Ukraine: UA: PBC releases the Eurovision 2023 national final longlist of candidates

Ukraine: UA: PBC releases the Eurovision 2023 national final longlist of candidates
Thursday, 27 October 2022

  • The Ukrainian national broadcaster, UA:PBC, has released the longlist of candidates in the national final for Eurovision 2023. 

    While the 37 broadcasters across the continent and in Australia are progressing their national selection preparations for Eurovision 2023, last year's winners cannot be of course the exception as UA:PBC have released the longlist of the candidate acts for the upcoming national final of Vidbir 2023. 

    36 artists have been selected out of 384 submissions sent to UA:PBC for the Ukrainian Eurovision 2023 national selection. The Ukrainian broadcaster has released the names of the acts that move on to the next stage: 

    • 2TONE
    • Angelina
    • DAYTON
    • DEMCHUK
    • Drevo
    • Elysees
    • FIINKA
    • Havkа
    • Jerry Heil
    • Iana Kovaleva
    • Kozak Siromaha
    • KRUTЬ
    • Lue Bason
    • Moisei
    • Olivan
    • OOHLA
    • Oy Sound System
    • SASHA
    • Seréen
    • sexnesc
    • Shy
    • SKYLERR
    • SOWA
    • Tember Blanche
    • Tery
    • TVORCHI
    • Victoria Niro
    • Vynohradova
    • Zetetics
    • Lilu45
    • Maks Ptashnyk
    • Miya Ramari
    • Royal’kit
    • Sasha Fadeyeva
    • TÓNKA
    • Tsyferblat


    In the next stage circa 10-12 acts will be selected to advance to the televised national final show that is set for December 17, 2022  in Kyiv at the Maidan Nezalezhnosti metro station. The national final contestants will be announced until November 17, 2022, while the outcome of the final and next Eurovision representative for Liverpool will be determined via a combination of jury and public voting. 

     

    Leading music producer of the national selection, Dmytro Shurov,  metioned the following:

    “I am personally interested in ensuring that Ukrainian music does not freeze and that it develops in all directions, so that we have our heroes in all possible musical niches and styles. In my opinion, now, during the war, and with complete uncertainty in the lives of musicians, this selection takes on a special significance. We not only choose those worthy to represent Ukraine at the competition, but also have the opportunity to hear a wide range of Ukrainian music that is being created here and now, no matter what.

    I am glad that during the selection process, many musicians were motivated, inspired, and encouraged to create new songs and interesting ideas. It was difficult for many of them to start writing again. Many musicians are in forced emigration or on the verge of changing professions, or even survival. There are musicians who volunteer and fight. However, we have a 36-song longlist that has everything from dream pop and rock to indie, rap and ethnic. All this speaks of how creative our nation is, how much we strive to create. I am grateful to UA:PBC for the trust to musically produce the selection. I am already personally listening to this longlist in the car, I hope that after the songs are published, you will too.”

     

     

    Ukraine in Eurovision

    Ukraine participated for the first time at the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 when Oleksandr Ponormayov represented the country Hasta la vista. Ukraine has won the Eurovision trophy two times, in 2004 with Ruslana and in 2016 (Jamala). Following both victories the country hosted the contest in 2005 and 2017. The country has achieved remarkable results as it has reached 10 times the top 10 places in its 15 year ESC history.

    Namely, Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Ukraine is the only country outside the Big 5 to have qualified for the final of every Eurovision they have competed in. 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).

    In 2019 Ukraine saw a dramatic national selection Vidbir, which saw Maruv winning with her entry Siren Song. After a serial of dramatic developments between the broadcaster and the winner eventually Ukraine withdrew from the Eurovision 2019.

    In 2020 after two semi final rounds and a total of 16 candidates, the Ukrainian national final for Eurovision 2020, Vidbir 2020, crowned winner the group  Gо_A  and the entry  “Solovey” . Unfortunately their Eurovision journey stayed incomplete as the contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak. The band was invited back for Eurovision 2021 in which they competed with the song 'Shum' which brought one more top 10 result for the nation finishing in 5th place in the Grand final with a total of 364 points in the overall score.

    This year, Kalush Orchestra represented the nation with their song 'Stefania'. Kalush Orchestra took part on May 12 in the 1st semi final achieving to qualify by winning the semifinal. The Ukrainian representatives brought the third trophy to Ukraine after winning the Grand final. The band accomplished to came 4th in the jury voting and by topping the televoting with the record breaking amount of 439 points won the competition with the overall score of 631 points. 

     

     

    News Source: UA:PBC / Eurovoix.com

    Image: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett

     

     

AUTHORS

  • Angelos D.

    Angelos D.

    Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.