Post Mortem – In our next look at the countries that did not make it through to the grand final this year, Eurovision Times looks at the fortunes of Ivan from Belarus singing ‘Help you fly‘. Chosen in a national selection, the music was by Victor Drobysh and lyrics by Alexander Ivanov, Timofei Leontiev, Mary Susane Applegate.
Pre-shows
Victor Drobysh was the writer of Russia’s ‘Party for everyone‘ (Russia 2012) and Ivan had been selected by Russian for Intervision Song Contest before it was cancelled. Despite this, there was not a great deal of enthusiasm for ‘Help you fly‘ when it was chosen in the national final, with many critics immediately writing it off as a contender.
Before the semi-final
Ivan worked the pre-Eurovision circuit well, appearing at most events, and making sure he had photos with everyone, seeming like a jolly chap.
He also then whipped up a storm of interest and a lot of clever media coverage by announcing he was going to perform naked on stage with wolves. There was much discussion about the rules and whether he could, and people guessing the wolves would be part of the backdrop and use of the new technology the screens offered.
Jury
- 10 juries awarded Ivan points
- Bulgaria and Australia awarded 6 points each, the highest given by any countries
- Other lower points were given by Latvia, UK, Ireland, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine and Poland.
Televote
- Ivan picked up lots of points from several countries as televoters seemed to like his stand out performance. Ukraine’s public awarded him 10 points and Poland’s, 8.
- Latvia gave 7 and Lithuania 6 points respectively
- Other countries awarding points were Bulgaria, Georgia, Serbia, Israel, Ireland, Italy and Denmark
- In total 11 countries awarded him points from the public
Ivan was unlucky to be placed in a semi-final in which Russia couldn’t vote as he would have potentially picked up both larger jury and televote scores had they been voting in his SF. It may still not have been enough to catch Serbia in 10th place though. Over a third of his points came from Poland and Ukraine (29 out of 84) and without those two countries he would have done really badly.
During the semi-final
Whilst people were tweeting about the stage show, there wasn’t a lot of love for the song…
Despite Ivan’s best efforts to promote the song, and make a memorable talked-about performance, the weak song just did not resonate with enough people with only 2 countries in the semi-final really voting for it in any numbers. Ivan showed at other events during the week that he did have a good voice and performed songs which were much better than ‘Learn to fly‘. Belarus quite simply picked the wrong song.
At least it gave us this moment though…
The Eurovision Times 
The song is very flimsy in all its aspects. Ivan tried his best and he could not make it with several neighbours and friends in the same semi. I hope Belarus chooses a better song next year.
That was ghastly and deserved to come dead last imo. Well, the top points from the lovely neighbours Poland and Ukraine prevented an appropriate result … This shows once again what a good (or rather sad) laugh voting in ESC is on most occasions.
Yep, I agree.
The song I was most gutted for losing. I liked him and the performance and I was one of the haters when it was picked.
I enjoyed it more in Globe Arena compared to the national final but still this wasn’t enough for a qualification. I believe they scored a fair result though. #12 is around where I would place it in its semi.
This was one of the weakest songs of the year imo. I didn’t like it from the start, it sounds annoying to me. I wasn’t sure that it won’t qualify, but I never thought it has too many chances to make it.
They did reach 12th place due to the graphics and the holograms.Ivan did his best but the song was ok to listen to for a minute or so and then it dragged on for 2 more minutes.
Looking at semi 2 results, wow its entire top 6 got in the final’s top 10, so this was the strongest semi indeed! plus, the order is interesting, besides Australia-Ukraine, Bulgaria made a bigger come back in the final, Belgium dropped a bit going from last to first and well, Poland had more diaspora to get support in the final I guess… also Donny got 3rd in 2012 and now 4th in 2016 in both semis he took part in! Good lad!
Oh yes Belarus, well it got exactly what I expected, sitting outside the top 10 for the song is pretty much boring and repetitious and no WOW factor would over come that, plus no nakedness, no real wolves and a creepy baby did not really make a WOW factor at all.
Everyone said the 2nd semi was the weaker one and still..3/4 top 4 entries came out of that semi !
and the entire top 6 of it was top 10, that’s the most spectacular imo
“Over a third of his points came from Poland and Ukraine (29 out of 84) and without those two countries he would have done really badly.”
That says all that needs to be said about the belarussian entry and the voting patterns as well.
Of course it did not deserve to qualify and deserved a much worse place imo in the semi.
Actually I don’t think it was that bad. It had its moment, f.e. the middle eight, and I quite liked his rough vocals.
Of course the naked-and-a-wolf thing was just a matter of creating attention.