Despite a rather rocky relationship with the EBU as of late, Ukraine announced their participation for this year’s Junior Eurovision back in June. Following this was the news that UA:PBC have been searching for their artist for the contest. Now, the broadcaster has revealed more details about the process.
With just under a week to go until submissions close, UA:PBC have revealed the seven jurors who will be selecting Ukraine’s Junior Eurovision 2019 entrant. The line-up comprises of a mix of industry experts and representatives from the broadcaster. The jury line-up is as follows:
- Adam – Singer and composer
- Alyosha – Represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo
- Oksana Skibinskaya – Head of Delegation
- Oleksandr Koltsov – Singer and member of the UA:PBC board
- Oleksandr Stasov – Composer
- Stanislav Medvedev – Head of Entertainment at UA:PBC
- Tanya Sha – Singer and composer
Submitting an entry
If you are interested in submitting an entry, you can do so over at junior.eurovision.ua until August 8, 2019. In order to be eligible, you must:
- Be between the ages of 9 and 14
- Submit a live performance of the song, accompanied by a recorded instrumental soundtrack. However, there may not be backing vocals.
- Make sure the song does not exceed three minutes. Moreover, the song should not be commercially published or otherwise performed before May 1, 2019.
- Record a video answering two questions: “What is the victory for you?” and “What is Ukraine to you?”. Furthermore, you may talk about your family and hobbies as well.
Junior Eurovision 2019
This year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be held in the Gliwice Arena, Poland, on the 24th November 2019. It marks the first time Poland will host a music-based Eurovision event! Last year, Roksana Węgiel brought Poland its first Eurovision-adjacent win with “Anyone I Want To Be”.
The following nineteen countries have confirmed their participation:
- Albania
- Armenia
- Australia
- Belarus
- France
- Georgia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Kazakhstan
- Malta
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Serbia
- Spain
- Ukraine
- Wales
Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Ukraine debuted at Junior Eurovision in 2006, finishing 9th with Nazar Slyusarchuk’s “Khlopchyk Rock ‘n’ Roll”. They have participated in every contest since then, and are one of the best-performing countries overall.
They won the 2012 contest with “Nebo” by Anastasiya Petryk, whose sister Viktoria had come second at the 2008 contest. Although the winner of the junior contest doesn’t automatically host the following year, Ukraine hosted the 2009 edition. In fact, they have hosted the contest in Kiev’s Palace of Sports on two occasions now, in 2009 and then in 2013. This made them only the second country to host the Junior contest twice (after the Netherlands).
In July 2018, UA:PBC announced that they would not take part in the 2018 contest in Minsk due to financial difficulties. However, the following month, the EBU announced that Ukraine would indeed be participating. They finished in 4th place with Darina Krasnovetska’s “Say Love”.
Are you happy to see Ukraine back? Are you looking forward to hearing the entry the jury select? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates!
