He produced and composed ZENA’s “Like It” — Belarus’ entry for Eurovision 2019. But in recent days, Viktor Drobysh has caused controversy with a series of unsavoury social media posts.

On Wednesday Brunei is set to implement a new penal code which punishes homosexual sex and adultery with death by stoning. The move has been universally condemned, with the United Nations branding it “cruel and inhuman”.

Nonetheless, Viktor Drobysh felt it necessary to share his opinion on the matter over multiple social media platforms — VK, Facebook and Instagram. The post was deleted from Instagram, as per Community Guidelines.

His post roughly translates as: “Finally! I therefore have a dream for an artist from Brunei to win Eurovision and for the contest to go to Brunei. That’s all! The business would change. Many new faces appear. In general, interesting. Although the death penalty is too much. Perhaps just a beating.”

However, matters didn’t end there. On Monday, Drobysh issued an unapologetic “apology”.

“I am upset that my ironic post about the new law of the government of Brunei caused such a fuss, and I want to apologise for the too dark humour, if it touched and hurt the feelings of sexual minorities. And to me, once again, was clear, what a big difference there is between gays and f*gs.”

The post was accompanied by a video of him jamming to Queen’s “I Want To Break Free”. He adds that LGBT icon Freddie Mercury is his favourite singer and that he has gay and lesbian friends, though he criticised those who practice “homosexual propaganda”.

The controversy has already impacted directly on Belarus’ Eurovision bid. At the time of writing, Belarus has tumbled from the 34th place with the bookmakers to last place. Some bookies have ZENA as low as 601/1 to win.

*Note, this does not represent the views of ZENA or other members of the Belarusian Eurovision team. They have yet to comment.

Who is Viktor Drobysh?

Viktor Drobysh is not just any songwriter. He is a household name in his native country Russia.

For nearly twenty years, Drobysh has been the man behind several Russian singers who grew to be big stars in the industry. He was the in-house producer of the talent show Fabrika Zvyozd, Russia’s version of Operacion Triunfo.

ZENA met Drobysh through the show after it was revived in 2017. She finished fourth.

In the past, he has worked with Eurovision alum Dmitry Koldun, who won the sixth series of Fabrika Zvyozd. Koldun parted ways with Drobysh’ production company over artistic differences.

Through the years, Drobysh has gone to Eurovision twice before 2019. He wrote the music for Buranovskiye Babushki’s iconic entry “Party for Everybody” in 2012. He was also the main man behind IVAN’s “Help You Fly” in 2016, which missed the final.

Drobysh previously garnered worldwide media attention as one of the main producers behind the planned Intervision Song Contest revival. It was viewed as Russia’s “heterosexual alternative” to Eurovision in response to Conchita Wurst’s 2014 victory. A couple of Russian political figures had taken the drag queen’s win as a sign of the “moral decay of the West”. The contest never took place and is suspended indefinitely.

As an all-embracing platform, we condemn such words heavily. But we also want to call for continued support for ZENA, who does not have any connection to these remarks and who has no choice at this point but to perform an entry written by Viktor Drobysh. Drobysh’ views do not represent the views of other members of the Belarusian delegation at Eurovision 2019 on the matter.

Read all our Belarus news here

Co-written by Renske ten Veen