The lyrics for the 2014 Eurovision entry were written by Dmitry Novik. The music was composed by Yuri Vashchuk.
The official video of Teo’s song Cheesecake - video
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