Following 2019’s withdrawal, Ukraine’s broadcasters UA:PBC and STB have once again joined forces to organise Vidbir, Ukraine’s national final and on Monday 20 January they revealed the sixteen acts set to appear in the 2020 selection.
As always Ukraine’s national selection is filled with a diverse mix of artists, genres and interesting stage names.
Ukraine’s Vidbir 2020: Acts
- Assol
- CLOUDLESS
- David Axelrod
- Elina Ivashchenko
- FO SHO
- GARNA
- GIO
- Go-A
- Jerry Heil
- Katya Chilly
- KHAYAT
- KRUTЬ
- MOONZOO feat. F.M.F. Sure
- Oleksandr Poriadynskyi
- [О]
- TVORCHI
Several of these acts had been heavily tipped to take part in the weeks leading up to the announcement.
Elina Ivashchenko is a 17-year-old who’s star has been rising for several years: she won both The Voice Kids and the all-Ukrainian singing contest Black Sea Games. In 2019, she successfully auditioned for the tenth series of X Factor Ukraine. She previously said she was submitting the song “Get Up”, which she performed on The X Factor
Meanwhile YouTube star Jerry Heil promised to bring a “funny song with a social undertone”. The song covers a social topic that is not only of importance in Ukraine, but also outside of her home country. She said that unlike most of her material, which is in Ukrainian, the song will be performed in English.
KHAYAT returns after reaching the semi-final at Vidbir 2019.
For the first time since Vidbir’s introduction in 2016, there are no big name returnees such as KAZKA or Tayanna.
Prior to the artists announcement, Ukraine’s broadcasters published a set of new rules for the competition. Consequently, artists with recent performances in Russia are no longer able to enter the contest.
Vidbir 2020: Key Facts
The acts will be divided into two semi-finals on 8 and 15 February. On 22 February, the winner will be decided by a split of votes from a jury – consisting of 2006 Eurovision entrant Tina Karol, Andriy Danylko and radio exec Vitalii Drozdov – and the public.
Who do you want to win Ukraine’s 2020 national selection Vidbir? Let us know in the comments down below!
Why people don’t like Elina Ivashchenko? She sings very cool!
Her song is bad.
Elina has incredible voice but her song is nothing special for me
another song for Vidbir2020
GIO – Feeling so Lost
https://youtu.be/QhSdNneYCNw
Why are you providing unverified information? He performed this song during his first public concert on 14/11/2019, which automatically disqualifies it from entering Eurovision.
https://youtu.be/MuERbaZpM7k?t=87
the same info about songs posted on official Instagram account of local broadcaster, all the links are correct
and EBU rules say song must be out after 1 September, so its hasnt break any rules
read the rules for Eurovision first, every song that realised after 1st September can compite on Eurovision next year
[O] is such an awesome band. Just take a listen: https://youtu.be/aNFwigbYlMY
I would’ve loved to have seen KAZKA compete again, but looking forward to this nonetheless!
Oleksandr Poriadynskyi “Saviour” sounds like young Barry White, amazing voice!
i was shocked find out he is only 21 years old… lol
links for Vidbir songs that already out (Elina’ song is here) :
Oleksandr Poriadynskyi “Saviour” (thanks god its not about god lol)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9T5JPs4hks
CLOUDLESS Drown Me Down (really cool )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUl8DXzR9uo
GARNA – Who We Are? (nice)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuL-ImsvCeo
waiting for songs of my favs Khayat and David :)))
Wow! just look at ethnic diversity of these contestants, for slavic country it’s not very common thing, I love it)
hope the level of the songs will be high as well, bring it on Ukraine!
Ukraine’s been quite diverse for a East Slavic country- Gaitana (half Congolese) and Jamala (half Tartar and half Armenian, and Muslim).
No Laud this year 🙁
Is there a country that loves names in ALL CAPS more than Ukraine?
I loved Katya Chilly on the voice. So excited she’s competing!
Khayat!!! so so happy he is back! Now i want the guy win and go to Rotterdam, what a unique and magical artist, and also sharming …. swoon
Did they all pass the Crimea test or will that be examined live again?
They sure have passed the test of not performing in Russia and on occupied territories of Ukraine. Massive respect for those artists.
lmao
I’m disappointed there’s no TAYANNA 🙁
Please tell me Osoka is Khayat’s entry I will die my boy needs to win finally
no it’s not Osoka, he said he just finished recording the song for Eurovision
Darn. Well I’m sure his new song will be good too
Call me immature, but I laughed reading the name “Assol”. Lol maybe I am pronouncing it wrong?
Some English names also sound weirdly for Ukrainians))
In Ukrainian it hasn’t got any funny or rude background
Probably. The emphasis is strictly on the second syllable (so that the “A” sound is slightly reduced), plus the “L” is soft. Simply put, it’s nowhere near the a***ole 🙂
Although, the more I think about it the more it seems like the way a French person would pronounce a***ole – so still funny, I guess!
well, it’s her childhood nickname, she still wants to cherish that feeling of being 7 y.o. super star /s
we haven’t heard about this papa’s girl since that time so she has to use her old funny name to gain sympathy votes from grandmas 🙂 I wonder how much she paid to enter Vidibir with her lame voice.
Usually a lot of the Vidbir contestants have their songs out before the artist announcements. Any confirmed songs as of yet?
yes a lot of them are out, I think wiwi should provide all the links, few songs that I heard were really good, as I know official Twitter of Ukraine at Eurovision have all the links
So far, only 3 songs are available on Youtube: CLOUDLESS – Drown Me Down, Garna – Who We Are?, Oleksandr Poriadynskyi – Savior
Elina and David have their songs out too
Last video on David page on YouTube is New Year’s greetings posted a week ago. Song for Eurovision is not there. Elina is re-arranging her song from X Factor “Get Up”. This arranging for Eurovision is not yet available either
David said his song will be released this week.
Very excited to see Kahyat back, hope the host will not throw his homophobic jokes to poor guy again, and im very intrigued what others will bring too,
hey wiwi ! many Vidbir songs are already out give us all links please 🙂
btw, interesting to see so much ethnic diversity in Ukrainian music industry
Is the delightful male host coming back too?
Yes
FO SHO are the best in this list!
Really excited to see Khayat back! He deserved better last time. ”Ever” is a masterpiece. I hope he’ll bring us another one this year.
KAZKA or Tayanna are not big names and almost all of competing talents are better then them especially in music material.
well to be honest they’re very well known artists for sure, but Katya Chilly, David Axelrod, Khayat and Jerry Heil are pretty popular too in Ukraine and some of them have really good music and magical voices.
Others are not so popular but their music are great! I really like Vidbir line up this year
disliking truth is weird habbit
The dislikes show that there a lot of people who like Tayanna’s and/or Kazka’s music. And the truth is that music tastes are subjective, but its the quality that can be argued. Both Tayanna and Kazka’s tracks are high-quality music; there is no arguing that.
In the context of Vidbir, Kazka and Tayanna can be considered “big time” as they are “returnees”, having been regulars in their selections for several years and their entries have pretty much been fan-favorites.
Pity that Verka Serduchka doesn’t compete with “Make it rain champagne”. I hoped they changed something and she will compete not judging the others 🙂
Danylko said he doesn’t want to comeback as participater,
as he said ” Verka really wants to go Eurovision but Andriy doesn’t”
Serduchka has performed in Russia a lot of times, so (s)he can only judge the others who have not
he hasn’t had any concerts in Russia for 12 years
lots of private parties. & he was @ New wave closing party so yeah he has performed.
Verka regularly checks back into the Eurovision consciousness every May, either as part of a sketch (2016), an interval act (2019), or as a spokesperson announcing their country’s points (2016).
Khayat would be amazing choice, amazing voice,look and attitude, now I hope he gets amazing song to win 😀
and I know he speaks Arabic and English just fine, cool )
TVORCHI have an interesting sound
ukrainian acts always have the most absurd stage names
I think we can’t compete with Czech
You do have assol to show you poop too
Khayat! Awesome news.
I know half of them, amazing artists, Jerry and Khayat gonna be fan favs for sure
I’m shocked that KAZKA with Palala/Nobody Like You aren’t in the lineup
they said they want to take a break from NL this year, I understand them as I remember how much hate they got from some crazy Maruv’ fans, it was terrible…
Khayat!!!!!! omg! yes!
No Jamala and Filatov! Was the host also sacked?
No…Serhij Pritula will host it
Ew. He also interrogated some singers last year.
he actually started all the mess with interrogations ( not Jamala) he also was joking about Khayat being beaten up by hooligans for his queer look, after public outrage he apologized to Khayat and viewers but I still don’t like him (((
I can never forgive him for joking about Khayat’s look and humiliating Anna Maria for mentioning their mother’s “Russian involvement” in the first place.
Elina won X Factor too, you shoud mention it
I love her 1944
Jerry Heil is a favourite here. Her songs are very catchy!
Jerry Heil is a favourite here, her songs are very catchy!
I hope Khayat has a good song we need him in Rotterdam