Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Gravity", written by Karen Kavaleryan and Mikhail Nekrasov, and performed by Zlata Ognevich. The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), organised a national final in order to select its entry for the contest. Nineteen entries competed in the national selection held on 23 December 2012 and "Gravity" performed by Zlata Ognevich was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a five-member jury panel and a public televote.
Ukraine was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2013. Performing during the show in position 7, "Gravity" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 18 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed third out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 140 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 22 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries with 213 points.
Background
Prior to the 2013 contest, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Ukraine ten times since its first entry , winning the contest with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, 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 2013 contest on 24 September 2012. In the past, the broadcaster had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select its entry. Between 2011 and 2012, NTU had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. The method was continued to select the 2013 entry.
Before Eurovision Yevrobachennia 2013Natsionalnyi vidbir NTU held the Ukrainian national final on 23 December 2012 at its studios in Kyiv. The show was hosted by Timur Myroshnychenko, Tatyana Goncharova and Tetiana Terekhova and broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi as well as online via NTU's official website 1tv.com.ua and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.
Format The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over two stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition by attending a scheduled audition. Twenty acts were selected and announced on 21 December 2012. The second stage was the televised final, which took place on 23 December 2012 and featured the twenty acts vying to represent Ukraine in Malmö. 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 20 (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 show had the opportunity to submit a single vote per phone number for each of the participating entries via 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 1 October 2012 and 21 December 2012. Auditions were held on 21 December 2012 at the NTU Headquarters in Kyiv where a seven-member selection panel reviewed the 52 received submissions and shortlisted twenty entries to compete in the national final. Artist SongSongwriter(s) Alina Grosu "Let Go"Alina Grosu Ana Stesia "Dare to Change Your Life"Artem Kuzmenkov AngeliyA "Love Is Life"AngeliyA Dasha Medova "Don't Want to Be Alone"Oleksandr Shvets, Yevhen Matiushenko Dima Skalozubov "Davno" Dima Skalozubov DiO.filmy "Medlyak" Yurii Melnyk, Oleh Voronovych, Volodymyr Hudkov, Vadym Oliinyk Dmytro Yaremchuk "Mama" Nazarii Yaremchuk jr. Duet Emotion "Saviour"Milos Rosas Eduard Romanyuta "Get Real With My Heart"Emanuel Olsson Hvozdivchanka "Naletily huseniata" Traditional Inesh "Delayu shag" A. Shell, Inesh Kdyrova Olena Kornieieva "You'll Be the Winner Forever"Olena Kornieieva, Nina Katolina Marietta "Wonder"Dmytro Sydorov, Natali Dali Mariya Yaremchuk "Imagine"Mariya Yaremchuk Matvey Vermiyenko "Otkryvay menya" Matvey Vermiyenko Oksana Pekun and Maksym Novytskyi "Zelenyi dubochok" Maksym Novitskyi Real Ivanna "You Gave Me Everything"Real Ivanna Tetiana Shyrko "Feeling Like a Sir"Yuliia Slobodyan, Evhenii Matiushenko Triniti "Belym po belomu" Astraya Zlata Ognevich "Gravity"Karen Kavaleryan, Mykhailo Nekrasov
Final The final took place on 23 December 2012. During the show, Oksana Pekun and Maxim Novitskiy announced their withdrawal following their performance. The remaining nineteen entries competed and the winner, "Gravity" performed by Zlata Ognevich, 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 consisted of Egor Benkendorf (President of NTU), Walid Arfush (producer), Olena Mozgovaya (music producer), Yuriy Rybchynsky (poet) and Olga Navrotska (stylist and designer). 14,612 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest winner Anastasiya Petryk, Gvozdivchanka, Matias, Oleg Vynnyk, Pavel Sokolov, Shanis and Tetyana Vorzheva performed as guests.
+ Final – 23 December 2012 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 Oksana Pekun and Maksym Novytskyi "Zelenyi dubochok" — 23 — — — 2 Mariya Yaremchuk "Imagine" 16 260 14 30 5 3 Marietta "Wonder" 9 87 5 14 15 4 Dmytro Yaremchuk "Mama" 11 533 17 28 7 5 Inesh "Delayu shag" 10 133 8 18 13 6 Zlata Ognevich "Gravity" 20 8,639 20 40 1 7 Duet Emotion "Saviour" 15 162 10 25 10 8 Hvozdivchanka "Naletily huseniata" 11 208 11 22 12 9 Real Ivanna "You Gave Me Everything" 14 247 13 27 8 10 Tetiana Shyrko "Feeling Like a Sir" 17 365 15 32 4 11 Triniti "Belym po belomu" 8 108 6 14 15 12 Ana Stesia "Dare to Change Your Life" 9 127 7 16 14 13 Alina Grosu "Let Go" 13 387 16 29 6 14 Dasha Medova "Don't Want to Be Alone" 19 905 18 37 2 15 Olena Kornieieva "You'll Be the Winner Forever" 13 240 12 25 10 16 AngeliyA "Love Is Life" 8 81 4 12 18 17 Eduard Romanyuta "Get Real With My Heart" 14 1,847 19 33 3 18 Matvey Vermiyenko "Otkryvay menya" 7 70 3 10 19 19 DiO.filmy "Medlyak" 18 141 9 27 8 20 Dima Skalozubov "Davno" 12 49 2 14 15 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total Points 1 "Zelenyi dubochok" — — — — — — — 2 "Imagine" 10 7 9 8 6 40 16 3 "Wonder" 7 6 7 6 2 26 9 4 "Mama" 10 6 5 6 2 29 11 5 "Delayu shag" 10 4 5 6 2 27 10 6 "Gravity" 10 10 10 10 10 50 20 7 "Saviour" 10 7 8 7 7 39 15 8 "Naletily huseniata" 7 7 5 5 5 29 11 9 "You Gave Me Everything" 9 7 7 7 6 36 14 10 "Feeling Like a Sir" 10 6 10 10 7 43 17 11 "Belym po belomu" 7 7 7 2 2 25 8 12 "Dare to Change Your Life" 7 5 7 4 3 26 9 13 "Let Go" 8 7 7 8 5 35 13 14 "Don't Want to Be Alone" 10 9 10 9 9 47 19 15 "You'll Be the Winner Forever" 6 7 8 7 7 35 13 16 "Love Is Life" 6 1 7 6 5 25 8 17 "Get Real With My Heart" 10 7 7 7 5 36 14 18 "Otkryvay menya" 6 2 6 1 2 17 7 19 "Medlyak" 10 9 9 8 8 44 18 20 "Davno" 6 6 7 8 4 31 12
Preparation Following Zlata Ognevich's victory at the Ukrainian national final, it was revealed that "Gravity" would undergo a revamp for the Eurovision Song Contest. On 27 January 2013, the composer of the song Mikhail Nekrasov opened a survey on the social network VK in order to gauge public opinion about possible changes including adding another refrain, increasing the tempo of the song (originally at 85BPM), possibly changing the backing vocalists and making modifications to the beginning and end of the song. On 6 February, the survey had come to a close with the following decisions being taken under consideration by the producers:
35% believe the ending is strong as it is with 25% advising that it should be performed higher and louder. 40% believe 85BPM is optimal with 24% advising an increase to 87-88BPM. 41% believe the lyrics that the backing vocalists sing "You'll never, you'll never break free from gravity" are adequate with 40% advising that Ognevich should also sing these lines. 60% believe a third refrain is required with 45% advising that the third refrain should need more development. 69% of voters believe the beginning has to be more powerful. 86% believe the current backing vocalists should not be changed with 46% believing their vocals should be more simplified so they do not overshadow Ognevich.
Nekrasov revealed that the song's main focus would remain on the instrumental, but that certain modifications have already started to take form such as changes in the backing vocals and the addition of new sounds to the instrumental. On 11 March, the revamped version of "Gravity" was presented to the public together with the official music video on YouTube. In an interview with Novyi Kanal, Ognevich revealed that they have received over 300 ideas for the music video of the song from a competition they opened invited fans to submit their concepts and that Angela Lisitsa would be responsible for designing the outfit for her Eurovision performance.
Promotion Zlata Ognevich made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Gravity" as the Ukrainian Eurovision entry. On 4 April, Ognevich was a guest of the AITF 2013 event which was held in Baku, Azerbaijan. On 13 April, Ognevich performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Marlayne and Linda Wagenmakers.
At Eurovision According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 17 January 2013, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Ukraine was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2013, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2013 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Ukraine was set to perform in position 7, following the entry from Russia and before the entry from the Netherlands.
In Ukraine, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi with commentary by Timur Miroshnychenko and Tetiana Terekhova. The three shows were also broadcast via radio on UR-1 with commentary by Olena Zelinchenko. The Ukrainian spokesperson, who announced the Ukrainian votes during the final, was Oleksiy Matias.