‘Concept Has Changed.’ Belarusian Eurovision 2012 Representatives Removed from Slavianski Bazaar

In 2012, the band Litesound represented Belarus at the Eurovision contest. As of today, the band’s vocalist Dmitry Karyakin says that they have been removed from the concert near the Minsk Hero City Obelisk.

The artist connects this with his posts in social media concerning the police brutality towards civilians. First, on June 20, he posted a link to an article telling about a deaf-mute person from Gomel, who ended up in a temporary detention center after a solidarity event, on his VKontakte page. Later, he made a repost of the statement by the TV host Artemis Ahpash concerning honest journalism on Facebook.

According to Dmitry, his posts did not call upon Belarusians to take any action. They simply showed his disagreement with what was happening.

Dmitry says that on May 9 they sang at the concert near the Minsk Hero City Obelisk. The second performance was scheduled for July, 3. However, the organizers did not call them. To understand what happened, the band’s director contacted the organizers himself. He was told that the concert was reduced, the program was changed and the band’s performance was no longer needed.

A similar situation was with the Slavianski Bazaar. The band was invited in March to perform at the opening of Europe’s largest Open air. When at the end of June a representative of the band contacted the organizers to find out more details, he was told that the program was reduced and there was no Litesound number in it.