Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song "Bird of Pray", written by Danylo Leshchynskyi, Fedir Khodakov and Valentyn Leshchynskyi, and performed by themselves as Ziferblat. The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, Suspilne, organised the national final Vidbir2025 in order to select its entry for the contest.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Suspilne organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Suspilne confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2025 contest on 10 September 2024.[2] In the past, the broadcaster had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select its entry. Between 2022 and 2024, Suspilne 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 was continued to select its 2025 entry.[3]
Vidbir 2025 was the ninth edition of Vidbir which selected the Ukrainian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. The competition consisted of a final 8 February 2025 and took place in Kyiv.[4][5]
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 either through an online submission form. Twenty acts were longlisted and announced on 11 December 2024.[6] The second stage will involve the longlisted artists attending a scheduled audition. Up to nine acts will be selected, while an additional act will be selected from an online selection.[7] The third stage was the televised final, which took place in February 2025 and featured the acts vying to represent Ukraine in Basel. The winner was selected via the combination of votes from a public vote and an expert jury, the latter of which its members will be selected by the public.[8]
Competing entries
Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries via an online submission form which accepted entries between 17 September 2024 and 10 November 2024. Only artists that had not performed in events organized by/located in the territory of "the aggressor state" (referring to Russia) or illegally entered the territory of Crimea since 15 March 2014 were allowed to apply for the competition, and songs performed in the "language of the aggressor state" (referring to the Russian language) were prohibited.[8][9]Tina Karol, who represented Ukraine in 2006, was assigned as the new music producer of the competition and was the lead in reviewing the 374 received submissions. 20 entries were longlisted, of which their artists were announced on 11 December 2024.[6][10] Auditions were held in late December 2024 where nine entries were shortlisted to compete in the national final. On 20 December 2024, the nine selected competing acts were announced.[11] A public online vote among the non-qualifying entries from the auditions will be held by 17 January 2025 to determine an additional competing act.[12]
The three members of the expert jury for Vidbir2025 were selected among nine candidates via a public online vote on the Diia application, open to all Ukrainian citizens from 16 to 23 December 2024.[16] A total of 442,374 votes were cast, with Jamala, Serhiy Tanchynets[uk] and Kateryna Pavlenko being determined as the jurors.[17]
The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 took place at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, and consisted of two semi-finals to be held on the respective dates of 13 and 15 May and the final on 17 May 2025.[21] All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. During the allocation draw held on 28 January 2025, Ukraine was drawn to compete in the first semi-final, performing in the first half of the show.[22] Ukraine performed in position 5, following Estonia and preceding Sweden.
Ukraine qualified for the Grand Final, finishing 1st out of 15 participants with 137 points.[23]
In the final, Ukraine performed 7th in the running order, following Spain and preceding United Kingdom.[24] In the final, Ukraine placed 9th with 218 points, finishing in 14th place in the jury voting with 60 points and in 6th place in the televote with 158 points. [25] While Ukraine and Albania received the same total amount of 218 points, Albania placed higher due to receiving a higher televoting score.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded by and to Ukraine in the first semi-final and in the final. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting in the final vote, while the semi-final vote was based entirely on the vote of the public.[26] The Ukrainian jury consisted of Dmytro Shurov, Kostiantyn Bocharov, Natela Zatsarynna, Olena Shoptenko-Ivanova and Tetiana Reshetniak.[27] In the first semi-final, Ukraine placed 1st with 137 points, receiving 12 points from Cyprus, Poland, Portugal and Spain. In the final, Ukraine placed 9th with 218 points, receiving 12 points in the televote from Czechia, Poland and Israel. Over the course of the contest, Ukraine awarded 12 points to Norway in the first semi-final, and to Germany (jury) and Lithuania (televote) in the final.[28]
Each participating broadcaster assembles a five-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. 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.[31] 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:[32]
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