The Ukrainian national broadcasters NTU and STB have released the rules and regulations for the Eurovision host nation’s upcoming national selection, with the submission period for the selection opening today.

As was announced earlier this year in July, both NTU and STB will coordinate and organise the 2017 Ukrainian national selection for the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest, the same successful partnership which went on to bring Ukraine their second ever victory at the music competition with Jamala and her song, 1944.

There are 2 ways of applying to compete in the nation’s national selection; via direct application online or via auditioning in one of six cities around the country (Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lviv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kiev). Dates and times for city auditions will be revealed via the STB and NTU websites and will take place from the 6 November 2016 to the 15 January 2017.

From today (1 September) to the 1 October, artists will be able to submit their online applications via the STB website. Applications must include the artist’s name, address, age, phone number and photo as well as a video link of the act’s bidding song entry. Following compliance checks, profiles will be published online via STB where visitors can vote for their favourite, the winner then going on to compete in the semi-final stage.

Following auditions and online submissions, total of between 20 to 40 acts will be shortlisted from stage 1 of the selection who will then go on to compete in stage 2 in the city of Kiev; the semi-finals. A total of between 8-12 acts will compete in the semi-final stages of the selection with 2-3 winners being selected to move forward to the grand final. Both the semi-final and grand final stage of the selection will be broadcast via NTU and STB in February 2017.

A full list of rules and regulations can be found via STB’s official website.

The 62nd Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted in Ukraine in either the city of Odessa or Kiev, with the eventual host city expected to be announced in due course following postponement. The preliminary dates for Eurovision 2017 are currently the 9, 11 and 13 May 2017.