Belarus jury vote dismissed from Eurovision final after rule break
Zena will represent Belarus at the 64th Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
The Eurovision jury vote from Belarus will not be counted in tonight’s final score after jury officials broke Eurovision rules.
Earlier this week, jury members from Belarus revealed who they had voted for during the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday.
Valeri Prigun, the chair of the Belarussian jury, spoke to Belarussian publication tut.by after the first semi-final on Tuesday about how the jury had voted “almost unanimously.”
Prigu shared that his top three performers of the semi-final were Estonia, Czech Republic and Georgia.
Other jury members also spoke about their favourites, with Olga Ryzhikova and Angelina Mikulskaya both noting how they liked Australia’s Kate Miller-Heidke.
Eurovision rules state that the results of the semi-finals cannot be revealed until after the Grand Final.
Eurovision: ‘The EBU has taken action and has dismissed the Belarussian jury from the Grand Final’
Speaking to Eurovision blog Eurovoix, a Eurovision spokesperson confirmed that Belarus’ jury vote had been dismissed following the rule break.
“The Belarussian jury voting has been revealed in an interview contravening Eurovision Song Contest rules,” the Eurovision press team said.
“In order to be compliant with the ESC voting regulations, the EBU has taken action and has dismissed the Belarussian jury from the Grand Final on Saturday. An aggregated result approved by the auditors will be used in order to determine to whom the Belarussian votes will be allocated.”
Jury votes count for the 50% of the total score for each country during the final. Juries vote for their favourites during a rehearsal on Friday evening.
ZENA will represent Belarus at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. (BTRC)
Belarus’ entrant ZENA will still perform during the Grand Final with her track ‘Like It’.
The contest, which is to be held in Tel Aviv, will also feature a performance from Madonna.
Michael Rice will represent the United Kingdom with ‘Bigger Than Us’, although it’s unlikely to come out on top. In fact, an algorithm has predicted exactly where he’ll place.
