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Belarus loses automatic entry to 2008 Eurovision final

Belarus has been stripped of automatic entry to the final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, along with four more countries.

The TV Committee of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) at its 50th meeting in Verona introduced changes to this effect in the contest rules.

Only five countries will automatically qualify now, including the winner of the previous contest and the four biggest countries - Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
This year's semi-final, held two days before the final, is to be replaced next year by two semi-finals.

Belarus placed sixth among 42 contestant countries in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki with a song called Work Your Magic performed by Koldun (Dzmitry Kaldun), a 21-year-old Minsk-born former chemistry student at Belarusian State University.
This was Belarus' best-ever ranking at the event.

Yury Azaronak, deputy chairman of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company, told BelaPAN that the EBU had notified the Belarusian television and radio broadcaster of the changes and it had replied that it opposed them.

“Thanks to the successful performance by Dzmitry Kaldun, we were in the final, but now we have to begin everything from the scratch,” he said.

Svante Stockselius, executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, told BelaPAN that the changes had made the rules “fairer.”

“We believe that if you have a good song one year it is not necessarily that you will have a good song the next year,” he said. “With the two semi-finals now, everybody must go to a semi-final. It is fairer.”