They’re the electro-folk group that won Vidbir 2020 last weekend with their anthem “Solovey”.

And now Go_A have been confirmed as Ukraine’s act for Eurovision 2020.

That’s because Go_A have signed a formal contract with the National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine.

Chairman Zurab Alasania has pledged full financal support for the band and a team of around a dozen people to offer on the ground support in Rotterdam.

The news confirms the group as Ukraine’s representations for Eurovision 2020 after their victory at the national final last weekend. Go_A signed the contract at a press conference on February 25.

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Go_A have won the #vidbir2020 jury vote in Ukraine ??

A post shared by wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) on

No new English lyrics for “Solovey”

Lead vocalist Kateryna Pavlenko has ruled out any English additions to “Solovey”.

The frontwoman says the objective of the band’s participation was to get a Ukranian song to the Eurovision stage. Morevoer, she’s ruled out any changes to the lyrics, and wrote the song based on a folk song she discovered while studying folklore at university. Pavlenko views Go_A’s victory as a win for Ukranian culture.

The band also used the press conference to reveal that they’ve been preparing to go to Eurovision for seven years. Costs for Ukraine’s participation are split between Ukraine’s public broadcaster, which funds participation at Eurovision and STB, which funds the national final.

Ukraine at Eurovision 2020

At Eurovision, Ukraine has been drawn to compete in the second half of the first semi-final.

The country took an unexpected one year break from Eurovision last year. Mélovin was the last act to represent Ukraine at the contest back in 2018.

His entry “Under the Ladder” opened the Grand Final. Despite impressive staging, including a burning staircase, the song finished in a disappointing 17th place in Lisbon.

What do you make of the news? Are you excited to see Go_A on stage?

YOU CAN GET MORE UKRAINE EUROVISION NEWS HERE

70 Comments
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Mariia
Mariia
4 years ago

It seems like they are are not going to participate anymore. Bank accounts of the channel are blocked by the government

Cat
Cat
4 years ago
Reply to  Mariia

If I can have a dollar every time UA:PB has arrests on their accounts or holes in their budget I’d buy a Ferrari 🙂
don’t worry, it is just UA:PB has to sort paperwork with government because they are subsidiary of the state and 100% funded from state money (our taxes). if it won’t work we are ready to have a fundraising. with president-elect we have (negative IQ man) we are ready for everything.

Mariia
Mariia
4 years ago
Reply to  Cat

I hope that they will solve all the problems like you said. The song is great

Cat
Cat
4 years ago
Reply to  Mariia

they have to solve it fast because it’s not only music contest money, it is also sport events like biathlon. we can’t lock our sportsmen from competitions. we maintained sport events even in 2015 when country suffered from war and financial issues the most. I hope this technical issue will be solved fast.

ag89
ag89
4 years ago

So, we have, for the first time, Ukrainian entry fully in Ukrainian. They had parts of their entry in Ukrainian back in 2005.

Banana
Banana
4 years ago
Reply to  ag89

Ukrainian must be the hardest language to learn. Give the country a chance.

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  Banana

It’s not as simple as English but it’s definitely not THAT hard 🙂

Banana
Banana
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex M

It’s hard for Ukrainians though 😉

Mariia
Mariia
4 years ago
Reply to  Banana

lol why would it be hard. Every Ukrainian knows it

ag89
ag89
4 years ago
Reply to  Banana

I don’t know… I am a south Slav so to me some things sound familiar and easy to understand. Maybe for westerners this is difficult. However, the song is cool and I like the fact they kept it in a local language.

Cat
Cat
4 years ago

btw, with this group you can be sure they will rock hard eurovision pre-party 🙂 check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WimvCfemRI prepare for serious dancing people 🙂 don’t mind Ukrainian language in that Prodigy track 🙂

Mil
Mil
4 years ago
Reply to  Cat

Most probably they are not doing any pre party.

Mia
Mia
4 years ago
Reply to  Cat

That’s amazing

Cat
Cat
4 years ago

that must be disappointing news for wiwi. how you gonna speculate on your favorite hoax “Ukraine has no money they won’t participate”? mus be hard on you now 🙂

esc1234
esc1234
4 years ago

I dont like the song but i respect a country that brings their national flavor and doesnt buy generic songs.

Monika
Monika
4 years ago

Non qualifier, so…why so much bother?

Lomba
Lomba
4 years ago
Reply to  Monika

I wouldn’t write off any Ukrainian entry so fast. They managed to get into the top 10 with much more bland entries thanks to their staging. I mean remember the 2010 song? Or 2011? 2014? Even shady lady is a sh!tty song but performed so well that it almost won.

Eurofan
Eurofan
4 years ago
Reply to  Lomba

Staging in 2010? There was no any extraordinary staging, just darkness and windmachine. And a great song in excellent performance – which was the reason for the high result.

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  Monika

Every country deserves an attention. It doesn’t matter if that country is a qualifier or not.
Though I don’t think Ukraine is a non-qualifier, quite the opposite actually. We’ll see in May anyway.

BadWoolfGirl
BadWoolfGirl
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex M

I think Ukraine will be in the final, just not as a semi-final winner. But you never. Azerbaijan, Romania, Russia and even Sweden have failed to qualify before, but I am optimistic that Ukraine will maintain their perfect qualification rate. I would be really shocked if GO_A was eliminated.

Jacob D.
Jacob D.
4 years ago

I’m perfectly fine with this staying in Ukrainian, though I’d still like to see a translation somewhere so I can know what she’s saying 🙂

Its interesting to hear they’ve been trying, or at least preparing, to get to ESC for 7 years. Makes Kateryna’s (sp?) reaction at Vidbir even more emotional

Mil
Mil
4 years ago
Reply to  Jacob D.

It wasn’t a good translation. She said they were doing their music for 7 years that’s why they feel they are ready. And they (like many more artists in Vidbir this year) got an invitation from the music producer to participate.

Wembley2012
Wembley2012
4 years ago

Odessa 2021!

Eurofan
Eurofan
4 years ago
Reply to  Wembley2012

There is no suitable venue, unfortunately.

First row at ESC & JESC
First row at ESC & JESC
4 years ago

Thank you Ukraine to keep that good song away from english lyrics – that would destroy the song (my opinion). It is good as it is. Hands down !

Neleh
Neleh
4 years ago

English wouldn’t work definitely, and why would they sing in English anyways? Ukrainian sounds beautiful, it adds to the flavour of what they are trying to do here. I can not even believe how much I like this song. If you described me this song I would tell you instantly I don’t like it, I feel like I shouldn’t like it because I personally can’t really stand “white voice” singing in Slavic folklore music… but hearing it live in this version, it is outstanding way to preform traditional folklore song. I never heard anything like it. As I said, I… Read more »

Talentina Monetta
Talentina Monetta
4 years ago

Good. It wouldn’t have worked in English.

xohxoh
xohxoh
4 years ago

Good. The whole point of the song is Ukrainian folkish lyrics.

Ana
Ana
4 years ago

My only wonder: Why the actual f*ck this entry is not yet on Spotify? Who’s in charge there?

Ben
Ben
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana
Ana
Ana
4 years ago
Reply to  Ben

Nice, a song that you want foreigners to add to their playlist is written in Cyrillic. So no person outside of Ukraine/Russia can actually find it. Is that a joke or something? They were able to put the title in English in Youtube, but lets make it invisible on Spotify.

Ana
Ana
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

So I guess I’m getting dislikes from sad id!ots that know I’m right but don’t like it?

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

Don’t know why others dislike your comment, but I personally think you’re too salty for such a small inconvenience.

Ana
Ana
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex M

I personally don’t have any f*cks to give about your opinion of my salt levels. I personally think it’s way saltier to dislike a valid point. Nobody can’t find this song in Cyrillic on Spotify therefore it’s as if it’s not on Spotify at all. Fix it instead of disliking my comment you silly id!ots

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

Well… you’re complaining here instead of writing Go_A about this, so they can fix the problem. So who’s the silly one?

Erik
Erik
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

Just a recommendation. Did you know wiwibloggs are on Spotify?

Here is their esc 2020 playlist updated daily
https://open.spotify.com/user/wiwibloggs/playlist/5dozOT4py68lTanq9s442B?si=sd2Q9ESCTruEX4pY7_Gc7Q

Also here is a link to their profile if you want to be able to find their playlists for upcoming years or the countries selection playlists. https://open.spotify.com/user/wiwibloggs?si=HPv8DddATDmhvDzHvh_chQ

Wiwibloggs does the job for me, so I don’t need to search for all the songs.

Hugs
Erik

UmBv
UmBv
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

Just search go_a and you would find it lmao

Sebastian
Sebastian
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

It is on Spotify. It uses the song’s Ukrainian name in cyrillic

Yana
Yana
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

U are right and this is just a metter of time i guess! But what is difficult for you to do the copy / paste procedure?

Xelados
Xelados
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

It is! You only have to copy paste (or type if you have a Cyrillic alfabet installed) the Cyrillic name that’s it m

Xelados
Xelados
4 years ago
Reply to  Ana

It is! Just copy and paste the Cyrillic name, it shouldn’t be that hard

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago

What does she mean she wrote the song based on a folk song? Is it not fully original?

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

It’s fully original.

Jonas
Jonas
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex M

Thanks. Why eleven people downvoted a simple question, I don’t know.

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

I guess they interpreted your question as an accusation.

Mil
Mil
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonas

She is a folklorist by her education and she said she drew inspiration from many folk songs.

Darren
Darren
4 years ago

This has over taken Lithuania for me as my favorite entry so far.
Delighted they are keeping it in Ukrainian.
So modern and catchy, yet ethnic. Everything a modern Eurovision entry should be. Not trying to be American or something.
You listen to this and instantly think of Ukraine, yet it could still be heard in the charts or a club somewhere. I love country’s representing their culture on the world stage, which is what Eurovision has always been about for me.
Best Ukrainian entry for me since Ruslana and I’m so ready.

L'oiseau
4 years ago

Ukraine for the win, again! (BTW, this in English would sound ridiculous…)

Mia
Mia
4 years ago

Truly adoration for them!
They are ready now.

Nicolas
Nicolas
4 years ago

Thank God they won’t do the same mistake like Poland did last year or in 2014 adding useless english lyrics and killing the songs. It doesn’t make any sense to sing ethnic songs in english it simply just kills the spirit of the song.

Lolek
Lolek
4 years ago
Reply to  Nicolas

While I didn’t find the addition of english lyrics to Poland’s 2014 song to be that fatal (especially considering its tongue in cheek nature and much of it remained in polish) I do agree that it was unfortunate they translated last years.

Tajikistan
Tajikistan
4 years ago

Nobody is mentioning how this is their first ever song without English lyrics

Ana
Ana
4 years ago
Reply to  Tajikistan

.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
4 years ago

Why would they change anything?
Regardless of result, it is an excellent representative for the Ukraine.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago

Side note: Teaser for the Swiss entry on the Eurovision Instagram with average Swiss citizens reacting to it. They all seem impressed (then again, if they know who’s playing the song for them, would they say otherwise?), and apparently it’s an emotional song judging by their reactions. The most interesting aspect is that one guy says “I remember hearing this language before, but I can’t place what it is.” Is Switzerland finally sending another song in Rumantsch? I’d doubt it but it’s worth speculating on.

Tajikistan
Tajikistan
4 years ago
Reply to  Joe

If it’s in the German speaking area then it could be Italian (or french but seems unlikely)

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  Tajikistan

I’d like to think they’d heard Italian before

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
4 years ago

they better not change one single comma of beautiful “solovej”

Héctor
Héctor
4 years ago

They are interested in paying the expenses now. Curious to say the least.

John
John
4 years ago
Reply to  Héctor

The part you’re missing is that during the last week on radio and TV appearances since winning Vidbir — Go_A stated that the broadcaster was willing to only pay for half of their Rotterdam expenses and that it was up to the band to raise the rest of the money themselves. It looks like now that this was a smart move on their behalf, as they have shamed the government into providing full support for their entry.

Joe
Joe
4 years ago
Reply to  John

And unlike Maruv, they didn’t have anything that could make these guys look anti-Ukrainian. I mean, the song is IN Ukrainian.

Alex M
Alex M
4 years ago
Reply to  John

You are incorrect.
Go_A never stated that. Go_A were asked if this was true, but they didn’t know at that time (because they didn’t even sign a contract). Some blogger tried to start another scandal with this “half of the expenses”, but failed in the end.

keith mawson
keith mawson
4 years ago
Reply to  Héctor

They raided Jamala’s bank account LOL

Safiya
Safiya
4 years ago

The song is perfect as it is so I am glad that they won’t change anything.

isabella
isabella
4 years ago

Love love love!! I also wonder when there will be any news on the russian entry this year?

Ashton Schier
Ashton Schier
4 years ago

I didn’t have any doubt that it would be kept in Ukrainian, but I am happy they confirmed it nonetheless. At least we have a few songs in languages besides English.

halseyswhxre21
halseyswhxre21
4 years ago
Reply to  Ashton Schier

Sad that Shaj will be revamped to English.

Ashton Schier
Ashton Schier
4 years ago
Reply to  halseyswhxre21

me too, but I was already sad that me tana wasn’t chosen so if Albania wants to ruin their choice even more then Idk why I even bother