Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song "Stefania", written by Ihor Didenchuk, Ivan Klymenko, Oleh Psiuk, Tymofii Muzychuk, and Vitalii Duzhyk, and performed by the group Kalush Orchestra. The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC), organised a national final in order to select its entry for the contest. Eight entries competed in the national selection held on 12 February 2022 and "Tini zabutykh predkiv" performed by Alina Pash was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a three-member jury panel and a public televote. UA:PBC confirmed on 16 February 2022 that Pash would not represent Ukraine following controversy regarding her travel history to the territory of Crimea, and announced the national final runner-up, "Stefania" performed by Kalush Orchestra, as its entry on 22 February 2022.
Ukraine was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2022. Performing during the show in position 6, "Stefania" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed first out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 337 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 12 and placed first out of the 25 participating countries, winning the contest with 631 points including a record televoting score of 439 points. This was Ukraine's third win in the Eurovision Song Contest, having last won in .
Background
Prior to the 2022 contest, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) until 2016, and the Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine (UA:PBC) since 2017, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Ukraine sixteen times since NTU's first entry , winning the contest with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Following the introduction of semi-finals for 2004, Ukraine is the only country that has managed to qualify to the final in every contest they have participated in thus far. Ukraine has been the runner-up in the contest on two occasions: with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" performed by Verka Serduchka and with the song "Shady Lady" performed by Ani Lorak; and it won the contest for a second time with "1944" by Jamala. Ukraine's least successful result has been 24th place, which they achieved, as hosts, , with the song "Time" performed by O.Torvald.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster UA:PBC organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2022 contest on 18 June 2021. In the past, the broadcasters had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select the Ukrainian entry. Between 2016 and 2020, the broadcaster, in collaboration with commercial broadcaster STB, had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. On 30 August 2021, it was announced that UA:PBC had terminated their partnership with STB, with the broadcaster announcing on 8 October 2021 that they would independently organise a national final to select the 2022 entry. Production companies had the opportunity to submit their proposals until 24 October 2021 and the selected company, Friends Pro TV, was announced on 29 December 2021.
Before Eurovision
was the sixth edition of , which selected the Ukrainian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition took place at the NAU Center of Culture and Arts in Kyiv and consisted of a final on 12 February 2022. The show was hosted by Maria Efrosinina with Timur Miroshnychenko as the backstage host, and broadcast on UA:Pershyi, via radio on Radio Promin with commentary by Oleksandr Zakharchenko and Anna Zakletska, and online via UA:PBC's official website tv.suspilne.media as well as Facebook and YouTube broadcasts.
Format The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition either through an online submission form. Twenty-seven acts were longlisted and announced on 17 January 2022. The second stage involved the longlisted artists attending a scheduled audition during designated dates. Eight acts were selected and announced on 24 January 2022. The third stage was the televised final, which took place on 12 February 2022 and featured the eight acts vying to represent Ukraine in Turin. The winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest) and the entry that had the highest number of points following the combination of these scores was declared the winner. Viewers participating in the public televote had the opportunity to submit a single vote per phone number for each of the participating entries via SMS. In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the public televote.
Competing entries Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries via an online submission form which accepted entries between 14 December 2021 and 10 January 2022. Only artists that had not performed in Russia since 2014 and entered the territory of Crimea without due permission were allowed to apply for the competition. A selection panel that included music producer of the show Mykhailo Koshevy, television producer of the show Oleksiy Honcharenko and UA:PBC managing board member reviewed the 284 received submissions and longlisted 27 entries, of which their artists were announced on 17 January 2022. Auditions were later held at the My Dream Space venue in Kyiv where eight entries were shortlisted to compete in the national final. On 24 January 2022, the eight selected competing acts were announced during a press conference held at the Radio Hub of the Public Media Academy of UA:PBC. Among the finalists was Ihor Didenchuk (member of Kalush Orchestra) who represented Ukraine in as a member of Go_A.
On 25 January 2022, UA:PBC announced that "Head Under Water", written by Daniel Boting and to have been performed by Laud, was disqualified from the national final as the song was previously released in 2018. "Hear My Words" performed by Barleben was announced as the replacement entry on the same day.
+ Alina Pash Amariia
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Gorim! Idxo Kalush Orchestra
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Skhidzakhid Sofia Shanti Sowa The Blue Artic The Tape Machine Victoria Niro Vika Yagych Wellboy Yuliia Timochko
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Alina Pash "Tini zabutykh predkiv" Alina Pash, Taras Bazeev Barleben "Hear My Words" Oleksandr Barleben, Kristina Hromiak Cloudless "All Be Alright" Yurii Kanalosh, Anton Panfilov, Mykhailo Shatokhin Kalush Orchestra "Stefania" Ihor Didenchuk, Ivan Klymenko, Oleh Psiuk, Tymofii Muzychuk, Vitalii Duzhyk Laud "Head Under Water" Daniel Boting Michael Soul "Demons" Michael Soul, Vlad Freimann, Andrei Katikov, Ilia Paliakou Our Atlantic "" Viktor Baida, Dmytro Bakal Roxolana "Girlzzzz" Roksoliana Syrota, Mykhailo Gaidai Wellboy "Nozzy Bossy" Anton Velboi, Serhii Yurov, Stepan Oliinik, Yevhen Harbarenko
Final The final took place on 12 February 2022. Eight entries competed and the winner, "" performed by Alina Pash, was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher scores from the public televote. The jury panel consisted of Tina Karol (singer, actress and television presenter, represented ), Jamala (singer-songwriter, winner of Eurovision for ) and (UA:PBC Managing Board member). 77,843 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, former Ukrainian Eurovision entrants Jamala, Tina Karol and Go_A (), as well as former Ukrainian Junior Eurovision entrants Darina Krasnovetska (), Sophia Ivanko (), Oleksandr Balabanov () and Olena Usenko () performed as guests. + Final – 12 February 2022 Artist SongJury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 Cloudless "All Be Alright"1 3,410 4 5 7 2 Michael Soul "Demons"2 1,239 1 3 8 3 Our Atlantic ""5 1,605 2 7 6 4 Barleben "Hear My Words"4 2,740 3 7 5 5 Kalush Orchestra "Stefania"6 38,634 8 14 2 6 Roxolana "Girlzzzz"3 5,034 5 8 4 7 Wellboy "Nozzy Bossy"7 5,646 6 13 3 8 Alina Pash ""8 19,535 7 15 1 + Song TotalPoints 1 "All Be Alright" 3 1 1 51 2 "Demons" 1 2 4 72 3 "" 4 5 6 155 4 "Hear My Words" 5 7 2 144 5 "Stefania" 7 6 3 166 6 "Girlzzzz" 2 3 5 103 7 "Nozzy Bossy" 8 4 7 197 8 "" 6 8 8 228
Controversies
Results announcement issues and dispute Following Alina Pash's victory, runner-up Kalush Orchestra accused the organisers of falsifying the results. Lead singer Oleh Psiuk claimed that the organisers of the selection had refused to speak to him after several technical issues had occurred during the announcement of the results; incorrect points were given during the allocation of the televotes, leading to a failure of the electronic scoreboard with host Timur Miroshnychenko manually announcing the results from a sheet of paper. After the show, a video emerged of Psiuk confronting a producer in a corridor. On a livestream, Psiuk claimed that the producer had refused to answer his questions, and went on to state that he intended to challenge the organisers in court. Suspilne and its audit partner PwC maintained the validity of the results, stating that the technical difficulties had had no impact on the results. Jury member and chairman of the organising committee, Yaroslav Lodyhin, stated that he would be ready to resign from his position as further proof of the broadcaster's good faith. His resignation came into effect on 18 February. The full results of the selection were published on 22 February.
Tymofii Muzychuk's travel history On 16 February, a 2015 VK post by Kalush Orchestra member Tymofii Muzychuk surfaced, capturing him in front of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The group's management stated that the photo had been taken before 2014, and that Muzychuk had traveled to Russia in 2013 to perform at a Mykhailo Poplavskyi concert in Moscow and at an event in Krasnodar, which he claimed to have been his last time in the country.
Alina Pash's disqualification