Vidbir always brings us the necessary hype and drama. After a slick broadcast, the results show ended up in a chaos as e-government app Diia stopped working properly.
With that, at the end of Saturday night, host Timur Miroshnychenko stated that the Vidbir 2024 winner would not be revealed on 3 February. As a way to decrease capacity on the Diia app, Suspilne proposed to postpone the results until the early evening of Sunday 4 February with voting continuing the whole night and day.
The decision was met with both approval and critique. Some feared that the stretched voting could influence the outcome as people who did not watch the broadcast could vote.
Skylerr withdraws from Vidbir 2024
In the late morning of 4 February, one of the eleven contestants announced her withdrawal from the show. Skylerr performed her ballad “Time Is Running Out” directly after favourites MÉLOVIN and alyona alyona & Jerry Heil.
She received somewhat negative comments from the jury panel during the show. Judge Andriy Danylko said that he found the performance “a little bit boring”. As a result, Skylerr was not really seen as a favourite to win the show.
Citing the problems with the Diia voting app as the main reason for her withdrawal, Skylerr wrote a long post on Instagram discussing her decision. She wrote:
“Unfortunately, the voting did return in the moment, and I believe the very moment. Diia worked through the night, didn’t work in the morning, and now, as I know, started working again. The votes might not have registered correctly. I understand that it is a massive system and that the crash has equal consequences for everyone, but I believe in a fair and transparent voting, as in the moment.”
Dit bericht op Instagram bekijken
Continuing her statement, Skylerr hinted that several acts will unfairly profit from their delayed voting. This could be that their supporters who could not been able to vote on the night, might be able to vote now:
“I am not interested to take part in those PR campaigns, which resulted from the situation. “There aren’t winners in this marathon”, lyrics from my song, which is as relevant as never before today.”
Suspilne refuses Skylerr’s withdrawal
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne has responded to Skylerr’s statement to withdraw. The broadcaster states that contestants that have performed in the show and took part in the voting, have no rights to withdraw from the show anymore.
As a result, her votes and jury score will be counted as planned. In the case that Skylerr were to win Vidbir 2024, she would be able to refuse to sign the contract to formalise her Eurovision participation.
Okay. Bye then?
Maybe it’s time for more diversity with the jury members. Jamala and Verka are so mean and their comments are most of the time negative, if not all the time! I’m curios, aren’t there some other artists deserving to be in that jury? They should pick Ruslana or Tina Karol again, they were objective and sweet. Also, they could bring Zlata or Max Barshkih as jury members. Or the lead singers from Kalush Orchestra or Go_A. Basically anyone, except Jamala and Verka, they’ve been 10 times already in this jury!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jamala and Verla keep coming back because they toe the government’s line like well behaved little lapdogs.
The Ukrainian public voted for the jury members. Andriy Danylko was voted in with the most votes and second was Jamala.
And what’s the proof of that? Were the votes visible all the time? I don’t think so… Ukrainian public should reconsider, for the next years, bring some other music artists as jury members. Other opinions and ideas are needed, not the same critics by the mean Jamala and by Andryi who looks bored most of the time…
https://eurovisionfun.com/en/2024/01/ukraine-vidbir-2024-jury-revealed/
She wanted a moment of being in the spotlight. The moment passed, she’s still unknown. Congrats to the winners, and so glad the arrogant Melovin was put at his place! He was full of himself, he said his song was the best and he was going to win. Well, bye!
I expected more intense drama from Ukraine but ok.
It looks like it didnt matter anymore since Skylerr was still in the final results!
Overall, the opinions of the juries seemed to be more harsh than just constructive criticism. Even in “Teresa & Maria”, Jamala made it seem like the song tried to show a specific religious image of Christianity. I’m actually not sure if there was a single song where there weren’t made negative comments. If there were, please, anyone, enlighten me.
I feel the results now are a bit wasted, whoever wins it there will always be suspicions about the fairness of the process and of the results.
Best National Final in terms of quality for sure but wasted by this, it’s a bit sad.
The history of Ukraine and their Eurovision selection has always been shrouded in controversy. This is just another year that as ive been reading here of suspicions relating to whatever the outcome maybe. Shame really for all the contestants and especially for whoever the powers at be in Ukraine decide to select.
I don’t feel it was the best this year, this edition felt lacking
You can always count on the Ukrainian jury to bring the pointless drama. Jamala honestly is above her station. Yes she won, but her criticisms have no grounding sometimes other than vacuous reasons like styling, or if an artist is Ukrainian enough. I’m sad that Skylerr doesn’t want to compete anymore as her song was one of the ones I’d gravitate to from this selection, but im going to be honest and say that Vidbir has been a dissapointment (for me) this year anyway. I just haven’t felt the magic I’ve felt from previous Vidbir’s. I’m just waiting for that… Read more »
I actually think it makes the show so much more entertaining. Having 3 judges just say, oh yes you were brilliant that was really good just boring, I want them to be honest.
Plus, “I have very uncomfortable question for you, Crimea is Ukraine?” is iconic at this point
That question has become an iconic meme beyond Ukraine. For example, institutions in Lithuania, when dealing with migrants from Eastern Europe, are asking what Crimea is. The general audience caught this phrase and now brings this question up in a troll way whenever somebody is trying to question Ukrainian actions or discuss Russian-Ukrainian material (beyond the war; that is, sports, culture, education, mentality, etc.). It has become a holy cow to never speak badly about Ukraine or to criticize it if you don’t want to be called vatnik, putlerist, fashist, and so on. UA did a great job there, eliminating… Read more »
It would be good to get some Ukrainian takes on the juries comments because the translation in the English commentary felt like they were struggling at times. Like I doubt she got universal praise and they just missed it, but I do wonder if her criticism was as overt as it came across in the translation. Also as someone not that familiar with the Ukrainian music scene she actually seems like someone that would benefit from what she’s complaining about. Looking at social media followers and steams of their other songs on Spotify she seems like one of the more… Read more »
The broadcaster should apologise to Skylerr! The jury gave her some particularly nasty comments such as the way she looked with her dress rather than the song! Her and the other contestants were forced to sit around in that studio for two or three more hours and they STILL didn’t get a result! And it’s ridiculous that artists can’t even withdraw according to the rules? At this rate, I wouldn’t mind if she was sent!
It’s good we’re sure to get some drama from Ukraine before next Super Saturday. Fills in those autumn-like winter days.
This is definitely the most embarrassing situation of the whole NF season so far. The broadcaster did not react in the right way and if the app isn’t working we could be getting the subjective and often harsh opinions of the jury to select an entry, which is worrying. Personally based on how the jury bullied her for her dress despite looking beautiful and giving us a great vocal performance, I would send Skylerr. In fact, her opinions speak for most of the nation on this issue. This broadcaster has been highly incompetent at dealing with this whole situation and… Read more »
This is definitely the most embarrassing situation of the whole NF season so far. The broadcaster did not react in the right way and if the app isn’t working we could be getting the subjective and often harsh opinions of the jury to select an entry, which is worrying. Personally based on how the jury bullied her for her dress despite looking beautiful and giving us a great vocal performance, I would send Skylerr. In fact, her opinions speak for most of the nation on this issue. This broadcaster has been highly incompetent at dealing with this whole situation and… Read more »
The best solution is to remove the personal opinions of the jury… it was unnecesary the way they treated the participants! Jamala is dilussional and thinks everything needs to be political, fashionista and meaningful. I’d be angry if someone chooses me for a NF and tell me: “I found you boring” as Andriyd did. I wouldn’t sing to receive bad comments on national TV… gurl bye!
agreed, vidbir is good but the jury panel spoils it
I feel bad for Jamala’s children. She’s the type of person that want her kids to do well. Just not as well as she did.
Ah, always trust Ukraine and Vidbir to give us drama, even in difficult times. Good things never change!
So is the app down again today or working alright at the moment?
All day voting the day after is fine. X factor used to do it. Main show Saturday results show Sunday. Can vote throughout Sunday until vote closes in the Live results show.
Diia app is working, It wasn’t working during the show and 1-2 hours after it ended
The problem is that already 856K votes at the moment (each citizen can vote 1 time for 1 song), maybe over 1 mln at the end, that means many people who didn’t see the show vote randomly because they read about glitch in Diia in the news.
This is a very strange statement and decision. With the program stopped, it was impossible to call the audience voting fair, as everyone who watched Vidbor that evening and tried to vote understands this. This is either a well-thought-out PR move so that they will talk about her once again, because… lawyers know the rules and that it will not be crossed out before the results are announced. Ay yay yay ? Or lost nerves. And rash statements. Then how is she going to cope with stress in the later stages if she wins? I don’t understand this annual drama… Read more »
It’s sad that this sort of things happen since they bring the NF to disrepute. If I was in her position I would also withdraw, because the result of this extended vote can certainly be disputed and will be influenced by other factors apart from the performances themselves.
From what we know, it seems that the app just crashed and that there are no suspicious activities taking place behind the scenes but who can know for sure.
First a show with no winner announced, and now this? If this doesn’t make Suspilne realise that Vidbir is an absolute sh*tshow of a national final and they should never use it as their selection process again, I don’t know what will.
The broadcaster should be changed!
It’s Ukraine everyone is glazed eyed in love with them
“…contestants that have performed in the show and took part in the voting, have no rights to withdraw from the show anymore.”
Why? We can speculate all that we want about what the real reason for the withdraw is, but it’s that part that strikes me as odd.
Nah, makes perfectly sense: if you’ve already performed and have been included in the voting, allowing you to withdraw means you’d need to be removed as a option in the voting, which is not fair to the people who have already voted for you and would’ve given their one vote to someone else otherwise. Plus, the technical aspects of removing a contestant from the voting app. As Suspilne said, should she win, she can refuse the win and there’d be no issue, they just cannot remove her from an already running voting process.
Right?! Like you’re being chained in to something and you’re not allowed to decide on what YOU want.
It’s a little fishy but at the same time they are a country at war. These sorts of things can happen I guess.