04 March 2017

Eurovision 2017: Review: Belarus: Historyja majho žyccia

NAVI Band / Belarus / 2017 Eurovision Song Contest


Belarus: NAVI (Band): Historyja majho žyccia


Belarus return for a fourteenth attempt at Eurovision glory following two consecutive years of failing to reach the grand final. This year NaviBand will fly the flag with the song Historyja majho žyccia which translates as Story of My Life.

NaviBand, best described as exponents of folk rock, was established in 2013 by the duo Arciom Lukjanienka and Ksienija Žuk. The following year, the pair released a couple of albums - notably recorded in Belorussian, as is this 2017 entry.

It's a bright and upbeat song which is heavily flavoured with recognisable traditional folk accents. A single acoustic guitar leads the frenetic beat, all of which is wrapped in a highly addictive - yet repetitive - 'hey hey' mantra. No doubt, this energetic hook will be familiar to anybody in any language, even if it does become increasingly annoying in the latter stages of the track.

Nevertheless, it's going to need that hook because, for the most part, foreign language entries have struggled to accumulate sufficient points to worry the left-hand side of the scoreboard - particularly among Western European voters. Therefore, the staging will play an important role in selling this entry.

NaviBand are good enough singers to turn the trick, already performing the song with pure enthusiasm and energy. But, the determining factor may be how the Belorussian team decide to stage the entry in Kiev. Lively, offbeat graphics tend to work best with this type of happy-clappy, joyful song.

It already feels like a borderline qualifier, though. But a bright and breezy performance, coupled with a positive staging package, could guarantee a berth in the final. Once there, the feeling is that it's likely to struggle for points - even as part of what is becoming an increasingly ballad-laden Contest.

7/10.


National Final Performance



Updated version of Historyja majho žyccia




Image: By Navi [Copyrighted free use], via Wikimedia Commons


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