Eurovision 2008 - Ukraine

Shady lady
Ani Lorak

Music: Philip Kirkorow
Lyrics: Karen Kavaleryan

History (1956 to 2007):

Ukraine's previous appearances: 5 year(s) out of 52
Years participated: 2003-
Best result: 1st (2004)

Ukraine has a short but eventful history at Eurovision, only entering for the first time in 2003 but winning the Contest on its second attempt in 2004. In 2003, Despite having a song written by Tzvika Pick (the man behind Dana International's 'Diva'), performed by the established Ukrainian artist, Olexandr Ponomaryov, and accompanied by dancing acrobats, 'Hasta la vista' managed a slightly disappointing 14th place. Perhaps Olexandr should have taken a leaf out of Dana's book, and worn a Jean Paul Gaultier dress instead of his luminous (and quite tight) white suit? As a result, Ukraine narrowly missed out on an automatic place in the 2004 Final, and had to participate in the Semi Final first. It hardly mattered, however... Ruslana's 'Wild Dances' breezed through the Semi Final before stomping to victory - with points from 34 of the 35 other countries - in the Final. In doing so, leather-clad Ruslana seemed to reinforce the experience of Sertab from the year before - that combining a great song with impressive choreography is the way to win Eurovision in this age of televoting.

Credit to Ukraine, then, for trying something completely different in 2005, opting for Greenjolly's anthemic chant 'Razom nas bahato, nas nye podolaty', the soundtrack to December 2004's Orange Revolution in Ukraine. With its blatantly political message and repeated references to Victor Yushchenko (the man later confirmed as the country's President in the Boxing Day rerun poll), drastic rewriting was required at the behest of the European Broadcasting Union. Despite these changes, Ukraine was never really likely to perform well with this song at Eurovision, and so it proved - picking up just 30 points to finish in 20th place, most countries gave the Ukrainian entry a wide berth, with only five giving it any points at all.

In 2006, however, Ukraine once again followed up a poor result with a very good one, Tina Karol's charm and extraordinary voice managing to lift 'Show me your love' to an impressive 7th place in both the Semi Final and the Final, much better than any of the pre-Contest polls had suggested. Consequently, Ukraine benefits from being directly qualified for the Final in 2007.

Ukraine joined the Eurovision comedy bandwagon in 2007, sending the drag act Verka Serduchka - the alter ego of 33-year-old Andrey Danilko - to Helsinki with the 'song' 'Dancing lasha tumbai'.

This year's entry:





My opinion & prediction:

Well, this song is something between pop & R&B, it reminds me of the
Macedonian entry in 2006, it’s catchy, but in comparation is lower than Wild dances, so I think it won’t do much. Also, I would like to thank Ukraine for sending a normal song, after last year’s comedy.

My prediction for the Semi Final: 8th to 12th
My prediction for the Final: Possible qualifier; 12th to 14th