By: eurovisionunion
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Ukraine Continues the Search for Their Home Town Act!

Choosing the home town act can be a challenge, as the nation has to live up to the standards set by the winner the year before. Ukraine has taken on this challenge with quite a cut-throat approach, as from each semi-final of which there are 3, only two acts qualify to the final out of eight. This means the final will feature 6 songs, hopefully the best of the best Ukraine has to offer.

Last night the second semi-final took place with eight new acts all fighting for one of those two spots available. Once again, the vote was a mixture of jury and televote. The jury this year is made up of last year’s winner Jamala, Konstantin Meladze and Andriy Danylko, the man behind Verka Serduchka.

Here are the eight acts:

  1. Letay – Svit Chekaye

  2. Mila Nytych – Mystery

  3. Kuznetsov – Deep Shivers

  4. Aghiazma – Synthetic Sun

  5. Detach – Distance

  6. Rozhden – Saturn

  7. Panivalkova – Dokuchayu

  8. Illaria – Thank You for My Way

Kuznetsov was actually the winner of the online wildcard competition which was open between September and the 10th of January. The public were able to cast their votes online, and the winner was meant to go directly to the final, however for whatever reason, they were put in the semi-final with the other acts. Although they won by a considerable margin in the online voting, it was the jury which pulled them down on the night.

Here are the two qualifiers:

The jury and televoters were much in agreeance about Illaria, with the jury giving the second highest score (7), while the televoters placed her at the top. The televoters then chose the wildcard Kuznetsov as their second best on the night, however with the jury giving them only 2 points, it put them out of the running. Rozhden was more popular with the juries than with the public, as the jury gave the song the highest number of points (8) while the public gave the performance 5 points. This was a high enough total to put them into the final.

These two will join Tayanna and Salto Nazad, as well as the two and final qualifiers from next week’s semi-final.