The joy of victories and the bitterness of defeats: how Ukraine performed at Eurovision

This year, Ukraine will take part in the 68th Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Malmö, Sweden, where our country will be represented by the duo alyona alyona and Jerry Heil with the song "Teresa & Maria". UNN decided to recall the joy of victories and the bitterness of Ukraine's defeats at Eurovision, the scandals associated with our country's performances, and what to expect from the participation of alyona alyona and Jerry Heil. 

Ukraine will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Malmö, Sweden by alyona alyona & Jerry Heil. They gained the most votes in the National Selection, where 1,167,176 Ukrainians voted for the representative of Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest in Diia.

The 68th international song contest Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will be held in May this year. Ukraine will compete in one of the semifinals on May 7 for the country's representation in the Grand Final of Eurovision 2024. 

Bookmakers give 15% for Ukraine to win, which is equivalent to third place. Also, 24% are given for Croatia's victory and 16% for Switzerland's victory. 

At the end of April, alyona alyona and Jerry Heil, who represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, went to Malmö. 

By the way, alyona alyona & and Jerry Heil announced that the most famous Ukrainian director in the world, Tanya Muinho, will direct Ukraine's performance on the main stage of Europe. 

Tanya Muinho, an acclaimed Ukrainian director who has gained worldwide fame for her work with international stars and amassed an impressive award-winning portfolio, is entering a new creative arena in 2024. After her success in music videos, where she worked with artists such as Lil Nas X and Harry Styles, Muinho is now trying her hand at stage performances. Her new challenge will be to direct the performance for the Ukrainian representatives at Eurovision 2024, alyona alyona and Jerry Heil. 

The history of Eurovision

Let us recall a bit of the history of the song contest. The Eurovision Song Contest was first held in May 1956 in Switzerland and has been held annually since then, except for 2020, when the contest was canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic. 

At the same time, the 1956 Eurovision Song Contest was won by the host country, Switzerland. The contest was attended by 7 countries and has only expanded since then. 

The competition is traditionally held in three stages. First, the first and second semifinals will take place, followed by the grand final. This year, everything will take place on the following dates:

• The first semifinal is on May 7 at 22:00 Kyiv time;
• The second semifinal is on May 9 at 22:00 Kyiv time;
• The Eurovision Song Contest final is on May 11 at 22:00 Kyiv time.

Ukraine to enter the Eurovision Song Contest 

Ukraine made its debut at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 and has participated 18 times since then. Ukrainian singers have won three times: Ruslana with the song "Wild Dances" in 2004, Jamala with the song "1944" in 2016, and Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania" in 2022. Ukraine is the only country that has advanced from the semifinals to the final in every year of its participation.

2003

Ukraine made its Eurovision debut in 2003. In the first-ever contest for our country, Ukraine was represented by singer Oleksandr Ponomaryov with the song "Hasta la vista", where he took 14th place. 

2004

The very next year, Ukraine managed to win the victory and get the right to host the 50th anniversary Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine. Then, thanks to the singer Ruslana and her "Wild Dances", the country managed to take first place with 280 points. 

2005

The year 2005 was not as positive for Ukraine as the previous year. Ukraine was represented by the band Hryndzholy with the song "Together we are many, we cannot be overcome," which became the unofficial anthem of the Orange Revolution. Even though the Orange Revolution won on Independence Square, the Grindjoly band failed to make it even into the top 10. 

By the way, the performance of the Ukrainian band could have been disrupted because the organizers saw a political overtone in the band's song. In particular, it concerned the following words in the song: "Falsifications - no! Fraud - no! No to concepts! No to lies! Yushchenko - yes! Yushchenko - yes! This is our president!".

The "Grindjols" were offered to change the lyrics or perform another song, otherwise they would be disqualified. The group chose the first option, singing "Together we are many" in English, but leaving the verse in Ukrainian. In the end, the European audience did not appreciate the contest song, so the Grindjols took 19th place at Eurovision 2005.

2006

In 2006, Tina Karol represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest held in the Greek capital Athens with her song "Show me your love", where she took 7th place. 

2007

In 2007, Ukraine won the prize for the first time since 2004. Thanks to Andriy Danylko, who is better known for his stage persona of Verka Serdyuchka, Ukraine managed to take second place, passing ahead of Serbian singer Marija Šeferović. 

The artist performed a song called "Dancing Lasha Tumbai," but the russians created a real scandal, because they heard the words "Lasha Tumbai" in the song, which translates as "russia goodbye." 

At the time, Danylko issued official refutations, showing the lines of the song and explaining that they had no meaning at all. At the same time, in russia, Verka Serdyuchka's show was canceled, and she disappeared from the public space of the russian federation. By the way, after the beginning of russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Danylko changed the lyrics of the song, and now it really does say "russia goodbye.

In an interview with journalist Dmytro Gordon, Danylko said that he was changing the lyrics to his hit song "Lasha Tumbai". Now, starting from February 24, when the occupying country russia attacked Ukraine, instead of "Lasha Tumbai" it will be "russia, Goodbye".

"For me, this war started back in 2007. Just because I represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest and beat the band Serebro, they (the russians - ed.) twisted people's minds so much that a phrase that was not there at all... Everyone was sure that I sang it. I was shocked. I couldn't believe that they wrote "black" on "white". Friends, since February 24, there has been no "Lasha Tumbai" in this song... It's only "russia, Goodbye". I didn't sing it. You wanted to hear it, so you heard it," Danylko said. 

By the way, in 2016, Serdyuchka's costume from her performance at Eurovision 2007 was donated to the ABBA Museum, a music museum of the band that gained popularity thanks to Eurovision, where an interactive exhibition Good evening Europe! was held in honor of the 60th anniversary of the contest.

It should be noted that the russian band Serebro took third place in that song contest. 

2008 

In 2008, Ukraine was represented in Belgrade by the singer ani lorak with the song "Shady Lady" composed by philip kirkorov. After taking second place, the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko awarded ani lorak and kirkorov thertitle of People's Artist of Ukraine. 

At the same time, Russian singer dima bilan won with his song Believe. By the way, after the annexation of the Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine, lorak switched to the practice of performing at concerts in russia, which caused criticism in Ukraine and accompanied the singer's concerts in different cities of Ukraine with protests and clashes with law enforcement officers. 

In particular, she performed at the blue eternity concerts dedicated to the 320th anniversary of the russian navy and at a concert dedicated to the russian army. 

Everyone knows what happened next. lorak was sanctioned by the National Security and Defense Council, and the singer herself did not condemn russia's war against Ukraine, which led to criticism from Ukrainian artists, and a Verkhovna Rada committee asked President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to strip the singer of her "people's" title. 

In March 2022, it was reported that lorak had applied for russian citizenship. The media disseminated information that public figures had allegedly sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General's Office of the russian federation to recognize singer Ani Lorak as a "foreign agent".

After that, the Ukrainian military, while attacking russia, began to put on drones a thank you to ani lorak for contributing to the revenge fund. 

Also in March of the same year, the name of singer ani lorak was officially removed from the Chernivtsi "Alley of Stars" . The decision was made after the singer, who lives in russia, decided to keep silent about the hostile invasion of Ukraine by the russian military.

In 2023, the mayor of krasnodar, russia, yevgeny naumov banned the concert of ani lorak because he could not guarantee that the fee would not go to the Armed Forces.

Shortly after the attack of unknown UAVs on russian cities, including moscow, on May 30, 2023, Ukrainians thanked the traitorous singer ani lorak and made her the heroine of a funny video. In it, the star allegedly explains why "her revenge fund" attacked the russian capital.

2009 

In 2009, Eurovision was held in moscow, where our country was represented by Svetlana Loboda with the song "Be my Valentine!". It is worth noting that Loboda is also a fan of "changing shoes in the air". After the beginning of the temporary occupation of Crimea, the russian singer continued to perform in russia, in particular, she participated in russian propaganda TV shows and later refused to perform in Ukraine.

However, after russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the band stopped concerts in the aggressor country, but did not call russia an aggressor.

In 2022, Loboda gave a charity concert in Riga in support of Ukraine.

It was interesting that in the same year, 2009, the Ukrainian Anastasia Prikhodko performed on behalf of russia with the song "Mom," which was performed in two languages: Ukrainian and russian. 

The singer decided to take part in the Ukrainian selection for Eurovision, but immediately got into a scandal - some of the jury members protested Prikhodko's participation in the contest, appealing to both the alleged violations of the song's regulations (duration of more than 3 minutes and earlier publication of the work before October 1, 2008) and the alleged lobbying of the performer at the highest level and even offers to bribe the jury members. 

A few days before the Ukrainian final selection, the jury of the russian qualifying competition decided to include Anastasia Prikhodko with the song "Mom" as the 16th finalist in the russian selection for Eurovision. The singer's principled decision was to leave the Ukrainian language in the song, at least in the chorus, so that the song would at least be bilingual. 

In 2022 , the singer admitted whether she regretted representing russia at the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the singer, she has nothing to be ashamed of, because at the time, that was her life.

"My condition was to represent the russian federation in 2 languages: russian and Ukrainian. I cannot say that I am somehow ashamed of it, because it was my life back then," Prikhodko said.

2010

Ukraine took part in the 55th Eurovision Song Contest held in 2010 in Oslo, Norway. The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine held a national selection, which resulted in the representation of Ukraine at the song contest by singer Alyosha with the song "Sweet People". 

Immediately after winning the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, there were accusations that the song "To be free", which was written by the singer herself, is similar to the song "Knock Me Out" by Linda Perry. 

In addition, the song was posted on the Internet on MySpace before October 1, 2009, which violates the contest rules. 

After a detailed analysis of the song "To be free", the lawyers and the jury concluded that the song did not meet the EBU's requirements because it was posted for commercial sale on Amazon and MySpace in violation of the terms. After negotiations with the Executive Director of the Eurovision Song Contest Svante Stokselius, the National Television Company of Ukraine suggested that singer Alyosha change the song. 

Later, Alyosha presented a new song with which she went to the Eurovision Song Contest in Oslo - "Sweet People", which is an appeal to people to protect our planet. 

The singer took 10th place in the competition. 

2011

At this year's Eurovision Song Contest, Ukraine was represented by singer Mika Newton (real name: Oksana Hrytsay) with the song "Angel". 

Ukraine advanced to the second semi-final of the competition on May 12, eventually placing 4th in the final voting on May 14. 

It is worth noting that at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, Mika Newton's song "Captured", which was used for the soundtrack of the russian propaganda series "kadets", which was one of the favorites among Ukrainian youth in early 2010 and was produced with the support of the russian ministry of defense, became the subject of media attention. 

In 2023, Swedish singer Lorine sang the song "Tattoo" at the Eurovision Song Contest, in which social media users noticed a resemblance to Newton's song "Into the Woods." The singer Lorine won the contest in the same year. 

Later, Newton will say that she does not want to comment on anything about the Eurovision Song Contest. 

"I really don't want to comment on anything about Eurovision and Loreen, but first of all, I would like to congratulate Loreen on her victory. She is an incredible and unique artist. I wish her all the best! I don't like being dragged into this story. I was celebrating Mother's Day with my mom and mother-in-law, and a friend texted me with a question: "Did you release that song to bash Loreen? I was shocked! How could I have known that someone would use my name and release a song on Spotify and iTunes?" - she said in an Insta-story.

Newton also admitted that at the time of filming The "kadets", russian language, russian culture, and their narratives were often found in Ukraine. 

"I regret that there were times when we were taught that being in russia was cool, and their language was cool. Schools taught in russian, national news was in russian. And it's a shock when I think about it now," Newton commented on the question of whether she regrets that her songs were played in "kadets." 

2012

This year was a jubilee year for Ukraine - the 10th time Ukraine qualified for the Eurovision Song Contest. Back then, our country was represented in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, by Gaitana with her song "Be My Guest". Back then, Gaitana took 15th place. 

2013

This year, Ukraine took the prize, thanks to Zlata Ognevich with her song "Gravity", which won bronze, passing russian singer Dina Garipova. 

2014

The year 2014 was a real test for Ukraine. It was probably not the time for Ukrainians to be concerned with Eurovision, because it was the year that russia annexed Crimea, the then President of Ukraine viktor yanukovych fled to russia, and the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Donbas began.

This year, Ukraine was represented in Denmark by Maria Yaremchuk, daughter of the famous Ukrainian singer, People's Artist of Ukraine Nazariy Yaremchuk, with her song "Tick-tock". Yaremchuk took 6th place in the final of the song contest with 113 points.

It should be noted that this year the world was shocked by the winner of the competition. The victory was won by Austrian singer Conchita Wurst (real name: Thomas Neuwirth). Wurst performed as a "woman with a beard," which caused a mixed reaction in the media. German publications called Wurst's triumph a "victory for tolerance." 

2015

This year, Ukraine refused to participate in the song contest. The National Television Company of Ukraine, in a bilateral agreement with the European Broadcasting Union, decided to refuse to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. This decision was made due to the difficult situation in the country, the need to save money and the transition to public broadcasting. 

2016

After a year's absence, Ukraine returns to the contest, and immediately wins. The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine held a national selection in conjunction with the Ukrainian TV channel STB, which resulted in the representation of Ukraine at the song contest by singer Jamala with the song "1944". Jamala won the first place in the Eurovision Song Contest final with 534 points. 

By the way, the song "1944" was dedicated to the tragic events of the past, including the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people. Immediately after the victory, the news of Jamala's victory appeared in the European press because of the song's possible political content. 

The first deputy chairman of the state duma committee on information policy, vadim dengin, expressed his wish that the European Broadcasting Union would not allow the singer's song to enter the contest. 

The so-called deputy prime minister of the Crimean government ruslan balbek called the song a political speculation of the Ukrainian authorities, which aims to impose on Europeans "an artificially created image of the alleged persecution of Crimean Tatars in Crimea. 

The so-called prime minister of Crimea, sergey aksyonov, also called the song "politicized." 

However, on March 9, 2016, the EBU confirmed that neither the title of the song nor its lyrics contained any political statement and did not violate the Eurovision Song Contest rules. 

Mostly, it was the russians who questioned Jamala's victory. 

It is also worth noting that the British edition of The Guardian compiled a list of the best winning songs in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest and placed the hit of Ukrainian singer Jamala "1944" in third place.

The first place was taken by ABBA with the song Waterloo, which won Sweden the international song contest in 1974.

2017

Thanks to Jamala's victory last year, Ukraine hosted the song contest, where our country was represented by the band O.Torvald. The band took 24th place out of 26 contestants, which was the worst result for Ukraine in the history of its participation in the contest. 

2018

This year, Ukraine was represented by Melovin with the song "Under the Ladder". The viewers' scores differed from the expert jury's, and Ukraine received 119 points from the audience and took 7th place. According to the overall voting results, Melovin took 17th place in the final. 

2019

Another scandal. In February, UA: Public Broadcasting held a national selection in conjunction with the Ukrainian TV channel STB, which resulted in the victory of Maruv, a singer known for her pro-russian views, with the song "Siren Song," which led to the cancellation of her performance at the Eurovision Song Contest.

In particular, in early 2019, it became known that Maruv was touring in russia after the start of the russian-Ukrainian war. She said that the band continues to perform in russia because it "brings peace" and that "someone takes up arms, and someone takes up music. 

Later, during the final of the National Selection, in response to a question from the host, Maruv said: "You can't judge the whole of russia by the president. After all, there are four million people in russia. Or four billion." In response, Sergey Prytula said: "Four billion is the dream of their president, and four million is the dream of all Ukrainians." This position of the singer caused condemnation in Ukrainian society.

On February 25, Maruv refused to sign a contract with UA:PBC to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest because she was not satisfied with the terms of the contract. According to the singer, these conditions were not discussed with her before participating in the qualifying competition. According to the agreement, every improvisation during the performance and interview during the contest had to be approved by the official broadcaster. According to Maruv, failure to comply with the requirements of the contract was to result in fines. One of the key conditions of UA:PBC was the requirement "not to tour in the territory of the russian federation, starting from the date of signing the contract and ending three months after the end of the competition"

Thus, Maruv, as well as the bands that took 2nd, 3rd and 4th places, refused to participate in the song contest, and Ukraine decided to withdraw from the contest altogether. 

2020 and 2021 

In 2020, Ukraine was supposed to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest by Go_A with the song "Nightingale". However, the contest was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, the band still represented Ukraine at Eurovision, but changed the song. The group performed the song "Shum", with which they took 5th place. 

2022

This year was the most tragic for Ukraine in the history of its independence. On February 24, russian troops launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, and Ukrainians had no time for Eurovision. 

It should be noted that the national selection took place 12 days before the russian invasion. Eight participants competed for the right to represent Ukraine at the competition. Alina Pash won the competition. However, she was disqualified from the competition because she forged the documents required for participation. Pash was accused of performing in russia and occupied Crimea. 

Moreover, Pash allegedly crossed the airspace of the occupied Crimea illegally. That is, according to Ukrainian law, one can enter the territory of occupied Crimea only by crossing the border from the mainland, not from russia. 

On February 16, Alina Pash announced that she was refusing to participate in Eurovision 2022. The Organizing Committee of the National Selection statedthat the singer was disqualified due to violations of the laws of Ukraine and the rules of the contest. 

"I am a citizen of Ukraine, I follow the laws of Ukraine, I try to bring the traditions and values of Ukraine to the world. What this story has turned into is not what I intended in my song... I don't want to be involved in this dirty story anymore. It is with a heavy heart that I withdraw my candidacy as a representative of Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest. Unfortunately. I am really sorry," Alina Pash wrote on Instagram at the time.

Instead, Ukraine was represented by the Kalush Orchestra with the song "Stefania," which won first place. In the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 final, Kalush Orchestra called for the immediate rescue of Mariupol, including Azovstal.

After the performance, the band's lead singer, Oleg Psyuk, addressed the international community: "Please help Ukrainian Mariupol! Help Azovstal right now!"

At the time, Oleh Psyuk said during a press conference that he was not afraid of disqualification from the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 because of his call from the stage to help the blocked people at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. The desire to draw the world's attention to the situation was more important for the band. 

Defenders of Mariupol, the Azov Regiment, which defended Azovstal for 86 days, thanked the Ukrainian music band Kalush Orchestra for their words of support from the stage of the Eurovision Song Contest

Later, Kalush Orchestra and Serhiy Prytula sold the Eurovision 2022 crystal microphone for $900,000 at a charity auction. The organizers of the contest statedthat Kalush Orchestra will receive a new crystal cup to replace the winner's trophy, which was sold during the auction to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

2023

This year, Ukraine was supposed to host the Eurovision Song Contest, but because of the war, the contest was held in Liverpool. Our country was represented by the band TVORCHI with the song "Heart of Steel", where they took 6th place. 

Summing up, we can say that almost every national selection and Ukraine's performances at Eurovision have been accompanied by scandals. UNN decided to ask our readers what their expectations of Eurovision are this year. Will the duo of performers be able to win the song contest?

Summing up, we can say that despite the loud scandals that occasionally accompanied the National Election and Ukrainian participants, Ukraine presented many bright performances at Eurovision that attracted the attention of the audience and the jury.

Do you think that the duo of alyona alyona and Jerry Heil can win this year's contest?