Teo or Yury Vashchuk to go by his birth name, was born in Hidry on the 24th of January, 1983. He was interested in music from a young age and his talents were noticed very early on. As a child he learned to play the accordion and then went on to win the children’s competition Praleska. Teo gained further experience in both singing, composing and arranging when working with the National Academic Orchestra of Belarus. He then went on to graduate with a degree in Music from the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts.

This isn’t Teo’s first attempt at representing Belarus at the contest : in 2009, he participated in the national selection together with Anna Blagova with the entry Behind, but failed to qualify for the final. Teo has also written entries for other artists in the national finals in 2010, 2012 and 2013. He wrote the entry that was originally chosen to represent Belarus last year, The Rhythm of Love.

Besides music, Teo also has experience with TV presenting. Here, his musical talents came in very handy when hosting the show Naperad U Minulae together with Oksana Vecher. The two trawled the rural areas of Belarus, uncovering traditional songs in the many villages. Each week a song would be chosen which Teo would then rearrange and the end result would then be recorded by a well known artist.