Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Country	Belarus
National selection
Selection process	National Final
Selection date(s)	25 December 2004
Selected entrant	Angelica Agurbash
Selected song	"Love Me Tonight"
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (13th)
Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest

Belarus selected their song in two stages, the first allowing the public to choose, and the second requiring a jury to make a final decision. The first round of the selection took place on December 25 and contained 14 songs which the Belarusian public heard and voted for. The top three songs of this selection continued to the second round where on February 1, a professional jury chose Angelica Agurbash to perform the song "Boys and Girls". However, before the finalization of the entry, Angelica decided that the song she was chosen with would most likely not fare too well at Eurovision so she turned to alternatives. Israeli performer Svika Pick offered the song "Show Me Your Love", while Nikos Terzis and Nektarios Tyrakis offered Angelica "Love Me Tonight". Consequently, Angelica chose "Love Me Tonight" and performed a different song from the one originally chosen for her.

Agurbash is a model, singer, actress, and artistic performer in Belarus. Angelica has had titles such as the first Miss Belarus title, Miss Photo USSR, and Mrs Russia 2002. Between 1990 and 1995 she was in a group called Verasy and founded her art club ‘Lika’. When she left Verasy she became a highly successful solo artist releasing three albums: Paper Moon (1995), Night Without a Dream (1997) and For You (1999). In 2002, Angelica released her album The Farewell Kiss of Lika Yalinskaya featuring 13 songs.

At Eurovision, Angelica created a spectacle out of her performance. With entertaining choreography and three costume changes, Belarus had one of the most appealing song presentations in 2005. At first Angelica wore a golden sheet, which was quickly pulled off to reveal a Victorian style dress, which went with the theme of the attire her male dancers wore. Close to the end of the song, the Victorian dress gets pulled off to reveal a golden skin-tight body suit.

The spokesperson who revealed Belarus's votes for other countries was TVR presenter Elena Ponomareva.^[1]

National final

№	Song	Singer	Place
1	"Smile"	Polina Smolova	2nd
2	"Boys and Girls"	Angelica Agurbash	1st
3	"Moya lyubov - sladkiy yad"	Natalia Tamelo	3rd

At Eurovision

Points Awarded by Belarus^[2]

Semi final

12 points	Israel
10 points	Moldova
8 points	Switzerland
7 points	Latvia
6 points	Poland
5 points	Norway
4 points	Hungary
3 points	Romania
2 points	Slovenia
1 point	Croatia

Final

12 points	Russia
10 points	Switzerland
8 points	Israel
7 points	Moldova
6 points	Latvia
5 points	Malta
4 points	Norway
3 points	Serbia and Montenegro
2 points	Hungary
1 point	Romania