The Lira (Belarusian: Ліра) (previously, the National Music Awards (Belarusian: Нацыянальная музычная прэмія)) is a Belarusian set of national music awards in the field of popular music, which was founded on December 24, 2010, it was an initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus. Since 2011, the Lira has been broadcast by the Capital TV channel.

Lira
Belarusian: Ліра
Awarded formusical awards
Sponsored byThe Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus
CountryBelarus
Formerly calledThe National Music Awards
First awardedDecember 13, 2011 (2011-12-13)
Television/radio coverage
NetworkCapital TV (2011–2013)
All-National TV (2014–present)

Origin

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On October 15, 2010, the chairman of the National State Television and Radio Company of Belarus, Alexander Zimovsky, announced that the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus had proposed the creation of the television contest “National Music Awards”. The awards were to be presented in the categories of “Best Song of the Year,” “Best Performer,” “Best Band,” “Opening of the Year,” and “For Contribution to the Development of Belarusian Pop Music.”[1]

The Ministry of Culture also announced the prizes for the winners, "Best Song of the Year" would receive a cash prize of 95 basic units (Br 3,325,000; US$1,111) and a certificate for creating a music video. Both, the performer and songwriters are awarded in the nomination. In other categories with interactive voting, there were awards equalling 77 basic units (BU). The winner for "Best Belarusian-language Song of the Year" received a cash prize of 73 basic units (Br 2,555,000; $853), and other smaller prizes were also offered in other categories as well.

2011 Awards

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Songs written from December 2010 to November 2011 were accepted for consideration. The expert panel of judges included 100 people[2] and the winners were all announced on December 13, 2011.[3]

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2011 music by Ŭladzimier Kandrusievič, lyrics by Voĺha Boldyrava, singing by Alyona Lanskaya Belarusian-language Song of the Year Won
2011 Dmitry Koldun Song of the Year Won
2011 Инна Афанасьева Best Singer - Female Won
2011 Алексей Хлестов Best Singer - Male Won
2011 Троица Best Group Won
2011 Teo Discovery of the Year Won
2011 Леонид Ширин Best Songwriter Won
2011 Нина Богданова Best Lyricist Won
2011 Том первый(Анна Хитрик and band S°unduk) Album of the Year Won
2011 Саша Немо Best Arrangement Won
2011 The Sumer Amphitheatre in Vitebsk on May 4, 2011 (Yadviga Poplavskaya and Alexander Tikhanovich) Best Concert Won
2011 J:Морс Best Tour Won
2011 See You in Vegas (Litesound) Best Music Video Won
2011 Oleg Klimov (Sovetskaya Belorussiya – Belarus' Segodnya) Best Journalist/Music Critic Won
2011 Максим Олейников (band Топлес) Best Producer Won
2011 Vladimir Mulyavin (VIA Pesniary) (posthumously) Contribution to the Development of Belarusian Pop Music Won
2011 Lidiya Zablotskaya[4] Star of the Year (Best Young Performer) Won
2011 Вадим Галыгин Best Duo Won
2011 (music by Олег Молчан, lyrics by Ирина Видова, singing by Ирина Видова)[5] People's Choice Award Won
2011 Михаил Финберг[6] Development of the Traditional Belarusian Song Won

2012 Awards

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Year Nominee / work Award Result
2012 Anatoly Yarmolenko [ru] Belarusian-language Song of the Year Won
2012 Лариса Грибалёва Song of the Year Won
2012 Саша Немо Best Pop Group Won
2012 Open Space Best Rock Group Won
2012 Apple Tea Best Jazz Group Won
2012 Stary Olsa Best Ethno-folk Group Won
2012 Герман (song: В тишине рассвета) Best Songwriter Won
2012 Ярослав Ракитин (song Слышишь, я иду к тебе) Best Lyricist Won
2012 Мне с тобою повезло(Тяни-Толкай) Best Album Won
2012 Yuriy Vashchuk Best Arranger Won
2012 beZ bileta Concert of the Year Won
2012 Alexander Solodukha Best Tour Won
2012 Лермонт Music Video of the Year Won
2012 Сергей Андрианов Best Journalist/Music Critic Won
2012 Селитра № 7(Drum Ecstasy) Best Song for Film or Television Won
2012 Владимир Кубышкин Best Producer Won
2012 Яков Науменко (posthumously) For Contribution to the Development of Modern Music Won
2012 Александра Локтионова Star of the Year (Best Young Performer) Won
2012 Юлия Жидкая Debut of the Year Won
2012 Alexander Solodukha and participants of the project Поющие города from Minsk Creativity of the Year Won
2012 Alyona Lanskaya Hope of the Year Won
2012 participants of the project Поющие города from Rahachow Understudies of the Year Won

2013 Awards

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In the period from November 1 to November 21, 2013, applications were collected for the third National Musical Awards. Songs that were released between November 1, 2012, and October 31, 2013, were eligible for the awards. The award show itself took place on December 16 at the Palace of the Republic.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2013 Танчыць (ili-ili) Belarusian-language Song of the Year Won
2013 Падал первый снег (music by Евгений Олейник, lyrics by Юлия Быкова, singing by Инна Афанасьева) Song of the Year Won
2013 Alyona Lanskaya Best Pop Group Won
2013 beZ bileta Best Rock Group Won
2013 Apple Tea Best Jazz Group Won
2013 Харошкі Best Ethno-folk Group Won
2013 Леонид Ширин and Yuriy Vashchuk (song Беларусь великая) Best Songwriter Won
2013 Павел Бертош (Ты больше не моя, singing by Алексей Хлестов) Best Lyricist Won
2013 Traukamurauka (KRIWI) Best Album Won
2013 Святослав Позняк (song Летняя, singing by Искуи Абалян) Best Arranger Won
2013 Дым над водой (Президентский оркестр Республики Беларусь) Concert of the Year Won
2013 Что в этом сердце (Гюнеш Абасова) and Як жа край наш не любіць (Форс-Минорand Irina Dorofeeva) Best Tour Won
2013 Станция (У нескладоваеand Братья Грим; director Дмитрий Войтенко) Music Video of the Year Won
2013 Tatsyana Mushynskaya (magazine Mastatstva) Best Journalist/Music Critic Won
2013 Следы апостолов from the motion picture Следы апостолов (music by: Максим Алейников, Феликс Луцкий, lyrics by Елена Ярмолович, singing by Валерий Дайнеко) Best Song for Film or Television Won
2013 Eduard Khanok For Contribution to the Development of Modern Music Won
2013 Илья Волков Star of the Year (Best Young Performer) Won
2013 Юлия Фомкина Debut of the Year Won
2013 Тренд делюкс Best Choreography Won
2013 Илья Волков Best Young Performer Won

2014 Awards

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On October 30, 2014, the National Music Awards was renamed to The Lira (Belarusian: Ліра). The selection process began via the website for All-National TV.[7] The site created a list of 65 songs that were eligible for voting. Among the 65 songs in the competition, 10 were in the Belarusian language.[8] On January 31, 2015, at the Palace of the Republic, the annual awards were presented.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2014 Абдымi мяне (Naviband) Belarusian-language Song of the Year Won
2014 Лариса Грибалёва Song of the Year Won
2014 Teo Performer of the Year Won
2014 Misters Opening of the Year Won
2014 production center Спамаш Producer of the Year Won
2014 Профиартвидеон(Yadviga Poplavskaya and Alexander Tikhanovich) Best Organizer of Concerts Won
2014 Леонид Ширин Best Songwriter Won
2014 Елена Ярмолович Best Lyricist Won
2014 IOWA For the Popularization of Belarusian Music Abroad Won
2014 Андрей Саврицкий Best Arranger Won
2014 Yadviga Poplavskaya and Alexander Tikhanovich For Contribution to the Development of Popular Music Art Won
2014 Легенды.Live Best Musical Television Project in the Field of Popular Art Won
2014 You Will Be Here (Жанет) Music Video of the Year Won
2014 Алексей Гросс Style of the Year Won
2014 Беларуськалий Patron of the Culture of Belarus in the Field of Popular Music Art Won

2016 Awards

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On October 27, 2016, after a one-year break (there were no awards presented in 2015), the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Belarus announced the start of selection for the Lira Awards. Songs released from January to December 2016 were accepted for consideration. The voting began on the All-National TV channels website with 6 nominations: “Best Song in Belarusian,” “Best Performer of the Year (Among Men),” “Best Performer of the Year (Among Women),” “Best Group,” “Best Song of the Year,” and “Best Music Video of the Year.” An expert panel selected the winners in 3 nominations, (“Best Songwriter”, “Best Lyricist”, and “Best Arranger”). The organizers of the competition determined the remaining winners with suggestions from the panel, in the remaining 3 categories, (“Opening of the Year”, “Style of the Year”, and “Ours Abroad”). On February 9, 2017, the awards were presented.

Year Nominee / work Award Result
2016 Гісторыя майго жыцця (Naviband) Belarusian-language Song of the Year Won
2016 J:Морс Best Group Won
2016 Блізка (J:Морс) Song of the Year Won
2016 Саша Немо Performer of the Year (Male) Won
2016 Инна Афанасьева Performer of the Year (Female) Won
2016 Елена Атрашкевич Best Songwriter Won
2016 Олег Жуков Best Lyricist Won
2016 Святослав Позняк Best Arranger Won
2016 Адрес — планета Земля (beZ bileta, director Михаил Быченок) Music Video of the Year Won
2016 Dmitry Koldun Ours Abroad Won
2016 Радиоволна Opening of the Year Won
2016 Провокация Style of the Year Won
2016 Amkodor Patron of Belarusian Culture Won

Criticism

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At the beginning of 2013, in his column on Charter 97, Źmicier Padbiarezski of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty lamented that the organizers of the awards in their nominations “do not notice” quite popular, but partially censored, artists in the country, such as Siarhei Mikhalok, Lavon Volski, or Alexander Kullinkovich.[9] At the request of BelaPAN, he also revealed the vicious practice of the massive use of playbacks at concerts, while the agency's journalists themselves found the evidences of plagiarism in some songs of the performers.[10]

In a number of op-eds over at naviny.by, singer Irina Vidova, winner of the People's Choice Award in 2011, agreed with criticism of the implementation of the award from a number of journalists, citing her examples of the organizers' negligence too, and emphasized the need for greater transparency in voting, pluralism in the process of nominating contestants and the forming of the composition of the jury, constancy in the rules of the competition, attracting specialists from alternative TV channels and the media to its organization, nevertheless concluding the significance and importance of the project on a national scale as a whole.[11][12][13]

In 2013, Źmicier Biezkaravajny, founder of the music portal Experty.by, noted that the award show is “a big project that is shown on television” and “in which people get money [for winning]”. The critic also questioned the quality of the jury composition after an analysis of the 2012 ceremony[14] and claimed that, coupled with other shortcomings, all cast doubt on the awards' national status.[15]

He also confirmed the opinion of an interviewer that economic problems had reached the national stage with the cancellation of the “directive and artificial” ceremony in 2015, “If there is an order, some designated channel conducts it. If there is no order, no one does. This is an indicator of the level of professional relationships within the pop community of Belarus, its spoiledness by state attention. Neither the professional community, as in many countries, nor an initiative group stand behind the award. The Ministry of Culture should not get involved in such projects.”[16]

In a review of all music awards of Belarus for 2013, Pavel Sverdlov, editor of KYKY.ORG, described the second ceremony as an act that “resembled the distribution of the USSR State Prizes but “with the difference that, no representatives of the alternative music scene slipped in [among the nominees] though.”[15]

In 2014, Alexandr Chernuho, editor of Ultra-music.com, following the coverage of three ceremonies, sharply negatively assessed the implementation of the awarding of music awards, “Year after year we have been watching colossal flaws, mistakes, and profanations: Larisa Gribaleva, who sits in the jury, receives the award for the best song of the year, Irina Dorofeeva is confused with Iskui Abalyan, Valeriy Dayneko’s playback cuts short, and it turns out that he does not know the lyrics of the song.[17]

Footnotes

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References

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  1. ^ "Праект "Прэмія"". Kultura (in Belarusian). 42 (962). 2010-10-16. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  2. ^ "Пазыўныя "НМП"". Kultura (in Belarusian). 45 (1016). 2011-11-05. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  3. ^ Бунцэвіч, Надзея (2011-12-17). ""Залатая калекцыя..." з караоке, або Нацыянальная музычная прэмія па версіі... статыстаў?". Kultura (in Belarusian). 51 (1022). Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  4. ^ Чернухо, Александр; Поташников, Павел (2011-12-14). "А лучше ничего не было?»" (in Russian). Ultra-music.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  5. ^ Пастушэнка, Таццяна (2011-12-13). "Нацыянальнай музычнай прэміі ў намінацыі "Прыз глядацкіх сымпатый" удастоена Ірына Відава" (in Belarusian). Belarusian Telegraph Agency. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  6. ^ "Названы ўладальнікі Нацыянальнай музычнай прэміі" (in Belarusian). Belarusian Telegraph Agency. 2011-12-14. Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  7. ^ Клімаў, Алег (2015-01-31). "Нелірычная размова". Kultura (in Belarusian). 5 (1183). Archived from the original on 2020-02-13. Retrieved 2020-02-13.
  8. ^ Трафілаў, Сяргей (2014-11-15). "Прас і цёмныя конікі". Kultura (in Belarusian). 46 (1172). Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2020-04-11.
  9. ^ Падбярэзскі, Зміцер (2013-01-29). "Збрэндзілі!". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (in Belarusian). Charter 97. Archived from the original on 2020-04-10. Retrieved 2020-04-10.
  10. ^ Щербаков, Захар; Копаль, Дмитрий (2013-12-20). "Достойна ли фанераНациональной музыкальной премии?" (in Russian). naviny.by. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  11. ^ Видова, Ирина (2011-12-24). "Ирина Видова. ШОУ-БИЗ. Какой должна быть Национальная музыкальная премия" (in Russian). naviny.by. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  12. ^ Видова, Ирина (2012-12-30). "Ирина Видова. ШОУ-БИЗ. Национальная музыкальная премия: трудности роста" (in Russian). naviny.by. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  13. ^ Видова, Ирина (2013-12-29). "Ирина Видова. НАЦИОНАЛЬНАЯ МУЗЫКАЛЬНАЯ ПРЕМИЯ. Хотели как лучше…" (in Russian). naviny.by. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  14. ^ Калеснікава, Маша (2013-05-14). "Безкаравайны: Галоўнае развіццё адбываецца ў межах незалежнай культуры" (in Belarusian). European Radio for Belarus. Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  15. ^ a b Свердлов, Павел (2013-01-31). "Пляски на костях "Рок-каранацыі", или зачем Беларуси шесть музыкальных премий" (in Russian). KYKY.ORG. Archived from the original on 2020-03-21. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  16. ^ Тарналицкий, Тарас (2015-12-28). "В культурном остатке" (in Russian). Belorusy i rynok. Archived from the original on 2020-04-09. Retrieved 2020-04-09.
  17. ^ Чернухо, Александр; Бегункова, Марина (2014-10-17). "Толчок Минкульта" (in Russian). Ultra-music.com. Archived from the original on 2020-08-01. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
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