Country Ukraine Selected entrant Mariya Yaremchuk | Selection date(s) 21 December 2013 Selected song "Tick-Tock" | |
Selection process National Final
50% jury
50% televoting Selected songwriter(s) Mariya Yaremchuk
Sandra Bjurman | ||
Ukraine participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Ukrainian entry was selected through a national final, organised by Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU). Mariya Yaremchuk performed the Ukrainian entry "Tick-Tock", which she co-wrote with Sandra Bjurman. The song qualified from the first semi-final and placed 6th in the final, scoring 113 points.
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National final
On 23 October 2013, NTU announced that a national final would be held to select Ukraine's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. A submission period for interested artists and composers was opened and lasted until 6 December 2013. After the submission deadline, artists that submitted an entry were required to take part in a casting process on 7 December 2013 where a professional jury selected 20 participants to proceed to the televised final. The professional jury that selected the competing entries consisted of NTU music producer Vladislav Baginskiy, composer and producer Mikhail Nekrasov, general producer at radio Lux.FM Yevgeniy Feshak and program director at the television channel RU Music Vladimir Kozlov.
The televised national final took place in Kiev on 21 December 2013 where the combination of votes from a professional jury and SMS votes from the viewing audience selected Ukraine's representative in Copenhagen. The competition was hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko and Tetiana Terekhova. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show featured guest performances by 2013 Ukrainian Junior Eurovision entrant Sofia Tarasova, Masha Sobko, Natalia Buchynska, 2011 Ukrainian contest entrant Mika Newton, Kamaliya, Matias and 2013 Ukrainian contest entrant Zlata Ognevich
The professional jury that evaluated and assigned votes to the competing entries consisted of the director general of NTU Oleksandr Panteleymonov, NTU music producer Vladislav Baginskiy, poet Yuriy Rybchinskiy and composers Yan Tabachnik and Mikhail Nekrasov. In the event of a tie for first place, the tie would be decided in favour of the entry that received the highest amount of points from the jury.
Mariya Yaremchuk was declared the winner of the competition with the song "Tick-Tock" after receiving top scores from both the jury and the public SMS vote.
Controversy
Following the national final, several participants launched a protest against the final results, alleging that the phone lines for their entries were blocked while the phone line for Mariya Yaremchuk remained open. Elena Mozgovaya, the producer of Volodymyr Tkachenko, challenged the legitimacy of the results and planned to take legal action; similar complaints were also launched by Viktoria Petryk and the duo neAngely regarding the result of the public vote.
At Eurovision
During the semi-final allocation draw on 20 January 2014 at the Copenhagen City Hall, Ukraine was drawn to compete in the second half of the first semi-final on 6 May 2014. In the first semi-final, the producers of the show decided that Ukraine would perform 9th, following Azerbaijan and preceding Belgium. Ukraine qualified from first semi-final and competed in the final on 10 May 2014. During the winner's press conference for the first semi-final qualifiers, Ukraine was allocated to compete in the first half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Ukraine would open the show and perform 1st, preceding Belarus. Ukraine placed 6th in the final, scoring 113 points.
On stage, Mariya Yaremchuk was joined by four backing vocalists: Anna Linnea, Graciela Chin A Loi, Anneli Maria Tornkvist and Elin Eva Maria Svensson. The performance featured a male dancer, Igor Kuleshyn, performing acrobatic choreography on a large running wheel. The staging was completed by Ukrainian director, choreographer and head of the ballet "Freedom", Olena Kolyadenko.
In Ukraine, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on First National with commentary by Timur Miroshnychenko and Tetiana Terekhova. All shows were also broadcast via radio on NRCU with commentary by Olena Zilinchenko. The Ukrainian spokesperson revealing the result of the Ukrainian vote in the final was 2013 Ukrainian contest entrant Zlata Ognevich.
Split voting results
The following five members comprised the Ukrainian jury:
Semi-final 1
The Ukrainian votes in the first semi-final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.
Final
The Ukrainian votes in the final were based on 50% jury voting and 50% televoting results.