Ukraine is one of the most successful Eurovision countries in the last two decades. They are the only country to still have 100% qualification for the final and have earned victory three times. One of the factors to their achievements in the competition is sending good songs by accomplished artists. The preferred method of selecting a Eurovision entry for Ukraine is via a national selection, and since 2016 the contest has taken the form of Vidbir.
The Acts
The 2024 edition of Vidbir will see 11 acts going in a head-to-head competition to determine who will represent the country at Eurovision in May.
The 11 acts will compete live for points to be awarded by a panel of three jury members who will supply 50% of the score, with the remaining score being handed over by the viewing public. In many countries (and even at the main Eurovision competition) people have criticized so few people having such a sway over the total number of points that countries award to songs. In Ukraine, their way of dealing with this issue is to have the jurors selected by the public via an online poll. This year the people choose Serhiy Tanchynets (a music producer, singer, and musician), Jamala (the 2016 winner of Vidbir and Eurovision), and Andriy Danylko (who most fans will know under the name of his iconic character Verka Seduchka, getting Ukraine a second place finish at the 2006 edition of Eurovision).
The Acts
Artists interesting in competing in Vidbir were invited to submit as many songs as they wanted to, to the broadcaster, Suspline. In total, they received 389 songs from 288 performers. The music director or Vidbir, Dmytro Shurov (Pianoboy) then had the difficult task of narrowing down all of the artists down to a long list of 20 artists, before having to whittle that down to a shortlist of 10 acts. The 10 who were left had the public vote on their songs to choose a wild card entry that would be an Online Wildcard.
The 11 Acts that will be competing in the show are:
• alyona alyona & Jerry Heil
• Anka
• Drevo
• Ingret
• Mélovin
• Nahaba
• Nazva
• Skylerr
• Yagody
• Yaktak
• Ziferblat
This list includes a former Vidbir Winner, other acts who have competed previously, and popular chart toppers in Ukraine. Mélovin is a former winner who represented Ukraine in 2018 with Under the Ladder, this time he is bringing the dance track Dreamer. Yaktak may be taking to the Vidbir stage for the first time with his song Lalala, as a competitor, however he is a popular artist in Ukraine with more than 400,000 monthly streams on Spotify.
Another act to look out for is the bookies favorite to win, alyona alyona & Jerry Heil. The two will be performing Maria & Teresa. Jerry Heil will be familiar to Vidbir watcher, having competed the first time in 2020, with Vegan. She then returned to Vidbir in 2023 placing second with the song When God Shut the Door. alyona alyona is an award-winning rapper who has gained recognition outside of Ukraine. She’s also collabed with previous Vidbir winners and Eurovision artists Jamala, Alina Pash, and Kalush (of Kalush Orchestra).
How to Watch
The show is scheduled to begin on Saturday, February 3 at 5:00pm CEST (11:00am EST) and can be streamed live on the Official Eurovision Youtube Channel. Apart from the 11 diverse acts competing all three Ukrainian Eurovision winners, their 2023 representatives Tvorchi, and more are set to be interval acts, guaranteeing a great show!