Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest

Ukraine has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 16 times since making its debut in 2003. Ukraine has won the contest twice: in 2004 with "Wild Dances" by Ruslana, and in 2016 with the song "1944" by Jamala, thus becoming the first Eastern European country to win the contest twice. Ukraine hosted the 2005 and 2017 contests in Kyiv.

Ukraine is the only remaining country with a 100% semi-final qualification rate in Eurovision following Australia's non-qualification in the 2021 contest.

Ukraine
Member stationSuspilne
Former members
  • 2003–2014: NTU
National selection events
Internal selection
  • 2003–2004
  • 2008 (artist)
  • 2021
National final
  • 2005–2007
  • 2008 (song)
  • 2009-2014
  • Vidbir
  • 2016–2020
  • 2022
Participation summary
Appearances16 (16 finals)
Host2005, 2017
First appearance2003
Highest placement1st: 2004, 2016
External links
Official website
Ukraine's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see
Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Ukraine is the only country outside of the "Big Five" to have qualified for the final of every contest they have competed in.[1] Ukraine has a total of seven top five placements, with Verka Serduchka (2007) and Ani Lorak (2008) both finishing second, Zlata Ognevich third (2013), Mika Newton fourth (2011) and Go_A fifth (2021). The only countries with more top five results in the 21st century are Sweden (11) and Russia (10).

History

Ukraine made its debut in 2003, when Oleksandr Ponomariov finished in 14th place with the song "Hasta la vista".

Ukraine won the contest at the second attempt in 2004, when Ruslana won with the song "Wild Dances", defeating second-placed Serbia and Montenegro by 17 points, 280 to 263. Later in the year, she supported the Orange Revolution and became an MP for one year as part of the new president's alliance.

In 2016, Ukraine became the first Eastern European country to win the contest twice, when Jamala won with her song "1944". The televote was won by Russia and the jury vote by Australia; Ukraine was second in both, but won with an overall total of 534 points, with Australia second with 511 points and Russia third with 491 points. In 2017, Ukraine was pre-qualified for the final as hosts, however they achieved their worst result to date – 24th place with 36 points.

Ukraine was absent twice from the contest, in 2015 and 2019, for reasons related to the ongoing conflict with Russia:

  • Ukrainian broadcaster NTU sit out the 2015 contest because of financial difficulties in relation to the war in Donbas.[2] However, Ukraine broadcast the contest despite not taking part.[3] NTU pledged to bring Ukraine back to the contest for 2016, which was finalized and announced on 16 September 2015.[4]
  • Vidbir, the Ukrainian national selection for the 2019 contest, was won by Maruv with "Siren Song". However, the Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC required any potential representative in the contest to sign a contract which would forbid them from performing in Russia. The winner Maruv, as well as runners-up Freedom Jazz, Kazka and Brunettes Shoot Blondes, all refused to sign the contract, leading to Ukraine's withdrawal from the contest on 27 February.[5]

In 2020, Go_A won the national selection Vidbir and was set to represent Ukraine with the song "Solovey", before the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were instead internally selected to represent the country the following year with the song "Shum", with which they finished 5th in the final, thereby achieving Ukraine's first top 5 result since their victory in 2016. Go_A were the runners-up of the public vote, behind eventual winner Italy, with 267 points, including a maximum of 12 points from five countries. The Eurovision version of the song took the lead in the global Spotify Viral 50 daily list on 24 May 2021, where it stayed until 1 June, and led the weekly list on the week of 27 May.[6] It entered the Billboard Global 200 on the week of 5 June, at position 158, becoming the first ever Ukrainian-language song to chart there.[7]

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Ukraine is the only country to have qualified for the final of every Eurovision they have competed in (they were absent from the 2015 and 2019 contests).[note 1] Ukraine has a total of ten top ten placements (among those are seven top five placements). The country has an average score of 172 points per contest, 298 if including the semi-finals. Ukraine's participation and success in the contest has been acknowledged as a factor in the country's growing soft power and international image.[8]

Participation overview

The following lists Ukraine's entries for the Eurovision Song Contest along with their result.[9]

Table key
1
 Winner
2
 Second place
3
 Third place
X
 Entry selected but did not compete
†
 Upcoming
Year Entrant Song Language Final Points Semi Points
2003
 Olexandr "Hasta la vista" English[lower-alpha 1] 14 30 No semi-finals
2004
 Ruslana "Wild Dances" English, Ukrainian 1 280 2 256
2005
 GreenJolly "Razom nas bahato" (Разом нас багато) Ukrainian, English[lower-alpha 2] 19 30 Host country[lower-alpha 3]
2006
 Tina Karol "Show Me Your Love" English 7 145 7 146
2007
 Verka Serduchka "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" English, German, Surzhyk[lower-alpha 4] 2 235 Top 10 previous year[lower-alpha 5]
2008
 Ani Lorak "Shady Lady" English 2 230 1 152
2009
 Svetlana Loboda "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)" English 12 76 6 80
2010
 Alyosha "Sweet People" English 10 108 7 77
2011
 Mika Newton "Angel" English 4 159 6 81
2012
 Gaitana "Be My Guest" English 15[lower-alpha 6] 65 8 64
2013
 Zlata Ognevich "Gravity" English 3 214 3 140
2014
 Mariya Yaremchuk "Tick-Tock" English 6 113 5 118
2016
 Jamala "1944" English, Crimean Tatar 1 534 2 287
2017
 O.Torvald "Time" English 24 36 Host country[lower-alpha 3]
2018
 Mélovin "Under the Ladder" English 17 130 6 179
2020
 Go_A "Solovey" (Соловей) Ukrainian Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 7] X
2021
 Go_A "Shum" (Шум) Ukrainian 5 364 2 267
2022
 Kalush Orchestra "Stefania" (Стефанія) Ukrainian Upcoming †

Songs by language
  English (65.22%)
  Ukrainian (21.74%)
  German (4.35%)
  Surzhyk (4.35%)
  Crimean Tatar (4.35%)
Songs Language Years
15 English 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018
5 Ukrainian 2004, 2005, 2020, 2021, 2022
1 German 2007
Surzhyk 2007
Crimean Tatar 2016

Selection process
See also: National selections for the Eurovision Song Contest
Year Selection process Channel
2003 Internal selectionNTU
2004
2005 National final with 19 participants
2006 National final with 3 participants
2007 National final with 7 participants
2008 Internal selection for artist; national final with 5 songs
2009 National final with 14 participants
2010 National final with 20 participants
2011 National final with 31 participants
2012 National final with 21 participants
2013 National final with 20 participants
2014 National final with 20 participants
Year Selection process Channel
2016 Vidbir with 18 participants UA:PBC
STB
2017 Vidbir with 24 participants
2018 Vidbir with 18 participants
2019 Vidbir with 16 participants
2020
2021 Internal selection UA:PBC
2022 Vidbir with 8 participants

Hostings
Year Location Venue Presenters
2005 Kyiv Palace of Sports Maria Efrosinina and Pavlo Shylko
2017 International Exhibition Centre Volodymyr Ostapchuk, Oleksandr Skichko and Timur Miroshnychenko

Awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards
Further information: Marcel Bezençon Awards
Year Category Song Performer Final Points Host city Ref.
2004 Artistic Award[lower-alpha 8] "Wild Dances" Ruslana 1 280 Istanbul
[10]
2007 Press Award "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" Verka Serduchka 2 235 Helsinki
[10]
2008 Artistic Award[lower-alpha 8] "Shady Lady" Ani Lorak 2 230 Belgrade
[11]
2016 Artistic Award[lower-alpha 9] "1944" Jamala 1 534 Stockholm
[12]

Barbara Dex Award
Further information: Barbara Dex Award
Year Performer Host city Ref.
2007 Verka Serduchka Helsinki
[13]

Heads of delegation
Year Head of delegation Ref.
2007—2016 Victoria Romanova
[14]
2017—2022 Oksana Skibinska
[15]

Jury members

A five-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals is made up for every participating country for the semi-finals and Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest, ranking all entries except for their own country's contribution. The juries' votes constitute 50% of the overall result alongside televoting.[16]

Year 1st member 2nd member 3rd member 4th member 5th member Ref.
2009
 Roman Nedzelskiy Oleksandr Ponomaryov Irena Zagorodnyuk Iryna Rozental Oleksandr Zlotnyk
2014
 Oleksandr Zlotnyk Kateryna Komar Kostiantyn Mishukov Alla Popova Olena Valovyk
2016
 Oleksandr Ksenofontov Maria Burmaka Valentin Koval Valeria Chachibaya Andre France
2017
 Yurii Rybchynsky Illaria Serhiy Grachov Yana Pryadko Serhiy Gagarin
2018
 Vitaliy Klimov Denys Zhupnyk Arthur Danielyan Alla Moskovka Khrystyna Soloviy
2021
 Oleksandr Ponomaryov Illaria Igor Kondratiuk Alla Moskovka Alyona Alyona

Commentators and spokespersons
Year NTU/Suspilne commentator STB commentator Radio commentator Spokesperson Ref.
2002 Pavlo Shylko, Mariya OrlovaNo broadcastNo broadcastDid not participate
[17]
2003 Pavlo Shylko, Dmytro KryzhanivskyiLyudmyla Hariv
[18][19][20]
2004 Rodion PryntsevskyiPavlo Shylko
[21]
2005 Yaroslav ChornenkyiGalyna BabiyMariya Orlova
[22][23][24]
2006 Pavlo ShylkoNo broadcastIgor Posypaiko
2007 Timur MiroshnychenkoKateryna Osadcha
2008 Marysya Horobets
2009
2010 Iryna Zhuravska
2011 Timur Miroshnychenko, Tetiana TerekhovaOlena ZelinchenkoRuslana
[25]
2012 Oleksiy Matias
2013
2014 Zlata Ognevich
2015 No broadcastDid not participate
2016 Olena ZelinchenkoVerka Serduchka
2017 Tetiana Terekhova, Andrii HorodyskyiZlata Ognevich
2018 Timur Miroshnychenko (all shows)
Mariya Yaremchuk (semi-final 1)
Alyosha (semi-final 2)
Jamala (final)		 Serhiy PrytulaNata Zhyzhchenko
2019 Timur MiroshnychenkoNo broadcastDid not participate
[26]
2021 Olena Zelinchenko (UR1)
Anna Zakletska, Dmytro Zakharchenko (Radio Promin)		 Tayanna
[27][28][29]
2022 No broadcast TBA Kateryna Pavlenko

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. No country has always participated in the final since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004. Ukraine, despite having always reached the final, skipped the contest in 2015 and 2019. Additionally, the 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are also not counted in this list since they receive automatic qualification to the final.
  1. The song also contained words in Spanish.
  2. The song also contained phrases in Polish, German, Spanish, Czech, French and Russian.
  3. Host country did not have to compete in the semi-finals.
  4. The song also contained words in Imaginary language.
  5. According to the then-Eurovision rules, the top ten non-Big Four countries from the previous year along with the Big Four automatically qualified for the Grand Final without having to compete in semi-finals. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with all countries ranked in the top ten.
  6. In 2012, Cyprus and Ukraine tied with 65 points each in the final. Due to the implementation of the "count-back" tie-breaker rule, Ukraine finished 15th, ahead of Cyprus, because Ukraine received points from more countries in the final than Cyprus.
  7. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  8. Voted by previous winners.
  9. Voted by commentators.

References
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  3. «Євробачення–2015» українці дивилися найгірше за останні вісім років
  4. Jiandani, Sanjay (16 September 2015). "Ukraine: NTU confirms participation in Eurovision 2016". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  5. Cobb, Ryan (27 February 2019). "Ukraine withdraws from Eurovision 2019". ESCXTRA.com. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  6. "Spotify Charts". www.spotifycharts.com. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  7. "Billboard Global Excl. US Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
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  15. "Украинцы не смогут голосовать на «Евровидении-2019"". atr.ua. 28 February 2019.
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