Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)", written by Evheniy Matyushenko and Svetlana Loboda, and performed by Loboda herself. The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), organised a national final in order to select its entry for the contest. The national selection consisted of a semi-final, held on 21 February 2009, and a final, held on 8 March 2009; thirty-one entries competed in the semi-final with the top fifteen advancing to the final. In the final, "Be My Valentine!" performed by Svetlana Loboda was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a seven-member jury panel and a public televote. The song was later retitled as "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)".
Ukraine was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 17, "Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)" was announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 16 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed sixth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 80 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 21 and placed twelfth out of the 25 participating countries with 76 points.
Background
Prior to the 2009 contest, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Ukraine six times since its first entry , winning the contest with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Ukraine had managed to qualify to final in every contest they participated in thus far. Ukraine had been the runner-up in the contest on two occasions: with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" performed by Verka Serduchka and with the song "Shady Lady" performed by Ani Lorak. Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, achieved , with the song "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly.
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. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2009 contest on 3 November 2008. In the past, NTU had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select its entry. Between 2005 and 2008, it had set up national finals to choose both or either the song and performer, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. The method was continued to select its 2009 entry.
Before Eurovision Yevrobachennia 2009Natsionalnyi vidbir The Ukrainian national final consisted of a semi-final held on 8 February 2009 and a final on 8 March 2009. Both shows were broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi as well as online via NTU's official website 1tv.com.ua.
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. Thirty-one acts were selected and announced on 28 January 2009. The second stage consisted of the televised semi-final which took place on 8 February 2009 with the thirty-one acts competing in the show. Fifteen acts were selected by an expert jury to advance from the semi-final. The third stage was the final, which took place on 8 March 2009 and featured the fifteen acts that qualified from the semi-finals vying to represent Ukraine in Moscow. The winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 15 (highest) and the entry that had the highest number of points following the combination of these scores was declared the winner. Viewers participating in the public televote during the final had the opportunity to submit their votes for the participating entries via telephone or SMS. In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the jury.
Competing entries Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 3 November 2008 and 16 January 2009. A six-member selection panel consisting of Vasyl Ilashchuk (President of NTU), Roman Nedzelskyi (First Vice President of NTU), Andriy Chernyuk (Vice President of NTU), Yevhen Kalensky (Vice President of NTU), Serhiy Lapchenko (chief editor of music and entertainment at NTU) and Oleh Pylypchuk (director of music and entertainment at NTU) reviewed the 58 received submissions and shortlisted thirty-one entries to compete in the national final. On 28 January 2009, the thirty-one selected competing acts were announced. On 8 February 2009, VV and Nikole withdrew from the national final and were replaced by Ira Poison and Tabu. Shows
Semi-final The semi-final took place on 21 February 2009 at the NTU Studios in Kyiv, hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko. The show later aired on 21 February 2009. In the semi-final thirty-one acts competed and the top fifteen entries determined by an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining sixteen entries were eliminated. The jury panel that voted during the semi-final consisted of Vasyl Ilashchuk (President of NTU), Roman Nedzelskyi (First Vice President of NTU), Oleksandr Ponomaryov (singer, represented Ukraine in 2003), Serhiy Kuzin (CEO of Russian Radio Ukraine), Andriy Yeromin (choreographer), Volodymyr Bebeshko (composer) and Taras Petrynenko (composer and singer).
+ Semi-final – 8 February 2009 Artist SongSongwriter(s) Result 1 Tori Joy "Smile" Viktoria Petryk, Andrey Tymoshchyk, N. Doncheva Qualified 2 Goryachiy Shokolad "Every Kiss" Dmitry Klimashenko, Tetyana Reshetnyak Qualified 3 Bagira "Sexy Mama" Iryna Bagley 4 Solomia "Not Perfect" Olena Karpenko 5 Tatyana Bryantseva "Sweet and Sugar Baby" Yaroslav Schogla, Iryna Mironova Qualified 6 Maya "Ty ne odin" () Maya Yanchishin 7 Andriy Knyaz "Ne ydy" () Andriy Furdychko 8 Zaklyopki "Time Is Up" Katya Komar, Sergiy Kabanets Qualified 9 Nazar Savko "Ty prosto slukhay" () Nazar Savko 10 Nazad Shlyahu Nemae "V ochah nebo" () Dmitry Mitusov, Denis Nazarov 11 Anastasia Prikhodko "Za tebe znov" () Anastasia Prikhodko 12 Natalia Volkova "Gush" Taras Panenko Qualified 13 Zoryana "Vklyuchayu Play" () Zoryana Skirko 14 4 Kings "Tearin' Up My Heart" Roman Polonskiy, Anna Rozina Qualified 15 Gala "Sly Lover" Gennadiy Krupnik, Maryna Kursanova 16 Svetlana Loboda "Be My Valentine" Evheniy Matyushenko, Svetlana Loboda Qualified 17 Inna Oliynik "I Don't Wanna Be Your Again" Inna Oliynik 18 Kishe "Midnight" Timofey Reshetko, Yevgeny Matyushenko Qualified 19 Ana "You're Like a Paradise" Anna Zotyeva Qualified 20 Eduard Romanyuta "Silence" Dmytro Tarasov, Oleksandra Malygina 21 Vesta Kameneva "My Devotion" Yevhen Kryvoshlyk, Yulia Goncharova, Vesta Kameneva 22 Inshiy Den "U loni sniv" () Volodymyr Omelchenko, Andriy Stukalo 23 Nikita "Beauty Saves the World" Roman Babenko, Jay B. Qualified 24 Aleksandr Panayotov "Superhero" Taras Demchuk, Natalya Safonova Qualified 25 Denis Barkanov "You Are My Love and Pain" Vyacheslav Batulin, Igor Kulik Qualified 26 Ira Poison "You Freed Me" Sergey Pavlov Qualified 27 Manya "Fayna Ukraina" () Alexandra Lushnikova 28 Tabu "You Are" Tetyana Bubliy, Cyrkel Maksym 29 Andriana "Oberezhno" () Hristyna Bazar, Andriana Ryabets 30 Godo "Zagadaymo bazhannya" () Pierpaolo Guerrini, David Mario Reyes, Yuriy Lukyanenko, Tatyana Ostrovskaya Qualified 31 Lenara Osmanova "Flash" Zera Kengigaeva, Elmara Mustafaeva Qualified
Final The final took place on 8 March 2009 at the National Palace of Arts, hosted by Maria Orlova and Timur Miroshnychenko. "Beauty Saves the World" performed by Nikita was withdrawn prior to the final due to contractual restrictions. The remaining fourteen entries that qualified from the semi-final competed and the winner, "Be My Valentine" performed by Svetlana Loboda, was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher scores from the jury. The jury panel that voted during the final consisted of Vasyl Ilashchuk (President of NTU), Roman Nedzelskyi (First Vice President of NTU), Yevhen Kalensky (Vice President of NTU), Oleksandr Ponomaryov (singer, represented Ukraine in 2003), Serhiy Kuzin (CEO of Russian Radio Ukraine), Volodymyr Bebeshko (composer) and Taras Petrynenko (composer and singer). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Irina Rosenfeld, Mika Newton, Nikita, Petr Elfimov (), Sasha Son (), Lidia Kopania (), Jade Ewen (), and Ruslana () performed as guests.
+ Final – 8 March 2009 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place 1 Lenara "Flash" 1 11 12 9 2 Goryachiy Shokolad "Kiss" 8 5 13 8 3 Tetyana Bryantseva "Sweet and Sugar Baby" 4 1 5 13 4 Denis Barkanov "You Are My Love and Pain" 7 12 19 5 5 Zaklyopki "Time Is Up" 13 9 22 2 6 Natalia Volkova "Gush" 10 6 16 7 7 4 Kings "Tearin' Up My Heart" 6 4 10 11 8 Ana "You're Like a Paradise" 2 2 4 14 9 Svetlana Loboda "Be My Valentine" 14 14 28 1 10 Godo "Zagadaymo bazhannya" 3 8 11 10 11 Nikita "Beauty Saves the World" — — — — 12 Aleksandr Panayotov "Superhero" 9 13 22 4 13 Ira Poison "You Freed Me" 12 10 22 3 14 Kishe "Midnight" 5 3 8 12 15 Tori Joy "Smile" 11 7 18 6
Controversy Following the semi-final of the Ukrainian national final, Anastasia Prikhodko and her manager Olena Mozgova claimed that neither the NTU nor the jury had used trustworthy methods to choose the finalists; jury member Roman Nedzelskyi previously admitted that they did not select Prikhodko for the final as a Russian version of "Za tebe znov" had already been performed during the talent show Fabrika Zvyozd, despite the competition rules not specifying that the song performed during the semi-final should also be performed in the final.http://www.1tv.com.ua/euro/euro2009/eurodoc/ Положення про Національний відбір "Євробачення-2009" Anastasia Prikhodko would later enter and win the Russian national final with the song "Mamo", representing Russia at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest and placing eleventh.
Preparation "Be My Valentine" was retitled as "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)" for the Eurovision Song Contest and featured new lyrics. The official music video, directed by Alan Badoev, was released on 16 March.
Promotion Svetlana Loboda made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)" as the Ukrainian Eurovision entry. On 17 April, Loboda performed during the UKeurovision Preview Party, which was held at the La Scala venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell. On 18 April, Loboda performed during the Eurovision Promo Concert, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Marga Bult and Maggie MacNeal.
At Eurovision