Ukraine has chosen 18 acts that will compete to represent Ukraine at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon, Portugal, in May.
Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral won his country the right to host Eurovision 2018 last year, when the song contest was held in Kyiv. Rock band O.Torvald represented Ukraine at Eurovision 2017, placing a disappointing 24th out of the 26 participants in the final.
During Ukraine’s Eurovision national selection competition, 18 acts, consisting of both bands and singers, will perform their songs over two semi-finals and a final.
The national selection will be held in KPI Center of Culture and Arts, and will be broadcast live on the STB and UA Pershy TV channels.
The national jury, headed by the competition’s music producer, Ukrainian composer Ruslan Kvinta, has picked the 18 acts from around 1,000 applicants.
The acts cover 16 musical genres, including indie pop, reggae, house, experimental pop, and folk.
“I wanted to make the list of participants as diverse as possible, by both genre and style,” Kvinta told STB.
The list includes well-known electronic band The Erised, and the famous pop singer and judge of the Voice Ukraine TV show Serhii Babkin.
It also includes some of the last year’s participants, such as singers Tayanna, Illaria and Melovin, as well as indie, electro-pop band Kadnay and indie pop band Pur:Pur.
There will also be participants new to the national selection competition, including Constantine, Kozak System, The ВЙО, Julinoza, Dilemma, Kazka, Yurcash, Mountain Breeze, Ingret Kostenko, Vilna and Laud.
The two semi-finals will be held on Feb. 10 and Feb. 17, with nine artists performing in each. The top three from each semi-final will progress to the final on Feb. 24.
The winning act from the six finalists will be chosen by a jury, and by viewers, who will be able to vote by text messages. The jury’s and viewers’ votes will have equal weight.
This year’s jury includes Ukrainian singer and the winner of the Eurovision 2016 Jamala, Ukraine’s representative at Eurovision 2007, who finished in second place, Andriy Danylko, known as his stage persona Verka Serduchka, and Yevhen Filatov, a Ukrainian composer, leader of band The Maneken and producer of the band Onuka.
Eurovision 2018 national selection. KPI Center of Culture and Arts (37 Peremohy Ave.)
First semi-final. Feb. 10. 6 p.m. Hr 250 – 1290
Second semi-final. Feb. 17. 6 p.m. Hr 250 – 1290
Final. Feb. 24. The time and the price are to be announced.
Buy tickets at concert.ua/uk/eventpage/eurovision-10-02 and
concert.ua/uk/eventpage/eurovision-17-02
Watch online at eurovision.stb.ua or 1tv.com.ua
