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Belarusian entry makes Eurovision final

Belarusian pop singer Dzmitry Kaldun has qualified for the final round of the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest held in the Finnish capital, Helsinki.

The 21-year-old Belarusian performed Work Your Magic with lyrics by Russian author Karen Kavaleryan and music by popular Russian singer Filipp Kirkorov.

Ten performers made it to Saturday's final where they will meet the 14 countries, which have a guaranteed place. Ten of them qualified by reaching a top-10 position in last year's Eurovision Song Contest Final, while the four biggest countries — Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and France — qualify automatically under the rules.

This was the first time that a Belarusian entry had qualified for the final round in the Eurovision contest, with Palina Smolava placing 22nd in 2006, Anzhalika Ahurbazh 13th in 2005 and Alyaksandra and Kanstantsin 19th in 2004.
Among the final qualifiers are also FYR Macedonia, Slovenia, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Moldova.

Mr. Kaldun is to perform third in the final round after Bosnia and Herzegovina and Spain. His song was among those that attracted a BBC panel's support and made it into the top 10.

"We were sure that we would make it to the final," Yury Azaronak, head of the Belarusian delegation to the contest, commented to BelaPAN.