Even though the host city of the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Ukraine is still a mystery, the host country is getting ready to choose who will wave the blue and yellow flag after Jamala. The private TV channel STB in collaboration with the public broadcaster NTU will be organising the Ukrainian national selection together like they did last year. The grand final which will determinate who will be following Jamala’s steps to get Ukraine the victory again will be held on February.
Last year NTU and STB decided to join forces for the upcoming three years to do a joint broadcast of the Ukrainian national selection for Eurovision. The private broadcaster is in charge of the biggest talent shows in Ukraine such as Got Talent and X Factor. The shows will be broadcast on both channels and the costs will be split.
As of today, September 1st, all interested artists who want to take part in the competition can submit their applications through the platform STB has set on their website. The online selection, which is new this year, will be open until January 10th, when the profiles of the candidates will be published on the STB website and visitors will be able to vote for their favourites. The winner of the online vote will have the same rights as a semifinal winner.
However, the bulk of the previous stages to the final will happen in the auditions that will take place in Ukraine’s main six cities (Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odessa, Lviv and Zaporizhia). The qualifiers will be announced by January 31st. The next stage will consist of qualifying rounds or semifinals –a similar approach to last year’s selection process- to decide which contestants make it to the grand final.
This grand final which will have up to 12 finalists with the winner of the online voting, will foreseeably kick off the last week of February, and like all the previous shows will be broadcast on STB and UA Pershiy.
Ukraine managed to score their second victory last year in Stockholm with Jamala and the song 1944:
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