Belarus in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Shortly after the 2009 Contest where Petr Elfimov had finished 13th in the semi-final, the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko expressed his dissatisfaction over the management of BTRC's organisation for the contest. He expressed his frustrations over divisions within the team, finding it necessary to completely replace the 2009 team for 2010, and that ONT should take over preparation for Eurovision from BTRC.[7][8] In late July 2009, ONT launched the national final Song for Eurovision in order to select the entry for the 2010 Contest.[9] However, during his visit to Minsk on 18 September 2009, the EBU director for Eurovision Bjørn Erichsen had stated that ONT's application for full active EBU membership would be considered only in December, after the application deadline for Eurovision 2010 passed on 15 November 2009. He had suggested that BTRC should submit a formal application to join Eurovision 2010 and that after December the two broadcasters should internally decide on the question of Eurovision participation. It had been strictly noted that before being accepted as a member, ONT had absolutely no right to use the "Eurovision" brand in its preselection campaign, with EBU considering legal action if such usage continued by ONT.[10][11][12] In accordance to this ONT removed Eurovision references from its pages.[13]

The Belarusian entry for the 2010 contest was intended to be selected through a national final organised by ONT, while the entrant (either a male soloist or a group of six female soloists) would be selected via an internal selection.[14] Composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 31 July 2009 and 1 October 2009.[15][16] However on 23 September 2009, information on the national final had been completely removed from ONT's official website as original plans of "a female band selected through castings hadn't really worked out", and that ONT did not have the right to organise or prepare for the country's Eurovision participation due to not having EBU membership.[12] On 29 October 2009, ONT announced that an open national final, titled Musical Court would take place.[14] Musical Court consisted of six shows: five semi-finals between 20 November and 18 December 2009 and a final on 26 December 2009. Twenty-five songs, selected by a jury panel from the entries received at the closing of the submission deadline, participated in the competition. Each song was performed by participants of the "New Voices" competition during the semi-finals and by professional artists during the final. From each semi-final, five songs competed and two qualified to the final. A jury panel first selected one song to qualify to the final, with the remaining four songs facing a public telephone vote which determined an additional qualifier. In the final, regional televoting selected the song "Don't Play in Love" performed by Artem Mihalenko as the winner.[14] A second selection stage was planned in February 2010 but were later derailed after ONT's application for membership was rejected by the EBU, with the broadcaster stating that Musical Court was "not necessarily" the national final for Eurovision 2010, but was intended "to choose songs to represent the country in any international competitions".[17][18]

Belarus' only EBU member BTRC announced that the Belarusian entry for the 2010 contest would be selected through an internal selection.[19] BTRC opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their applications and entries to the broadcaster between 29 January 2010 and 15 February 2010.[20][21] On 19 March 2010, the band 3+2 were announced as the Belarusian entrants at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 with the song "Far Away". The entry, which came second in ONT's Musical Court, was selected by a jury panel from 41 entries received by the broadcaster at the closing of the submission deadline.[1][2]

On 19 March 2010, BTRC announced that "Far Away" had been withdrawn by 3+2 and changed to the new entry "Butterflies", written by Maxim Fadeev, Robert Wells and Malka Chaplin.[3][4]

• In the Semi-final 1 Belarus came 9th with 59 points: the public Belarus 8th place with 63 points and the jury awarded 12th place with 47 points.
• In the Final Belarus came 24th with 18 points: the public awarded Belarus 22nd place with 18 points and the jury awarded 24th place with 22 points.