Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Background

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Ukraine had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirteen times since its first entry in 2003. The nation had won the contest on two occasions: in 2004 with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana and in 2016 with the song "1944" performed by Jamala. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Ukraine had managed to qualify to the final in every contest they participated in thus far. Ukraine had been the runner-up in the contest on two occasions: in 2007 with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" performed by Verka Serduchka and in 2008 with the song "Shady Lady" performed by Ani Lorak. Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, which they achieved during the 2005 contest, with the song "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly.

The Ukrainian national broadcaster, National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), broadcasts the event within Ukraine and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In the past, NTU had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select the Ukrainian entry. Between 2011 and 2014, NTU had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ukraine, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. NTU withdrew from the contest for one year in 2015 due to the unstable financial and political situation caused by the conflict in east Ukraine. In 2016, NTU collaborated with the commercial broadcaster STB in order to organise a national final to select Ukraine's entry, resulting in the selection of an entry that went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest. NTU's collaboration with STB continued in 2017.

National final

The Ukrainian national final is tentatively scheduled to take place in February 2017 in Kiev. The selection will be a joint production between the Ukrainian national broadcaster NTU and commercial broadcaster STB. All shows in the competition will hosted by Serhiy Prytula and broadcast on both UA:Pershyi and STB.

Online wildcard selection

Applicants had the option of entering their entry into an online wildcard selection which accepted entries between 1 September 2016 and 10 January 2017. The entries were published online at STB's official website and users were able to cast one vote per day. While at first the entry with the highest number of votes qualified to compete directly in the final of the competition, the entry picked, Deep Shivers by KUZNETSOV, was instead placed into the second semifinal.

Format

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry will take place over three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters have the opportunity to apply for the competition either through an online application form or by attending a scheduled audition during designated dates. Applicants also have the option of entering an online wildcard selection, the winner of which will gain direct entry into the competition's final show. The second stage will consist of three televised semi-finals to be held in February 2017, which will feature eight to twelve acts competing in each show. Two to three acts will be selected to advance from each semi-final based on the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. The third stage will be the final on 25 February 2017 and will feature the eight to 12 qualifying acts from the semi-finals and the winner of the online wildcard selection. The overall winning entry will be determined via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury.

The expert jury that will vote during the shows will consist of:

Competing entries

Artists and composers have the opportunity to submit their entries via an online submission form which will accept entries between 1 September 2016 and 15 January 2017. Alternatively, interested performers will be able to attend live auditions that will be held in the six major cities of Ukraine: Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lviv, Dnipro and Kiev. Composer and producer Konstantin Meladze was assigned as the music producer of the show for the second consecutive year and will lead in reviewing the received submissions and shortlisting entries to compete in the national final. Between 20 and 40 entries will be selected to compete in the national final. The names of the qualifying entries were revealed on 17 January 2017.

Shows

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 4 February 2017. The top two entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries were eliminated. "I Love You" performed by Tayanna and "O, mamo!" performed by Salto Nazad were the qualifiers. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2017 Belarusian Eurovision entrant Naviband and 2017 Georgian Eurovision entrant Tako Gachechiladze performed the 2017 Belarusian entry "Historyja majho žyccia" and Georgian entry "Keep the Faith" as a guest. Naviband also performed a Belarusian version of the winning song "1944" by Jamala.

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 11 February 2017. The top two entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries were eliminated. "Saturn" performed by Rozhden and "Thank You for My Way" performed by Illaria were the qualifiers.

Semi-final 3

The third semi-final took place on 18 February 2017. The top two entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries were eliminated. "Time" performed by O.Torvald and "Wonder" performed by Melovin were the qualifiers. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2017 Spanish Eurovision entrant Manel Navarro performed the 2017 Spanish entry "Do It for Your Lover" as a guest.

Final

Final takes place on 25 February 2017. Special guests of the Final Show are Alma and Kasia Moś.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will take place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine and will consist of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017. All countries except the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the host country, are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As the host country, Ukraine automatically qualifies to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, Ukraine is also required to broadcast and vote in in the second semi-final.