Belarus have been officially disqualified from this year's Eurovision Song Contest for a breach of the rules.
Earlier this month the European Broadcasting Union confirmed that it had rejected the proposed song submitted by the Belarusian entry, Galasy ZMesta, due to the political nature of its lyrics.
The group's selection for Eurovision was already controversial for their vocal support of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, whose win in last year's general election was dogged by allegations of voter fraud.
The EBU gave Galasy ZMesta the opportunity to submit a new song - although their second proposed entry was also rejected for failing to meet the competition's standards of impartiality.
A statement said: "The EBU and the Reference Group, the Contest's governing board, carefully scrutinised the new entry to assess its eligibility to compete.
"It was concluded that the new submission was also in breach of the rules of the competition that ensure the Contest is not instrumentalised or brought into disrepute.
"As BTRC have failed to submit an eligible entry within the extended deadline, regrettably, Belarus will not be participating in the 65th Eurovision Song Contest in May."
Belarus become the second country to drop out of Eurovision in as many weeks following Armenia's withdrawal due to time constraints caused by coronavirus.
Neil Wilkes
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