Several weeks ago, Ukraine’s public broadcaster UA:PBC (Suspilne) announced that its Eurovision partnership with commercial broadcaster STB had been ended. This essentially meant the end to Vidbir — the country’s popular Eurovision selection — as we knew it. However, Suspilne will continue with its own selection show from February 2022 onwards.
Ukraine’s new Eurovision selection in 2022
In a short statement on the broadcaster’s official Instagram account, Suspilne acknowledged that it will hold a national final without any other broadcaster’s participation.
Earlier, commercial channel 1+1 — responsible for the country’s adaption of The Voice — had stated its interest in co-hosting.
With the announcement, Suspilne also noted that conflicting views about the future of Vidbir was what ultimately ended the partnership.
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Between 8 and 24 October, production companies can submit their bids for the upcoming edition of the new national final as part of a tender. Companies must outline their staging concept as well as provide an estimate of approximate costs.
The show itself will start no later than 12 February, and the broadcaster plans to have its entry selected and their music video filmed no later than 4 March 2022. Among the other details that Suspilne has announced is that the show’s outcome will be decided by a combination of a jury vote and televote.
The end of Ukraine’s commercial and public partnership
Between 2016 and 2022, Ukraine’s Eurovision selection was decided a partnership between the commercial (STB) and public broadcaster (Suspilne). This began after Ukraine withdrew from Eurovision 2015 as a result of financial strain and military conflict in the east of the country. STB invested heavily in the format, loaning materials and people from the production team behind X Factor Ukraine.
Vidbir quickly attracted household names as well as talented new acts. With its in-house panel of judges, most notably Andriy “Verka Serduchka” Danylko, the show gained domestic traction as no previous Eurovision selection had before.
Before the partnership and show were officially canned, doubts were already in the air that the national selection would continue in its existing form. After all, the collaboration agreement with the commercial broadcaster ended after Eurovision 2021. Back in March, the show’s musical producer Ruslan Kvinta announced his withdrawal too.
On top of that, Suspilne enjoyed an increase in their budget this year, which meant that they could cover most of the costs relating to Eurovision by themselves for the first time since 2014.
Are you excited for Ukraine’s new Eurovision 2022 selection? Who would you like to see compete in it? Let us know in the comments down below!
y’all are doing too much. what made vidbir great was purely the high quality of the entries, and as long as there are so many talented artists in ukraine, it’ll stay this way no matter who produces their national selection.
Fingers crossed that we get a high quality selection for Ukraine.
Finally, it was about damn time. No more Verka and Jamala in the jury year after year… Yey!
I thought Vidbir was a bit outdated in the technical aspect, so I’m glad that they are ditching STB. Ukraine can do better in staging, lighting etc. as we know from their performances at ESC and especially that live-on-tape of Shum. I just feel that this decision will bring good changes.
I hope this new national selection has a completely revamped judging panel. We’ve seen countless times before that Jamala and Andriy (Verka) are completely biased, rude and totally unprofessional.
I would love to see Maruv either make a comeback or even be a judge. Tayanna also deserves her redemption – the way she was judged by Jamala and Andriy during her two attempts was disgusting.
Vidbir was great mostly beacuse of the acts that it attracted. I hope the new format will scrap the judge’s table, it felt unnecessary to put this pressure on established artists as well as stalling the show. As great as the 2020 version was I’d like them to invite back Ukrainian artists that have toured in Russia. I understand if they won’t make this change but it will however get some of the biggest names back in contention and provide a good mix with the more upcoming acts. Vidbir was on one of the greatest NF’s, I look forward to… Read more »
Send MARUV with her latest new single! Rich Bi.tch ! 🙂
To be honest, Go_A were the complete opposite of Maruv and I’m very glad for Ukraine that Go_A represented them and she didn’t. As entertaining as she is, there is not much singing talent, originality and authenticity in her act. She could be from almost any country with that music. It doesn’t really represent Ukraine in any way.
I hate this narrative that entries are only worthy if they ”represent” the country well. Sometimes good music doesn’t need ethnic or traditional sounds.
not only is this true, but maruv DOES use Ukrainian instruments in her music. you can hear it in quite a lot of her work, so Ana’s criticism is incorrect on 2 levels
My dear, I said nothing about Go_A and I want you to know that I love them, and I’m a big fan. Both entries Solovey and Shum. Of course they’re amazing and the rocked the stage.
I’m very sad what happened and what did with her in the national final, both Jamala and the Ukrainian tv. If is not Ukraine, it could be great if Russia consider her for Eurovision. Is not only the voice, is the song and perfo, and she really slays on stage.
Jamala actually tried to help Maruv (and I believe she successfully did), that controversy only existed abroad because people only understood the English part of the conversation.
Vidbir was excellent, a combo of a music show, reality show, scandals and fights yet almost always brought an excellent song for Ukraine.
Ukraine can host a selection in the middle of a field and they’ll still send an excellent song. Their music industry is amazing.
Good luck!
It’s gonna take a lot to follow Go_A
Good luck Ukraine for 2022. Let’s hope 2022 doesn’t end up being Ukraine’s first time out of the final.
Let’s hope the selection won’t be the same mess as it was pre-2016
Everything comes to an end, I suppose. Knowing the context, I’m not surprised (anymore) the partnership ended, I just hope the new selection isn’t a mess despite this tumultuous outcome, though.
I’m also a bit concerned that the outcome won’t be as good as Vidbir, but I’m still looking forward to seeing what they’ll make of it.
I hope it turns out good for Ukraine next year. I’d really hate for Ukraine have a weak national final That results in a weak entry that could Get Ukraine eliminated in the semi finals. My fingers are crossed for good luck, but I’m casting a wary eye.
They managed to polish the winning entries A LOT in the past with great effect (2013 & 2014 for example)
I wasn’t into Eurovision until 2016, so I never saw the original national final performances of anything before 2018 (that’s when I really started to pay attention). I’m sure Ukraine will have a good selection of choices next year and their perfect qualification record will remain intact, and I’ll try not to worry until the songs are released. I’ll worry if they are bad, but for now, I look forward with optimism.