Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Ukraine will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, having internally selected Go_A as their representatives. They were due to compete in the 2020 contest with "Solovey" before the event's cancellation.

Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Country Ukraine
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 18 March 2020
Song: 4 February 2021
Selected entrantGo_A
Selected song"SHUM"
Selected songwriter(s)Taras Shevchenko
Kateryna Pavlenko
Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2020 • 2021

Background
Main article: Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2021 contest, Ukraine had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifteen 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, 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 24th place, which they achieved during the 2017 contest with the song "Time" performed by O.Torvald.[1]

The Ukrainian national broadcaster, National Television Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC), broadcasts the event within Ukraine and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In the past, UA:PBC had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select the Ukrainian entry. Between 2011 and 2014, UA:PBC 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.[2][3] 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 Jamala who went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine missed the contest in 2019 after contractual disagreements with its chosen artist, Maruv.[4] Ukraine had planned to return to Eurovision in 2020. Go_A were selected to represent Ukraine at the Vidbir final on 22 February 2020.[5][6] However, the 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 18 March 2020, UA:PBC confirmed that Go_A will represent Ukraine in the 2021 contest.[7][8] Go_A submitted three songs to the broadcaster: "Rano", "Shum" and "Tserkovka", all of which were composed by Kateryna Pavlenko and Taras Shevchenko. An expert jury selected "Shum" as the 2021 Ukrainian entry on 1 February 2021. The jury panel consisted of Jamala (singer-songwriter, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 for Ukraine), Yevhen Filatov–The Maneken (singer and producer, creator of group Onuka), Ruslan Kvinta (music producer and composer) and two members of the Managing Board of UA:PBC: Yaroslav Lodygin and Dmytro Khorkin.[9]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) 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. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, will be used for 2021 contest. Ukraine was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[10]

References
  1. https://eurovision.tv/country/ukraine
  2. Україна бере тайм-аут на рік у конкурсі Євробачення. 1tv.com.ua (in Ukrainian). UA:PBC. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  3. "Eurovision 2015: Ukraine announces exit". bbc.com. BBC News. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2015.
  4. Karasz, Palko (2019-02-28). "Ukraine Singer Is Pulled From Eurovision After Her Patriotism Is Questioned". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  5. "Eurovisionary: Go_A wins Ukraine's national selection for Eurovision 2020 (VIDEO) | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice". KyivPost. 2020-02-23. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  6. "Who is Ukraine's Eurovision 2020 entry, Go_A, who will sing Solovey?". Radio Times. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  7. "Ukraine: UA:PBC confirm GO_A as Eurovision 2021 act". ESCToday. 2020-03-22.
  8. "New song Go A for transferred Eurovision-2021 will be in the Ukrainian language | The Saxon". Retrieved 2020-03-31.
  9. Luukela, Sami (1 February 2011). "Go_A's Eurovision 2021 entry has been decided". escXtra. Retrieved 2 January 2021.
  10. Groot, Evert (17 November 2020). "2020 Semi-Final line-up to stay for 2021". eurovision.tv. Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.