Belarus does not take part at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The EBU has judged their second potential entry for the contest, but concluded it once again did not meet the requirements to be able to take part.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has released a statement regarding Belarus’ 2021 Eurovision Song Contest entry: “On Wednesday 10 March we wrote to the broadcaster BTRC, which is responsible for Belarus’ entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, to request that they take all steps necessary to amend their entry to this year’s event to ensure it is compliant with the rules of the competition. Following this BTRC submitted a new song, by the same artists, within an agreed timeframe. The EBU and the Reference Group, the Contest’s governing board, carefully scrutinized the new entry to assess its eligibility to compete. It was concluded that the new submission was also in breach of the rules of the competition that ensure the Contest is not instrumentalized or brought into disrepute. As BTRC have failed to submit an eligible entry within the extended deadline, regrettably, Belarus will not be participating in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in May.”
Earlier in the season, the original Belarusian song, Ya Nauchu Tebya (I’ll Teach You) by Galasy ZMesta, was also not allowed because of the political nature of the lyrics. The contest of 2021 is now down to 39 participating countries, after Armenia also had to withdraw from the competition earlier.