Ukraine: National final on February 23

Good news coming from Ukraine after the Ukrainian broadcasters UA:PBC and STB have announced today that they have extended their Eurovision partnership for a further three years.
Vidbir 2019 – here we go!

Act will be chosen through Vidbir 2019

The Ukrainian representative for Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel, will once again be chosen through the national final Vidbir 2019. 
Vidbir has been used as the Ukrainian national final since the country’s comeback in 2016 which also brought Ukraine’s second victory.

The 2019 edition will be formed of three shows, two semi-finals on February 9 and 16 and a final on February 23. Ruslan Kvinta remains as the Producer of the show Vidbir 2019, while Sergey Pritula will host the competition. 

Concerns with the broadcasters resolved

Over a year ago, we reported that the Ukrainian broadcaster, UA:PBC, were having a hard time due to not being funded properly by the Ukrainian government. The EBU released a statement, describing their alarm and concern at the situation. Few weeks ago, the Ukrainian government had forced UA:PBC, the only EBU member station in Ukraine, to terminate analogue broadcasts. 
There were severe concerns in regards to Ukraine’s future participation in the contest due to severe amount of debt to the government. 
Luckily, this issue has now been solved: UA:PBC and STB have announced today that they have extended their Eurovision partnership for a further three years. The agreement sees STB organise the Ukrainian selection process Vidbir 2019, while UA:PBC covers the cost of the participation fee for the Eurovision Song Contest.

The head of STB commented

Three years ago, starting our cooperation with UA: FIRST, STB channel set a goal for itself – to create a mega-site, on which any professional performer will be able to express itself to the whole of Europe. And we succeeded, because in three years the National Selection stage opened up to the public a lot of new names, gave a good start to many young artists, and the selection itself became the main musical event of the year and attracted the attention of successful producers and singers. This is a very worthy result that we are justly proud of. Therefore, we want to continue our cooperation with UA: FIRST, concentrating on production and creating what STB is best at – large-scale event-based television projects, which is now the National Selection for Eurovision.

While the  Chairman of the Board of UA:PBC added:

Given the experience of previous years, we are happy to continue our cooperation with STB, because we are confident that Ukraine will be represented best: young artists will receive a rating platform, the audience will be pleased with the quality show, and the vote for the representative of Ukraine will be fair and open. As the youngest European Public Broadcaster, which is in a state of transformation and in conditions of 50% underfunding, we believe that our cooperation with the commercial channel of the Eurovision project is economically feasible: on our own, we now cannot ensure such high quality of the National selection as a commercial television channel

Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest

Ukraine has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 15 times since making its debut in 2003, winning twice. Ukraine’s first victory came in 2004 with “Wild Dances” by Ruslana. The 2005 contest was then held in the country’s capital, Kyiv. Its second victory at the 2016 contest with the song “1944” by Jamala, made Ukraine the first Eastern European country to win the contest twice. 
Ukraine has also finished on 2nd place twice, in 2007 with legendary Verka Serduchka and again in 2008 with Ani Lorak.

This year, Ukraine was represented by Melovin and the song “Under the Ladder” finishing in 17th place in the final in Lisbon.

What are you thoughts on this? Are you looking forward for Vidbir 2019?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and on social media @ESCXTRA