Ukraine: Liveblog of the second semi

Kiev is calling! After a one year break, Ukraine is back in the Eurovision Song Contest. Which act will Ukraine send to Stockholm? Tonight, the second semi-final will take place at the STB Studios.  

The winner will be selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury consisting of Konstantin Meladze, Ruslana and Andriy Danylko. The top three entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury will advance to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries will be eliminated. All shows in the competition will be hosted by Dmytro Tankovich and Oleksandr Pedan. The final will take place on 21 February 2016.

The second semi-final starts tonight at 18:00 CET and will be broadcasted live on UA:PershyiSTB or Youtube.

The show has ended, the liveblog too – you can read back our comments below!

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22:05 – The decision has been made. SunSay won the first semi-final. Nuangels and Pur:Pur also go to the finals. Thank you so much for following the second semi-final of Ukraine with us this year. We hope you’ve enjoyed the show (and commentary) and we’ll see you next week for the final!

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22:00 – And the final results!

Results

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21:46 – Another commercial break.

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21:45 – The jury chose the following:

SunSay – Love Manifest (9 points)
Pur:Pur – We Do Change (8 points)
NeAngely (Nuangels) – Higher (7 points)
ALLOISE – Crown (6 points)
Pringlez – Easy To Love (5 points)
Arkadij Vojtjuk – Vse V Tobi (4 points)
Peaks of Kings – Last Hope (3 points)
Victoria Petryk – Overload (2 points)
Japanda – Anime (1 point)

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21:36 – Barei is a fan of Verka Serduchka and wants a picture with judge Andriy Danylko.

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21:35 – Spanish singer Barei performs during this Ukrainian semi-final. She will represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song Say Yay!.  It is the first ever Spanish Eurovision entry that features no Spanish lyrics. The song was released as a digital download on 25 January 2016, reaching number-one on Spanish iTunes. What do you think of the Spanish entry? 

Barei

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21:30 – Here we go again! It’s time for the results.

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20:35 – BREAK! We are back in an hour.

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20:30 – And we’re done. Who is your favorite for tonight? Who’s going to the super final?

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20:15 – The last performance of tonight. SunSay brings a danceable song with a clear message: ‘Love, love, love is the only way!’. Love Manifest is a song that is sure to be heard on summer festivals. Just because it’s a bit like Sky and sand from electronic music producer Paul Kalkbrenner. The song is not only danceable, it is also well sung by the lead singer. In summary: good vocals, a rousing beat and a summer night feeling. Striking detail: on YouTube, you can see several performances of the song released before the 1st of September 2015. What does the organization think about that? The jury and the public are certainly very excited about the performance of SunSay.

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20:05 – Song number eight. The Pringlez are performing an electronic pop song. The band’s song Easy To Love is about love at first glance and sounds very modern. This is a great song for in the club, because it swings the full three minutes. The singer is accompanied by five members of the band and the staging is very beautiful: many colors and it looks like a temple appears on the background.

The PRINGLEZ

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19:50 – Act number seven. Viktoria Petryk is a singer who represented Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008, held in Limassol, Cyprus. She finished in second place. Petryk was also a finalist in the Ukrainian national selection to find the Ukrainian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 and came second again. Tonight, she is participating with the song Overload. The song starts with a typical Spanish guitar tune making it sound like a delicious summer song. The bridge is typical Ukraine at Eurovision – it reminds a bit of Ani Lorak – but most of all: this song is perfect for holidays in Southern Europe. It sounds like summer and encourages dancing. ‘Everywhere I go you’re on my mind. Everywhere I see you I go blind. Standing at a crossroad. My heart is bowed. My heart’s on overload.’ She sings well, but stands alone on stage and that does not fit with this number. There is no act at all, so there is some work to do. Jury member Andriy Danylko is clearly not a fan of this performance.

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19:45 – We are back and are ready for the last three numbers.

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19:35 – To be honest, the quality is very high in Ukraine. Now it’s time for a commercial break. See you in a bit!

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19:25 – Forget Limp Bizkit, because Ukraine will introduce you the band Peaks of Kings. All members of the band have long hair and one of the guitarists took the Swedish flag. The band brings melancholic hard rock to the stage and do it with full commitment. Their song Last Hope contains a lot of screaming guitars and what we will hear tonight, we have not often heard at Eurovision. What is the song about? It is about human feelings, about love between a female and a male. I’m very curious about what this song is going to do in this Ukrainian semi-final.

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19:10 – The fifht song We do change is a combination of synth, pop and acoustic. Pur:Pur is singing about the inner changes which every person can experience. ‘Look carefully into my eyes, cause we do, we do change. Look carefully into my eyes. And you will see, my tears are the drops of the rain.’ Another message from this mystic and relaxing song: good always conquers evil. The voice of the singer cannot be compared with anyone else’s and that can be interpreted as a compliment. The singer has a special crown on her head and wearing a white dress. I like this song!

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19:00 – It’s time for act number four: Nuangels. They are singing the contemporary pop song Higher which is obviously inspired by Naughty Boy and Beyoncé’s Runnin’ (Lose It All). The vocals play perfectly against the rushing and atmospheric production and with some good visuals, this could be an interesting contender at Eurovision. The song is about the future of Ukraine. The manager of Nuangels on Facebook: ‘I believe we should look forward for ways to resolve the problems and to find this ways we have to be courageous, stay strong – be higher!’ The singers are dressed in black and were assisted by four background singers.

Nuangels also attempted to represent Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with their song Courageous. They tied for fifth place in the Ukrainian national selection with two other competitors, earning fourth place from the jury and sixth place from the televoting.

NuAngels

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18:45 – And.. we are back! The third act of tonight is Japanda – a trio consisting of the sisters Ksenia and Alina Kosmos and Daria Karkhanova. Tonight, the band performs j-pop, Japanese pop music. The song Anime sounds very modern and, yes, this is something we have never seen at Eurovision. On stage, the group is supported by a big panda bear and two breakdancers. The singers are dressed as manga characters. 

Japanade

Japanade 2

All pictures are screenshots from the Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU). All footage belongs to them.

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18:35 – And the first commercial break for tonight!

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18:25 – The second candidate for tonight is Alloise. She is singing a solid rock song named Crown. She is wearing a very short black dress and halfway there comes a dancer on stage. You feel the anger when Alloise sings the words. ‘She’s just a bad copy of me. She even dyes her hair blonde. She sticks around talking old wives’ tales about me while I just keep singing my song.’ On YouTube, the clip of the song is already viewed quite often. Whether that says something will be shown tonight. It is energetic, uncompromising with the power of fight.

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18:13 – The first candidate for tonight is Vse v tobi sung by Arkadiy Voytyuk. In 2011 Arkadiy was one of the finalists in the TV talent show X-Factor. In the same year he released his first single. Tonight, Arkadiy is singing a catchy country song. He wears a hat and plays guitar. On the stage, he is accompanied by five men who each play an instrument. The audience claps to the rhythm the entire song and seems very enthusiastic. 

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18:10 – Now, the judges are speaking and looking forward to the evening.

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18:05 – The candidates are briefly presented.

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18:00 – Good evening, we have started!

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17:55 – These artists will perform during the second semi-final on the 13th of February:

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17:30 – In about half an hour, the second semi-final will start.