Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "", written by Adama Cefalu, , Viktoriia Leleka and , and performed by Leleka under her stage name Leléka. The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, , organised the national final 2026 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Background

Prior to the 2026 contest, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) until 2016, and since 2017, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Ukraine 20 times since NTU's first entry . It had won the contest on three occasions: with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana, with "1944" by Jamala, and with the song "Stefania" performed by Kalush Orchestra. It 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. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Ukraine had managed to qualify to final in every contest it participated in thus far. Its least successful result had been 24th place, which was achieved with the song "Time" performed by O.Torvald. In , "Bird of Pray" performed by Ziferblat placed ninth.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2026 contest on 25 August 2025. In the past, the broadcaster had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select its entry. Between 2022 and 2024, had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. The method is expected to be continued to select its 2026 entry.

Before Eurovision

Vidbir 2026 2026 was the tenth edition of , the national final to select the Ukrainian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The competition took place on 7 February 2026.

Format The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry will take place over three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition through an online submission form. 15 acts were longlisted and announced on 24 November 2025. The second stage involved the longlisted artists attending a scheduled audition, during which nine acts were selected and announced on 3 December 2025. An additional act was selected from an online selection via the mobile application. The third stage is the final, which took place on 7 February 2026 and featured the ten acts vying to represent Ukraine in Vienna, with the results based on the 50/50 combination of votes from the public (via ) and a five-member jury panel (a larger one than in previous editions), with each juror assessing a different aspect of the performances while formulating their scores.

The jury panel that voted during the show consisted of: Ruslana – singer, winner of the 2004 contest Zlata Ognevich – singer-songwriter, represented Ukraine in 2013 – singer and composer – general producer of TAVR Media Radio Holding – choreographer

Competing entries Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries via an online submission form which accepted entries between 3 September 2025 and 27 October 2025. Only artists that had not performed in events organized by/located in the territory of "the aggressor state" or illegally entered the territories of Crimea since 15 March 2014 and Belarus since 24 February 2022, respectively, were allowed to apply for the competition, and songs performed in the "language of the aggressor state" were prohibited. Jamala, who won the , was assigned as the new music producer of the competition and was the lead in reviewing the 451 received submissions. 15 entries were longlisted, of which their artists were announced on 24 November 2025. Auditions were held on 26 November 2025 where nine entries were shortlisted to compete in the national final. On 3 December 2025, the nine selected competing acts were announced. The online selection, featuring the six non-qualifying entries from the auditions, was held between 8 and 13 January 2026. The winner, Khayat, was announced on 13 January.

Among the competing artists were Monokate, who had represented as part of Go_A, and Jerry Heil, who had represented alongside Alyona Alyona. Olena Usenko, a member of the Elliens, had represented . + Anstay Jerry Heil

Khayat

Leléka Marta Adamchuk Molodi Mon Fia Monokate Mr. Vel

ShchukaRybа The Elliens Valeriya Force +Online wildcard13 January 2026ArtistSongSongwriter(s)VotesPlace 1 Khayat "" 91,7581 2 Karyotype "DNA" Danylo Kuka36,3544 3 Mon Fia "Do You Hear Me?" 49,0042 4 Anstay "By the Way" 29,9296 5 Marta Adamchuk "Silvered Pines" 43,4943 6 Oks "Say It All" 32,6215

+ 2026 participating entriesArtistSongSongwriter(s)Jerry Heil " (Prayer)" Khayat "" Laud "Lightkeeper" Leléka "" Molodi "Legends" Monokate "" Mr. Vel "Do or Done" ShchukaRybа "" The Elliens "Crawling Whispers" Valeriya Force "Open Our Hearts"

Final The final took place on 7 February 2026. In addition to the competing entries, guest performers included former Ukrainian Eurovision entrants Ziferblat (), Zlata Ognevich (), Tvorchi (), and Jamala, as well as Satoshi, who would represent , and Svitlana Tarabarova with three former Ukrainian Junior Eurovision participants: Anastasia Dymyd (), Artem Kotenko (), and Sofiia Nersesian (). +Final7 February 2026 Artist Song Jury Public vote Total Place SMSTotal Points 1 Valeriya Force "Open Our Hearts" 4 7,928 643 8,571 2 6 9 2 Molodi "Legends" 2 12,400 1,115 13,515 4 6 8 3 Monokate "" 6 11,963 939 12,902 3 9 6 4 The Elliens "Crawling Whispers" 1 14,363 1,640 16,003 5 6 7 5 Laud "Lightkeeper" 9 35,189 2,674 37,863 9 18 2 6 Leléka "" 10 54,830 5,220 60,050 10 20 1 7 Mr. Vel "Do or Done" 7 15,809 1,713 17,522 6 13 4 8 Khayat "" 5 17,144 1,863 19,007 7 12 5 9 Jerry Heil " (Prayer)" 8 33,034 2,687 35,721 8 16 3 10 ShchukaRybа "" 3 5,731 715 6,446 1 4 10 At Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 took place at the in Vienna, Austria, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country performed in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. Ukraine was scheduled for the second half of the second semi-final.

Voting

Points awarded to Ukraine

+ Points awarded to Ukraine (Semi-final 2) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded to Ukraine (Final) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Ukraine

+ Points awarded by Ukraine (Semi-final 2) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Ukraine (Final) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Detailed voting results Each participating broadcaster assembles a seven-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent and two of which have to be between 18 and 25 years old. Each jury, and individual jury member, is required to meet a strict set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. No member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

The following members comprised the Ukrainian jury: Ihor Kyrylenko Valentyn Leshchynskyi (represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 as part of Ziferblat) Valerii Kharchyshyn Yevhen Kot Hanna Svyrydovych Solomiia Opryshko Viktoriia Slobodska

+ Country Jury Televote Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Juror F Juror G Rank Points Rank Points 01 13 9 13 13 14 14 11 13 7 4 02 11 13 14 14 11 12 14 14 14 03 7 6 5 3 7 7 4 5 6 1 12 04 5 4 4 5 3 6 13 4 7 8 3 05 2 2 3 7 1 3 1 2 10 6 5 06 8 8 10 12 6 4 10 10 1 12 07 4 7 11 4 4 2 6 3 8 3 8 08 14 10 8 10 13 11 8 12 13 09 6 14 2 9 5 8 12 8 3 11 10 10 5 9 6 9 5 3 7 4 4 7 11 3 3 7 8 8 9 5 6 5 10 1 12 13 12 12 6 11 12 13 9 11 5 6 14 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 12 9 2 15 9 11 12 2 10 10 7 9 2 2 10 + Country Jury Televote Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Juror F Juror G Rank Points Rank Points 01 17 5 10 11 17 7 14 12 4 7 02 23 22 13 24 20 18 17 21 23 03 7 2 1 2 2 1 4 2 10 6 5 04 13 8 14 15 10 21 15 14 22 05 6 21 20 20 16 16 18 17 15 06 22 13 21 7 19 6 8 13 17 07 08 14 12 15 12 5 13 5 9 2 16 09 18 17 23 23 22 22 22 23 8 3 10 1 3 2 1 3 3 1 1 12 18 11 11 1 3 6 6 9 12 4 7 10 1 12 19 19 24 21 23 15 21 22 7 4 13 16 15 18 13 21 24 13 20 3 8 14 5 9 7 19 13 12 16 10 1 20 15 10 16 6 9 1 2 11 6 5 12 16 2 7 4 3 14 10 2 3 8 1 12 17 4 11 8 4 4 4 9 5 6 9 2 18 8 20 16 18 8 14 20 16 14 19 15 6 5 17 11 23 10 11 11 20 12 18 17 14 15 19 6 15 19 21 21 23 19 10 24 8 24 19 24 22 3 4 9 5 7 11 7 7 4 13 23 20 14 11 16 9 17 23 18 5 6 24 9 10 12 8 12 5 3 8 3 2 10 25 24 24 22 22 18 20 19 24 21

References

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