Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "", written by Roman Kalyn, Roman Kostyuk, and Mikola Kulinich, and performed by the duo GreenJolly. The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), organised a national final in order to select its entry for the contest. In addition, NTU was also the host broadcaster and staged the event at the Palace of Sports in Kyiv, after winning the with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana.
Seventy-five entries competed in the national selection which consisted of sixteen shows: fifteen semi-finals and a final. Nineteen entries qualified to compete in the final, held on 27 February 2005, where "" performed by GreenJolly was selected as the winner after gaining the most public televotes with 2,247 votes. The Ukrainian entry caused controversy due to governmental involvement in directly qualifying GreenJolly to the final of the national selection as a wildcard based on their participation in the Orange Revolution, and alleged political overtones of the song "Razom nas bahato". The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) cleared the song for the competition after changing the lyrics.
As the host country, Ukraine qualified to compete directly in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 16 during the final, Ukraine placed nineteenth out of the 24 participating countries with 30 points.
Background
Prior to the 2005 contest, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Ukraine two times since its first entry in , winning it in with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Its least successful result had been 14th place, which they achieved in , with the song "" performed by Oleksandr Ponomaryov.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, NTU organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. NTU confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2005 contest on 29 April 2004. The broadcaster had used internal selections in order to select its 2003 and 2004 entries. Along with their participation confirmation, it was announced that NTU would organise a national final for the first time to select its 2005 entry.
Before Eurovision
The Ukrainian national final consisted of fifteen semi-finals held between 14 November 2004 and 20 February 2005 and a final on 27 February 2005. All shows in the competition took place at the NTU Studios in Kyiv, hosted by Maria Orlova and broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi.
Format The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition. Seventy-five acts were selected and announced on 12 October 2004. The second stage consisted of the televised semi-finals which took place between 14 November 2004 and 20 February 2005 with five acts competing in each show. The winner of each semi-final was selected to advance based on a public televote. The third stage was the final, which took place on 27 February 2005 and featured the fifteen acts that qualified from the semi-finals vying to represent Ukraine in Kyiv as well as an additional four wildcard entries that directly qualified to the final. The winner was selected solely via a public televote. Viewers participating in the public televote during the sixteen live shows had the opportunity to submit their votes for the participating entries via telephone or SMS.
Competing entries Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 1 August 2004 and 20 September 2004, which was later extended to 8 October 2004. A seven-member selection panel consisting of Olena Mozgova (director of music and entertainment at NTU), Volodymyr Orlov (general director of OTV), Eduard Klim (general director of Lavina Music), Serhiy Kuzin (general director of HIT-FM), Oleg Vergelis (editor at the newspaper Kievskiye Vedomosti), Andriy Sokolovskyi (editor at the newspaper Komsomolska pravda v Ukrayini) and Oleksandr Ksenofontov (music producer) reviewed the 527 received submissions and shortlisted 75 entries to compete in the national final. On 12 October 2004, the 75 selected competing acts were announced. The seventy-five acts were allocated to one of fifteen semi-finals during a draw that took place on 3 November. The four wildcard finalists: De Shifer, GreenJolly, Mandry and Tartak, were announced on 24 February 2005.
Shows
Semi-finals The fifteen semi-finals took place between 14 November 2004 and 20 February 2005. The performances of the 75 entries were filmed earlier on 30 and 31 October 2004. In each semi-final five acts competed and the winner advanced to the final of the competition as determined by a public televote, while the remaining four entries were eliminated.
+ Semi-final 1 – 14 November 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Stand.Up "Vidlitay" (Відлітай) 30.70% 1 2 Vkhid u Zminnomu Vzutti "Dvirnyk" (Двірник) 18.62% 3 3 Alyona Omargaliyeva "Ty ne so mnoy" (Ты не со мной) 18.93% 2 4 Daryna Sumska "My z toboyu" (Ми з тобою) 17.74% 4 5 Anna Olga "Sudyat po glazam" (Судят по глазам) 14.01% 5
+ Semi-final 2 – 21 November 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Potap "Petya" (Петя) 12.79% 5 2 NeDilya "My Angel" 29.57% 1 3 Inesh "Troyanda" (Троянда) 27.49% 2 4 Kishe "Ty sama ne svoya" (Ты сама не своя) 15.20% 3 5 Maya "Karma" 14.95% 4
+ Semi-final 3 – 28 November 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Tayana "Ottay" (Оттай) 21.64% 1 2 Radio SSB "Play" 19.15% 5 3 Yulia Pryadko "Ty prosto yest' v moyey sud'be" (Ты просто есть в моей судьбе) 19.50% 3 4 Mykhailo Sanin "Ya vernus" (Я вернусь) 19.26% 4 5 Yulia Zabrodska "Na Ivana, na Kupala" (На Івана, на Купала) 20.45% 2
+ Semi-final 4 – 5 December 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Ex-Presidenti "Nochnoy gorod" (Ночной город) 26.04% 1 2 Natasha Radko "Sexy Girl" 13.18% 5 3 Lesya Gorova "Malenka ptashka" (Маленька пташка) 20.03% 3 4 Olga Heka "Love Triangle" 16.38% 4 5 Fedor "Chto v imeni tvoyem" (Что в имени твоем) 24.37% 2
+ Semi-final 5 – 12 December 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Yurcash "Patriot" 25.13% 1 2 Kalich "Apelsinoviy ranok" (Апельсиновий ранок) 17.52% 4 3 Anita Gezo "Polechu" (Полечу) 20.05% 3 4 Alina Starodumova "Groza" (Гроза) 20.13% 2 5 Via Harli "Shlyah" (Шлях) 17.17% 5
+ Semi-final 6 – 19 December 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Ivanka Milay "Ty ne moy" (Ты не мой) 23.98% 2 2 SheOna "I Say" 15.76% 4 3 Khvylyu Trymay "Lito proyshlo" (Літо пройшло) 16.08% 3 4 Tiana Ravi "Pozavchora" (Позавчора) 28.71% 1 5 Katerina "Blues" 15.47% 5
+ Semi-final 7 – 26 December 2004 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Foxy "Zaberi menya" (Забери меня) 27.00% 1 2 Eliksyr "Ne toy buv den'" (Не той був день) 15.65% 5 3 Yulia Boday "Richka" (Річка) 21.23% 2 4 Kapinos "Koshka" (Кошка) 17.24% 4 5 Igor Balan "Storm" 18.88% 3
+ Semi-final 8 – 2 January 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Yulia Klim "Spogad" (Спогад) 15.36% 3 2 Viktor Pavlik "Svit za viknom" (Світ за вікном) 30.79% 1 3 Pomaranch "Ochi" (Очі) 15.05% 4 4 Marina Kuzmina "Yamayka" (Ямайка) 14.85% 5 5 Olenka "Ya tobi ne viru" (Я тобі не віру) 23.95% 2
+ Semi-final 9 – 9 January 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Zoryana Skirko "Nebo" (Небо) 16.13% 3 2 Arthur Kulpovych "Pour toi" 14.40% 5 3 Iryna Fedyshyn "Zironka" (Зіронька) 24.37% 2 4 Protivogaz "Pup" (Пуп) 14.98% 4 5 Serhiy Gavrilov "Paperoviy choven" (Паперовий човен) 30.12% 1
+ Semi-final 10 – 16 January 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Daleko "Znaky pitannya" (Знаки питання) 27.11% 1 2 Konstantin Pona "My Crazy World" 16.37% 5 3 Boris Glibov "Yunaya vesna" (Юная весна) 21.49% 2 4 A-ERA "Vse resheno" (Все решено) 18.34% 3 5 Gyndul Mytsei "La chokana" 16.69% 4
+ Semi-final 11 – 23 January 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Ani Lorak "A Little Shot of Love" 31.18% 1 2 Orkestr Yanky Kozyr "Ya ne budu kavu pyla" (Я не буду каву пила) 15.97% 4 3 Kenzano "Osen" (Осень) 15.35% 5 4 Oleksandr Nikoryak "Snega" (Снега) 20.10% 2 5 Olena Synchuk "Ne obeshay" (Не обещай) 17.40% 3
+ Semi-final 12 – 30 January 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Talita Kum "Lovy mene" (Лови мене) 29.61% 1 2 Alina Gornostaeva "Namysto" (Намисто) 13.29% 5 3 Nazar Savko and Iryna Fedyshyn "Ne dlya tebe" (Не для тебе) 23.51% 2 4 The Best "Vse devchoki" (Все девчоки) 13.74% 4 5 Iryna Yaryna "Pisnya kohannya" (Пісня кохання) 19.85% 3
+ Semi-final 13 – 6 February 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Roman Polonsky feat. Sotger "You Are for Me Like a Star" 21.17% 2 2 Katya Popova "Luna" (Луна) 16.78% 4 3 Marina Lavryshcheva "Divchyna-lito" (Дівчина-літо) 13.83% 5 4 Lourdes "Veter" (Ветер) 27.43% 1 5 Mandarinoviy Ray "Namysto" (Намисто) 20.79% 3
+ Semi-final 14 – 13 February 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Yulia Korzhynska "Freedom" 27.42% 1 2 Oksana Rudyk "Zironka" (Зіронька) 22.06% 2 3 Artem "Oy..." (Ой...) 15.12% 5 4 Veronika "Prosti" (Прости) 16.13% 4 5 Emotions "Angels" 19.27% 3
+ Semi-final 15 – 20 February 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Tetyana Liberman "Mozhet byt da" (Может быть да) 19.87% 4 2 Igor Kruglov "Macho-piligrim" (Мачо-пилигрим) 14.35% 5 3 Nota-Neo "Poyikhala baba v lis" (Поїхала баба в ліс) 21.30% 2 4 Volya "Zemlya rodnaya" (Земля родная) 24.35% 1 5 Alevtina Leontyeva "Solnyshko" (Солнышко) 20.13% 3
Final The final took place on 27 February 2005. The show was scheduled to take place at the Palace of Sports in Kyiv, however such plans were cancelled due to insufficient funding. The fifteen entries that qualified from the semi-finals and the four wildcard finalists competed, with NeDilya, Sergei Gavrilov and Viktor Pavlik performing their entries in a different language than in the semi-finals. The winner, "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly, was selected exclusively through a public televote. 6,378 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, guests included Yulia Zabrodska, Fedor, Deema, Yulia Boday and 2005 Belarusian Eurovision entrant Angelica Agurbash performing the 2005 Belarusian entry "Boys and Girls".
+ Final – 27 February 2005 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Stand.Up "Vidlitay" (Відлітай) 139 8 2 NeDilya "Bezmezhniy svit" (Безмежний світ) 54 13 3 Tayana "Ottay" (Оттай) 19 17 4 Mandry "Doroha" (Дорога) 142 7 5 Ex-Presidenti "Nochnoy gorod" (Ночной город) 41 14 6 Yurcash "Patriot" 342 3 7 Tiana Ravi "Pozavchora" (Позавчора) 19 17 8 De Shifer "Chas priyshov" (Час прийшов) 341 6 9 Foxy "Zaberi menya" (Забери меня) 23 15 10 Viktor Pavlik "I Never Loved You" 60 12 11 Serhiy Gavrilov "Korabli" (Кораблі) 15 19 12 Tartak "Nashe lito" (Наше літо) 342 3 13 Daleko "Znaky pitannya" (Знаки питання) 110 9 14 Ani Lorak "A Little Shot of Love" 1,952 2 15 Talita Kum "Lovy mene" (Лови мене) 105 10 16 Lourdes "Veter" (Ветер) 23 15 17 Yulia Korzhynska "Freedom" 62 11 18 Volya "Zemlya rodnaya" (Земля родная) 342 3 19 GreenJolly "Razom nas bahato" (Разом нас багато) 2,247 1
Controversy Accusations of rigging