Ukraine’s Vidbir 2020 returned in spectacular fashion over the weekend. On Saturday, Krutь, Go_A and Jerry Heil qualified from semi one of the national selection. This week, another eight acts take a shot at nabbing the last three slots in the final.
The second semi-final of Ukraine’s Vidbir 2020 will take place on 15 February and the winner will be decided by a combination of televote and the scores of a jury panel. This panel will consist of media producer Vitaliy Drozdov, Eurovision 2006 contestant and Ukrainian superstar Tina Karol and Andriy Danylko, who’s better known as his drag act Verka Serduchka.
Vidbir 2020 semi-final two acts and songs
In semi two, we will be presented with three groups — Moonzoo feat. F.M.F. Sure, Fo Sho and Tvorchi. Soloists Khayat, Elina Ivashchenko, Oleksandr Poriadynskyi, GARNA and David Axelrod will also grace the stage.
1. Moonzoo feat. F.M.F. Sure “Maze”
Ukraine’s semi-final two kicks off with an electro-rap collaboration from Moonzoo and F.M.F. Sure. Moonzoo come from Lviv and describe their music as “sad dance”, combining elements of synth-pop, dance music and blues. F.M.F. Sure hails from the United States and contributes a rap bridge to “Maze”. The two acts previously collaborated on “Colder”.
2. Fo Sho “Blck Sqr”
Fo Sho is made up of three sisters — Betty, Siona and Miriam Endale — whose Ethiopian parents settled in Kharkov. Although the siblings did not immediately decide to pursue a career in music, they have always been a musical family. Fo Sho released their first single “Catchy” in 2019. Their entry at Vidbir 2020 is called “Blck Sqr”, after the famous Malevich painting with the same name.
3. Elina Ivashchenko “Get Up”
Despite only being 18 years of age, Elina Ivashchenko has won numerous festivals and televised singing competitions, including The Voice Kids and X Factor Ukraine. She co-wrote her the power ballad “Get Up”, which she premiered during the X Factor final.
4. Oleksandr Poriadynskyi “Savior”
Oleksandr Poriadynskyi is best known as the winner of the fourth series of X Factor Ukraine in 2014, which he won at the tender age of 15. He says that “Saviour” will not leave anyone indifferent, as it deals with the cruelty of the modern world.
5. GARNA “Who We Are?”
GARNA grew up in Luhansk and started singing aged five. Throughout her career, she performed as a lead singer with several bands, including MANERA and PrimeOrchestra. In 2019, she decided to start her own solo project with a focus on pop-rock songs. GARNA will mix multiple genres with “Who We Are?”
6. Khayat “Call for Love”
Khayat is the only returnee from Vidbir 2019. Shortly after his last national selection adventure, Khayat went on to The Voice of Ukraine. There he finished third as part of Tina Karol’s team. Since then, he’s become one of the country’s most popular folktronica artists. His music is a combination of pop elements with Slavic and Arab ethno sounds. Will he make the final this year?
7. David Axelrod “Horizon”
Before 2018, David Axelrod was known under his real name Volodymyr Tkachenko. He previously tried to represent Ukraine at Eurovision in 2006, but lost out to Tina Karol. Since then, he’s competed in numerous television talent shows, most notably X Factor Ukraine and New Wave. He waited for five years to premier his piano ballad “Horizon”, which he wrote when his girlfriend was pregnant.
8. Tvorchi “Bonfire”
Tvorchi is an electro duo from Ternopil. They are music producer Andriy Hutsulyak and singer-songwriter Jefferi Kenny, who met each other by accident. With two albums to their name, they are best known known for 2019’s “Believe”. It’s reached almost one million views on YouTube, even though the budget for the video only $100.
Who should win semi-final two of Vidbir 2020?
[crowdsignal poll=10501248]Who do think will win semi-final two of Vidbir 2020? And who is your favourite? Let us know in the comments down below!
My 2 favorites are Khayat and Tvorchi. Other artists are weaker in my opinion. Monzoo have a good song, but it is not for Eurovision I think. I like FO SHO, but I am not feeling their song at all.
Khayat “Call for Love” – Ukraine’s only chance to qualify this year…
Ukraine will qualify with any of the known Vidbir finalists. That said, it will not reach top 10 with them.
Go_A receives so much love from eurofans, but I’m not convinced it will do that well in Eurovision. I’ll be glad to be wrong though.
Also don’t forget Krut’, who won the first one as she received the highest points from both juryvotes and televote! That’s makes Khayat much more difficult to win.
I wouldn’t download any of these songs. I am in not the best of moods this morning, so I am not sure if at another time I could have listened through the whole 3 minutes of the songs. The one song that kept my attention musically through the 3 minutes (lyrics are boring) is F.M.F. Sure “Maze”. I am aware it is no “Eurovision” song.
Khatays song is amazing and best song of 2020 so far. A strong contender for Eurovision winner
Khayat’ song reminds me more radio friendly version of Telemovies, I like it, if he rocks the staging he probably wins the whole thing
And I want Fo Sho sisters to go through
ironically, just today in interview, Khayat said he was absolutely smitten with Conan and Mahmood last year and how they were just themselves and didn’t care about formats they don’t fit in
Well Fo Sho has definitely got the sickest song, and check out the lyrics, what a great message! Unfortunately they haven’t got a cat in hell’s chance of winning ESC but they’re my favorites. I made the classic, but often unavoidable mistake of reading all the comments in SF1’s article that Khyat was amazing and had it won. So I went in with high expectations. It’s ok but not as good as everyone’s making out. It’s probably in my top 3 but I was expecting more. Maybe I was hard on him first time, And Elina rounds out my top… Read more »
Elina has stunning voice but her song is hopelessly dated, though she is total sweetheart , hope she will come back with better song next year)
the songs like Call fo love needs to be heard/seen live to gets you, especially with such unusual and kinda out of this world artist like Khayat, the things he can do with his voice is really impressive
Khayat ofc
Tvorchi is good too.
The first semi was more interesting to me, but this one will be a good one too. I would go with Tvorchi, Khayat and Fo Sho, There’s a big chance Ukraine will have again a final without a single weak link, which is impressive.
so in this semi Vidbir has 5 black artists and one with Arabic roots, right? cool!
I want Tvorchi to go through, I like the urban sound and soft voice of soloist in the song, of course Khayat is main fav here, so I’m not worry about him to go to the final, his song is cool electro bop with ethnic arabic/Ukrainian vibes sounds really nice and fresh)
Monzoo is cool as well)
Elina also mentioned that she has Crimean Tatar roots. I think on her grandpa’s side.
and Axelrod totally looks like jewish
and he is , Axelrod is his grandpa’ surname, he changed his Ukranian surname Tkachenko to Axelrod to honoring his Jewish grandpa’ who he adored
Is Khayat that guy from last Vidbir who was beaten up by the gang last year because he looked ‘too flamboyant’ , and the host then threw some stupid homophobic jokes to him? wiwi posted something like this as i remember
yes it was him, and after huge public outrage the host apologized to Khayat for his inappropriate behavior, but i still angry with Pritula, what a clown ugh!
@Bonny why do you have to drag down another person? You can’t call person names just because they made a stupid joke. He did apologize and KHAYAT did except his apology.
its what Pritula deserves, he is doing it all the time with contestants every freaking year, he drag down them and throw absolutely stupid and offensive jokes and thinks he is so funny, he apologized only after public outrage, he thinks joking about violence is so funny, ugh!
I can’t stand him and his arrogant attitude towards people
Non-Ukrainian here. I also got angry of Pritula because he initially interrogated Anna Maria last year due to their mother’s involvement in that Crimea issue. I don’t know what the Ukrainian public thinks about all of that but I find it rude for the host to do so. He did not have to humiliate the twins that way on live television. That is why I hated the fact that he returned this year while Jamala and the other guy did not return. I’m glad that his dirt is being exposed and more people are exposing him here.
Where are you from, dear?
Overall, I prefer this semi to the first one. My qualifiers are KHAYAT, Fo-Sho and either Moonzoo or Tvorchi and I would love to see either KHAYAT or Fo-Sho representing Ukraine in Rotterdam!
I lost my favourites in the 1st SF so I’m not expecting this one to be different. Anyway, my top is: 1. KHAYAT – Call for Love (7). I would have probably given this song a higher score if it wasn’t because it is totally Maruv’s “Siren Song” 2.0 with some ethnic tweaks here and there. But the formula is exactly the same. It’s obvious he or the producers took (a lot of) inspiration from it. He’s lucky Maruv never got to step on the Eurovision stage, so it could be something new and fresh for the casual viewers and… Read more »
Call for love is nothing like Siren Song, if you have listened others Khayat’ songs you would know he used to make kind of music before , maybe Call4Love a bit more dancy fancy song but its still Khayat’ style
“he will not be able to ‘sell’ his body like Maruv! ”
why he should be anyway? lol
Khayat said he gonna dance on stage but why he has to ‘sell’ his body to be successful with his song ? he is not a stripper after all and I don’t see how his song is similar to Maruv’
he has no producers btw
So Maruv invented those horns. Ok.
Arabian prince and African queens))
Khayat and Fo Sho are my winners!
I really want to see Fo Sho on Eurovision stage
Fo Sho / Khayat & Garna or Tvorchi
Khayat/Fo Sho/Moonzo
Khayat’s song is my favorite from this semi.. but I’ll be honest I really want him to win cause he is really attractive XD
But seriously I like his song the most this semi… I had three favs in semi one but only his song I really enjoy in this semi(meaning I wanted to listen to agian, as I don’t hate any song in particular).
LMAO! yes he is hot, he looks like sexy and young arabic shaman 😛
but his vocal is really mesmerizing….
Khayat , Tvorchi and Fo Sho my qualifiers
such a diverse bunch of artists and Khayat is better to win, aha)
male version of Maruv, hot Khayat I approve, lol
with good staging and I’m sure it will be good, he will win easily not only the second semi but the whole thing
you mean drunk groove or siren song?
you are kidding me?
MARUV is far beyond khayat!
aye aye the khayat train is here.
constant Khayat’ hater is here either
Hayat needs to add an epic moment to the end and it will be great entry from Ukraine. Definitely not a ESC winner material but a sure qualifier.
Khayat said he has revamped the end of the song and the chorus a bit, for me clear winner of Vidbir this year
Can you tell us the source on that info? I watched some interviews but never heard him saying that.
The Ukrainian music industry has gotta be one of the most diverse and interesting in Europe, every song in their selection has their own special qualities.