Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

The Ukrainian national final took place on 18 February 2012 at the NTU Studios in Kyiv. The show was hosted by Timur Myroshnychenko and Tetyana Terekhova and broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi as well as online via the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[2]

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over two stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition by attending a scheduled audition during designated dates. Twenty acts were selected and announced on 26 January 2012. An additional two acts were selected as wildcards: one from the Inter Channel talent show Show #1 and one from an internet vote via say.tv out of four non-qualifying entries from the auditions.[3] The second stage was the televised final, which took place on 18 February 2012 and featured the twenty-two acts vying to represent Ukraine in Baku. The winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 22 (highest) and the entry that had the highest number of points following the combination of these scores was declared the winner. Viewers participating in the public televote during the show had the opportunity to submit a single vote per phone number for each of the participating entries via SMS. In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the jury.[4]

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 25 November 2011 and 25 January 2012.[3][5] On 10 November 2011, Nerealnye (The Incredibles) was selected as the Show #1 winner and received the first wildcard to compete in the national final.[6] Auditions were held on 25 January 2012 at the NTU Headquarters in Kyiv where a four-member selection panel consisting of Vlad Baginsky (NTU music producer), Volodymyr Kozlov (RU Music Director), Victoria Romanova (Ukrainian Eurovision Head of Delegation) and Ivo Bobul (singer) reviewed the 54 received submissions and shortlisted twenty entries to compete in the national final. On 26 January 2012, the twenty selected competing acts were announced.[7] On 15 February 2012, "Dance" performed by Max Barskih was selected as the internet vote winner out of four non-qualifying entries from the auditions and received the second wildcard to compete in the national final.[8][9] On 16 February 2012, "I Will Fight to the End" performed by Matias was withdrawn from the national final due to a conflict of interest with selection panel member Vlad Baginsky during the auditions.[10]

The final took place on 18 February 2012. Twenty-one entries competed and the winner, "Be My Guest" performed by Gaitana, was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher scores from the jury. The jury panel consisted of Egor Benkendorf (NTU President), Walid Arfush (producer), Yuriy Rybchynsky (poet), Semyon Horov (director and composer), Mariya Manyuk (artist agent), Rudolf Kirnos (media producer) and Olena Mozgova (music producer).[11] 16,825 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2010 Ukrainian Eurovision entrant Alyosha, 2012 French Eurovision entrant Anggun, 2012 Swiss Eurovision entrants Sinplus, Matias and Zlata Ognevich performed as guests.[12]