O.Torvald will represent the home nation this year with their song Time. After 3 semi finals the winner was decided in the grand finale tonight (Saturday 25th February), by televotes and a jury.
Photo credits: UA:PBC
After a 50/50 split vote, O.Torvald emerged as the winner and will sing their song “Time”. The band represents the home nation this year at Eurovision in Kiev.
The national selection show has not been as turbulent as the run up to the main event in May. The filming of the national selection took place at The National Technical University of Ukraine. In their filming studio, which is bigger then the stage from the 2016 show. This showed that they are keen to improve on their standards.
| Artist and song | Jury Score | Televote Score | Total Score |
| Salto Nazad – O Mamo! | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Melovin – Wonder | 2 | 6 | 8 |
| O.Torvald – Time | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Illaria – Thank You For My Way | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Tayanna – I Love You | 6 | 4 | 10 |
| Rozhden – Saturn | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Illaria and Rozhden tied for 5th place on 5 points. Illaria finished 5th and Rozhden finished 4th, due to his higher televote score. There was also a tie for 1st place. O.Torvald and Tayanna both scored 10 points. Due to their higher televote score, O.Torvald won over all, and Tayanna placed 2nd.
Ukraine at Eurovision
The year 2016 saw Jamala bring a second victory to the Eastern European nation. Ruslana first won Eurovision for Ukraine in 2004, with her bilingual version of Wild Dances. In 2003, their debut year, Oleksandr Ponomaryov represented Ukraine with the song Hasta La Vista. Since then, Ukraine have managed to achieve nine top 10 placements (6 of those in the top 5. Their top 5 placements were in ’04, ’07, ’08, ’11, ’13 and ’15).
Controversies in Ukraine
Since Jamala won the title in Stockholm, the organisation of the 2017 contest has been overshadowed with many problems. Especially when in mid February, the executive producers, Victoria Romanova and Oleksandr Kherabin resigned from their posts. They stated that two of the main reasons behind their resignations was the failure of certain tender procedures, and the problems with the ticket sales. Jon Ola Sand is still confident that Eurovision will go ahead, with the first show due on Tuesday 9th May, despite all of the ongoing issues.