Ukraine: 24 acts to compete in National Final

All the attention has been on Kyiv as the host nation, but now the attention is on who will represent the host nation Ukraine on home ground. The Ukranian broadcaster, NTU (in collaboration with STB) have announced the 24 acts which will perform as part of the national final.

The national selection has three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply online, or by attending an audition. The acts also had the opportunity to apply for the online wildcard selection, where the winner of that would automatically enter the televised finals. This stage is now complete, and the second stage will begin in the coming weeks.

The second stage of the process will consist of three televised semi-finals in February, consisting of 24 acts in total. From each semi-final, two to three acts will be chosen to advance to the final based off jury and televote.

In the final stage of the national final process will be the final, held on the 25^th of February. This final will consist of the qualifying acts from the semi-finals. The winner will be determined once again by a combination of jury and televote. The jury consists of:

• Konstantin Meladze – Composer and Producer

• Jamala – singer-songwriter and winner of Eurovision 2016

• Andriy Danylko – comedian and singer, representative of Ukraine in 2007 as Verka Serduchka

Here is the complete list of competitors:

• Arsen Mirzoyan

• Mila Nitich

• Vitaly Kozlovsky

• AGHIAZMA

• Salto Nazad

• Green Grey

• ROZHDEN

• Vivienne Mort

• Payushchie Trusy

• Anastasia Prudius

• Tayanna

• Detach

• Torvald

• Illaria

• KADNAY

• Roma Veremeychik and group LUMIERE

• MamaRika

• Laliko

• Melovin

• Letay

• Panivalkova

• SKAY

• Monochromea

• Kuznetsov (winner of online vote)

Some of these competitors have participated in previous national finals, including Illaria, who participated in 2014 and achieved 5^th place, MamaRika as part of Stereo in 2010, Mila Nitich in 2011, Tayanna as part of Goryachiy Shokolad in 2009 an finally Vitaly Kozlovsky in 2010.

The first semi-final will take place on the 4^th of February, the second on the 11^th and the last semi-final on the 18^th, with the final taking place on the 25^th.