Introducing the 2009 entries: Ukraine

All entries in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest are known, but the actual contest is still five weeks away. As a warm-up, we introduce one of the entries every day in random order. Part twenty-three is dedicated to the entry from Ukraine.

Basic information

The song

Be my Valentine (Anti-crisis girl) is an up-tempo dance pop song. Through the lyrics she sings someone else's praise and hopes that this person becomes her Valentine:

I'll call you on the phone
You speak in monotone
Don't wanna be alone
Because I'm crazy

Baby
Baby you're so fine
Be my
Be my valentine

The singer

Svetlana Loboda attended a music school when she was a teenager and shegraduated as a jazz singer and conductor. At that time, she founded her first band Cappuccino, which managed to obtain a record contract. She left the band in 2002 and performed as a soloist in Ukraine under the name Alisiya Gorn.After shehad performed in a musical for a while, she founded the music project Ketch. In 2004, she successfully took part in an audition for the replacement of one of the members of the girl group VIA Gra (known as Nu Virgos outside the country). However, she left the band again shortly after.

After some cntroversy caused by her criticism regarding the record company, she kicked off her solo career in 2004 and founded her own production company with Alexander Shirkov. Following the release of her first single Ч��но-бела� зимаshe went on tour through Ukraine and Russia. Since then, she has released four albums in Ukrainian and the album F*ck the Macho (which is also the name of her fashion line) in English, which was a re-release of her latest UkrainianCD.

In 2009, she entered the Ukrainian national selection for theEurovision Song Contest with her own composition Be my Valentine. She won the national final and the song has entered the Ukrainian charts at number33.

The national selection

For the fifth year in a row, Ukraine chose a different system to select singer and song for the Eurovision Song Contest. An internal semi final, which was later broadcast on television, was held with 31 participants. 14 of them qualified for the national final, where the winner was chosen by a mix of jury voting and televoting. Svetlana Loboda was the favourite of both getting the maximum of 28 points.

Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest

Ukraine joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003. Despite a mediocre debut and a poor result on homeground in 2005, the country won the contest once, finished second twice and another time in the top ten making it one of the most successful countries in recent years.

Ук�а н� Св �лан �обода бажа мо бага�о �а��� �а га�ни� �ез�л��а� в в �о�кв!

Videos

Live in the national final:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcZK24ueAV0&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0

The preview video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks0A8deGErU&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0

The 2004 debut single:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsGQE0kPIms&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0

Other parts of this series

1. France
2. Portugal
3. Romania
4. Denmark
5. Netherlands
6. Cyprus
7. Latvia
8. Ireland
9. Malta
10. Armenia
11. Germany
12. Serbia
13. Belgium
14. Greece
15. Croatia
16. Poland
17. Czech Republic
18. Iceland
19. Moldova
20. Switzerland
21. Slovenia
22. Andorra

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Spanish entry.

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