Let’s travel to Ukraine, where everything is set to start searching for Mélovin’s Eurovision successor and – why not? – their third Eurovision winner. The former Soviet country is going to hold another edition of their national selection process, Vidbir, with a total of 16 participating entries!

The 16 acts that will compete onstage, in the hope of the Ukrainian representation in Tel Aviv, were divided into two semi-final shows and only the best of them will advance to the final round, this taking place on 23 February.

Tonight’s competing acts are:

1. The Hypnotunez – Hey!
2. Letay – Myla moya
3. Vera Kekelia – Wow!
4. TseShow – Hate!
5. Yuko – Galyna guliala
6. Maruv – Siren song
7. Brunettes Shoot Blondes – Houston
8. Bahroma – Nazavzhdy-Navsegda

Maruv gained a place in tonight’s semi-final, after Tayanna withdrew her candidancy from this year’s competition a couple of weeks ago.

Only 3 acts will go through to the final from each semi-final, thus bringing the total number of finalists to 6. Tonight’s result will be decided both by the public and a 3-member expert jury, this consisting once again of:

• Jamala, Eurovision 2016 winner
• Andrey Danilko (aka Verka Serduchka), Eurovision 2007 runner-up
• Yevhen Filatov (The Maneken) – singer and producer, creator of ONUKA band

How to watch

Vidbir 2018 airs from 18:00 CET (19:00 local time) via the following channels:

• UA:First
• STB
• Live webcast via the official STB YouTube channel

Ukraine at Eurovision

Ukraine entered the Eurovision house in 2003 and was meant to meet the victory the following year, when Ruslana came 1st in Istanbul with her Wild dances. Ukraine’s fortunes in our beloved contest have been quite successful in general and since last year, it has been the only country to have never been eliminated in the semi-finals.

The nation’s second victory came true in 2016, with Jamala singing 1994 in Stockholm, a song with historical content from the World War II. Last year, Ukraine was represented by the young singer Melovin, who finished 17th in the Grand Final with the eccentric performance of his ballad Under the ladder.

Ukraine is going to compete in the second half of the first semi-final on 14 May.