Ukraine will play a central role in the organising and production of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in the United Kingdom. And naturally Kyiv will want to put its best musical foot forward as it showcases its unique music and undeniable pop power. This starts with choosing their entry for the contest.
Today state broadcaster Suspilne has opened applications for its Eurovision 2023 national selection, which we’ll refer to as Vidbir (as has been common in recent years). Artists who want to fly the yellow-and-blue flag in the UK can apply on the Eurovision.ua web site. The deadline to submit is October 15, 2022 and the selection will take place in Kyiv in December.
Musician Dmitry Surov, perhaps better known as Pianoboy, will serve as the official music producer this year.
“I want Europe to hear and see a modern Ukrainian musician, who is part of the global music context,” he writes on Insta. “I know that we have such people and, although it is very difficult to create right now, I invite and urge musicians of all styles and genres to urgently pick up their favourite instrument and join the selection.”
“You have almost two months to create your winning song that breathes for Ukraine — a song that will touch and inspire the world.”
There are several interesting changes to this year’s process, which we’re outlining below.
Vidbir 2023: Ukraine opens Eurovision submissions
The precise format of the national selection hasn’t been revealed, but UA:PBC has shared some of the key rules and processes. These include letting the public choose Ukraine’s jury members for both the national final and Eurovision; a ban on Russian-language entries; and a rule requiring that long-listed artists attend an audition in person.
They write:
- “Ukrainians will determine the composition of the jury for the final of the National Selection, and the national jury for the international Eurovision contest with the help of online voting.”
- “As in previous years, solo performers or bands that already exist or were created specifically for participation in the National Selection are allowed to participate in Eurovision.”
- “Songs can be in any language, except the language of the aggressor state.”
- “The final of the National Selection for Eurovision 2023 will be held in Kyiv in December. The winner will be announced during the broadcast of the final live on Suspilne TV channels and on Suspilne digital platforms.”
Giving the public a voice in the jury selection is no doubt meant to heal the wounds that emerged during last year’s Vidbir drama, which was rife with finger-pointing and allegations of rigging when Alina Pash won the show, despite losing with the public.
You’ll recall that the organising committee faced harsh criticism from several contestants after the country’s Eurovision 2022 selection. As a result, several acts, including Kalush Orchestra and Cloudless called for full transparency after the voting reveal scene was marred with technical blunders.
Kalush Orchestra’s Oleh Psiuk commented on the dismissal of the committee’s chairman Yaroslav Lodygin on the group’s Instagram stories, saying: “After all, justice won”.
Competition in shouting ”Crimea is Ukraine?”, Jamala jury. Puke.
ban of russian language, which if first to many Ukrainians is ridiculus
Ukraine has to organise Vidbir secretly because the are they will be using might get attacked before Vidbir or during Vidbir with rockets.That nasty joke that circulated last year with Russia is going to invade at interval act might come true this year.And if Verka and Jamala are in the jury it will be even more fuelled as Russia hates Jamala for winning in 2016 and they hate Verka as well.They should maybe held it at a secret location or outside of Ukraine.
no matter who they send, they will win again, guaranteed the winners for the next 3 or 4 years as well <3
Oleg Vinnek pls, as he is 110% anti russia
Okay, but nobody asked you
Ukraine will not win again as everyone got bored with the war. It is the same as with Covid at the beginning everyone was speaking about it and the news would open with it, and now they barely speak of it. The same with the war, which is not at the top of the news. The voters which most of them are not in the ESC bubble will not vote for Ukraine so massively again because by next may it will be more than a year since the war began and people forget. And the jury will not push it… Read more »
Kind of off-topic, but I’d really hate it if Ukraine won again next year
Well in fact it justify even more the Moscow agenda to protect the russian spoken citizens of Ukraine and the russiaphobia by the Ulrainian government that is precisely what triggered the civil war since 2014..
This is what the kremlin propaganda wants to pipe to the westerners. Yet 80% of russians support the war. Why should anyone protect them?
I am expecting big names and established artists in next Year’s Vidbir, as it is obvious Ukraine wins also next year. Even though the juries place it lower, I am sure the public vote will be massive again. And the longer the war takes, probably the more support people in Europe would like to show to Ukrainians… so many ukrainian stars would like to add „ESC winner label” in their CV….
I am more worried that also politics will be involved into Junior ESC, because it’s about kids… very sad. Germany and Australia already withdrew…:/
as if anyone would dare to present a song in russian to vidbir to begin with… y’all are serving yelling at a cloud here
I can understand why they would ban Russian but isn’t it one of Ukraines national languages
No, it is not. Ukrainian is the only one official language of Ukraine
President Z. himself comes from the Russian speaking community of Ukraine.
Should wiwibloggs ban all those who write pro Russia comments?
They’re in their right to do so but it’s fun to laugh at ziggers
Cannot really blame them for banning Russian, I kind of understand it. However, it is very concerning how radical and pro-Nazi some parts of Ukraine have become in the last 6-7 years. I hope this horrible war ends soon
Stop watching russian propaganda you western dumba ss.
I don’t fall for Russian propaganda, but when I see Jamala it is all clear to me.
Can Vidbir get international judges please and make the selection more fair for unknown artist to enter it? I know artist from ukraine who had a super song in folklore with electric-opera-lounge beats, but last year where dismissed.
And i love the artist Max Barskih
I love The Hardkiss to return!!
I don’t want to sound insensitive when I say this but, under the EBU Rules isn’t there a clause which can prevent them from doing this? I just feel that this could be a bit precarious. If they (UA:PBC) are allowed to do so with no wrongdoing or illegality under contest rules then, they are absolutely within their right and should do what they need to do.
Banning Russian language songs in their selection process that is
It’s safe to assume that the EBU has no control over whatever rules their members come up with for their respective selections as long as the selected song submitted adheres to Eurovision’s own eligibility rules.
The ebu has no rules around selection process so they are free to do this all they want, it’s just the rules esc has
Until a few years ago, Festival de Canção only allowed participants to sing in Portuguese. The Albanian selection still had a language rule afaik. So it’s nothing unusual
This is not the same. I mean it’s okay for festivals to want to promote the language spoken in their countries but in Ukraine, Russian is very widely spoken by many people as their native tongue. Even if it weren’t though, again it’s not the same because no other festival has banned only one language in particular: they either allow all, or just allow the native language/languages of the country.
Trying to “defend” Russian in Ukraine is about as welcome as defending Yiddish in Israel post-ww2. Nobody (yes, including ru-speakers) would want to be represented by this language in the current climate and the rule reflects it
I don’t have any proof about what you are saying in the last sentence and I don’t think one can find any. Apart from that though: you can’t just erase a language from existence. A language comes alongside a great deal of cultural gravity. Whether one likes it or not, the Russian language comes alongside years of literature, music and arts/culture in general. The military actions of governments can’t undo that. Or would you also be in favour of banning the English language after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the US and Britain? If so, we’d better find… Read more »
Correct, but actions like that go against linguistic freedom and worldwide culture imo. Even if we are talking about a small detail here, it still hides symbolisms. What if something like that happens at a larger scale? And it has to a degree unfortunately.
I have mixed feelings about this: on one hand I support Ukraine, not only because they send quality entries every year. But on the other hand – is this really the time to organize/participate in song contest? Yes, it’s not their fault that they are being invaded – but they ARE being invaded and priority should be, you know, stop the invasion and provide for people affected by the invasion.
Bosnia and Croatia were able to take part in ESC despite being in years-long war following their independence so there is precedence.
So the public will choose the people who will choose the ukrainian representative besides with the public too, that’s original, I’ve never seen that before in a NF, and I wonder how they will enforce this. The public will be very powerful, interesting to see what will come out from all of this in december. A busy december again for the eurofans, Vidbir, probably Escz, yhe Jesc, Fik, and certainly other things, that’s cool, the season starts very soon.
Oh, so sorry that they don’t just disappear from the public eye because a couple of ESC fans are grumpy about their win. Maybe try voting for them less, they won only because of the public, which means you guys.
Don’t break your leg from this jumping to conclusions. I’m talking about not wasting money. There’re people who lost homes and are struggling to live from day to day but let’s use resources for big as tv show instead
So Ukraine is aiming to air Vidbir in December. I don’t know if they’ve ever scheduled the national final that early in the Eurovision season, But at least Albania won’t be alone choosing their song in December just like last year. Depending on what date(s) they choose, wouldn’t it be funny if Ukraine actually has the first song for Eurovision 2023 If they precede Albania’s dates. Unless someone else drops their song first.
I think either 2012 or 2013 was held in December because I can vaguely remember seeing Christmas designs on the on screen graphics
Yes, both Zlata Ognevich and Mariya Yaremchuk were selected in December
Means no more Jamala’s propaganda
Jamal was not part of the panel of last year’s Vidbir.
As if Jamala started being a patriot a year ago, she made a clown of her self in 2019.
Jamala will be dancing in Polish “Dancing with the Stars”.
Vidbir in last 3 years was at bar with the danish selection and both sucked a$$ .
Except Vidbir has been giving Ukraine a continuing streak of qualifications as well as several Top 10 placements while DMGP has only given Denmark 3 qualifications in the past 7 contests.
And they just barely scrapped through in 2017 and 2019. TBH they should have qualified this and last year.
DMGP has been full of safe and average pop songs, while Vidbir has given ethnic Ukrainian songs and interesting and exciting music styles that you won’t find outside of Ukraine. I disagree, Vidbir is amazing
conragts to the future vidbir runner up for participating esc , make sure you will get too many pity votes
Make sure you get some education please
Remember that raylee supports [certain country], is racist and has been against LGBTQ+ very openly.
Continuing to exist as a functioning society is important. Demonstrating that for all to see is also important.
They could’ve just picked someone internally is a thing
I sincerely hope we will not have Super Saturdays where we have to zap between NFs. Spread them around, people.
Supersaturdays are inevitable especially at the last 2 weeks where most selections are concluded
They could make more NFs von Fridays or Sundays, maybe even on any other day like Germany used to do years ago on Thursday instead?
Broadcasters don’t really care about each other’s schedules. If they have national selections airing against each other at the same time, it wouldn’t matter as one is airing in another country so they’re not taking viewers away from the other.
I agree. I know it’s often not possible to do so due to so many events, but it would be great if the broadcasters at least *try* to co-ordinate their selections from October to March in a way that there’s as little clashing as possible.
It’s a bit childish to immediately assume Ukraine wins every song contest they compete in in the future. None of us can tell what the other countries will do, and how the public responds to it. For the same sake, people will *refrain* from voting for Ukraine next year, or at JESC if their song isn’t good enough. We all saw that huge televoting score for Kalush a few months ago. Who says Ukraine’s guaranteed another huge score for the next competition?
They will win unless EBU changes voting system or they will withdraw. They would’ve won from like 23 spot with televote alone. That’s not just a lot. Jury vote didn’t mean anything last year. Depending on quality of other songs they could possibly win even with 0 points from juries.
EWW next
POV: You’re listening to Raylee’s MGP songs in 2020 and 2021
True. All that money they put up for NF shows could better be used to help rebuilt Ukraine instead. But no wait, they still seek financial help from other countries who also suffer from economic crisis at the moment.
By default, a public broadcaster’s programming budget is completely separate from that of the state as they are, by their mandate, run independently.
You can’t simply take away money meant for one entity to reallocate it somewhere else.
Enough with them. There are other countries with political issues in Europe you know..
You just legalised racism. Lol. U should take some morailty steroids 🙂
Another proof that ukraine as state has rasist tendencies… very miserable decision. To cancel culture? Hilarious.
Did you fail to notice that Russia is waging war on Ukraine?
So? It is totaly other thing. We all know what caused the war. We are not stupid. But as i see many are.
Totally, not totaly. I, not i. But of course you are not stupid
Vidbir is always rife with bangers, and last year was no exception. Maybe the top two were the only ones with a serious chance at winning Eurovision, but I’d call the vast majority of songs excellent. Sounds like next year is on track to be even better!
How about artistic freedom?
If an artiatic wants to express in Russian, a polititians forbids it.
But it is OK because Ukraine is right and Russia wrong. Eh?
Eurovision is about competing in a TV show under your nation’s flag with just one entry that fits a defined set of rules, not about “artistic freedom”, which you can enjoy anywhere else
Vidbir is a nightmare, burn it lol
I’m hoping for no drama next year but that would be too much to ask I think.
Maybe its me. But isnt Ukrainian and Russian basically the same languages, just as Flemish and Dutch and Serbian and Montenegrin? I cant hear the difference at all, so can someone enlighten me? If its more or less the same language banning Russian doesnt make any sense. And what will Ukraine do if another country sends an entry in Russian? Forbid that too?
Who on earth would send an entry in Russia? Russia’s out. Belarus’ out. That leaves . . . no-one?
Russian & Ukrainian are different languages thank you very much… I speak Russian, can understand a few words here and there in Ukrainian but that is pretty much it. If you speak one, it does not mean you can speak or understand the other. Ukraine banning their representative from singing in Russian makes complete sense. I don’t see a reason to question that. Also for the your other question: What country would send a song in Russian in 2023? No one would be dumb enough to do that. That would not get votes. Nobody would vote for them. Also since… Read more »
You are not russian.
You’re gonna tell me what I am?! HA!
I am Israeli but I speak Russian as well as Hebrew and English. I don’t speak Russian as fluently as I speak English & Hebrew but both of my parents speak Russian fluently so I know some as a result.
Latvia 2009
Latvia did in 2009
Serbian, croatian and fake invented Montenegrian + Bosnian are all same language called Serbo-Croatian. Just coz some of new states have frustration and beed to call language by the name of their state, doesnt mean that they are right. Diference between Austrian German and German in Germany are bigger than diference between language in Serbia and in Croatia. English is called English in UK and in US and Canada and Australia. They have no need to call it America, Canadian nor Australian language. They call it English. Same goes for Pirtuguese all over in other states outside Portugsl… same goes… Read more »
Yes but ex-YU countries are so chauvinistic that they have to differentiate themselves from each other.
You’re fake invented lol. They just want to differentiate themselves from Serbia and I think it’s quite understandable 🙂 I studied both Croatian and Serbian and even though there are very small differences, you cannot say they are 100% same language.
That doesn’t make sense. Should the language spoken by the majority of Americans called American and not English because of the differences vs British English?
No, Ukrainian and Russian are far more different than Flemish and Dutch. I speak fluent Russian, but cannot understand details of a Ukrainian conversation. I would compare the two languages to Dutch and German, or Spanish and Italian
Then you do not speak russian very good
I grew up in the Soviet Union and am absolutely fluent in Russian. How about you?
By the way, in English it is “You do not speak Russian very well”
Gigi tupaya.
LOL
They are definitely not the same language. Ukrainian is closer to Polish/Belarussian. I don’t understand a thing in Russian but I do understand basic phrases in Ukrainian as they are much more similar to my native language.
Even Russia rarely ever sent entries in Russian LOL. Who on earth will send Russian song? Malta? Israel? Maybe France?
So, what about millions of Russians living in Ukraine as natives? If you want them to be part of your country you can not treat them as some cancer… (Like they used to do for years, btw)
They need to integrate. Western europe gets a lot of immigrants that doesn’t mean we need to have 30 national languages right?
Same with latvia and estonia
Ru-speakers in the Baltics are mostly Russian settlers, whereas in Ukraine it’s mostly recently Russified natives who nonetheless have Ukrainian ethnic identity. As such, most of Ukraine’s Ru-speakers support and are often initiators of policies targeted at revival of Ukrainian language all across the country
As I stated, Russians in Ukraine aren’t some kind of immigrants, they are natives, and there are about 8 millions of them. In the future, after the war, there will be still a lot of Russians living in the territory of Ukraine. So, what to do with them, forbid their existence, assimilate them? Show you’re just the same as occupier?! Integration of the minority is a two-way process, so banning the Russian is just the wrong way to go… For example, in the Serbian national selection, you can submit an entry not only in Serbian but in every official, recognized… Read more »
As an foreigner you probably understand the best what is appropriate for Ukrainians. The people who you call “millions of Russians living in Ukraine as natives” are millions of Ukrainians who speak more Russian, which doesn’t indicate that they want Russian language in Ukraine or anything else about their political leanings. There is no “us” and “them”, one of which has more control and power and supposedly treats the other “as some cancer” lol. It’s a lie. Or rather outsider’s projection with 0 understanding of the Ukrainian colonial history and the real attitudes of Ukrainian citizens. My family speaks both… Read more »
If they feel as part of the country they should know Ukrainian, no?
Selection in December. (Will be one of the earlier ones of the season alongside Albania then by the looks of it)
Another year of multiple NFs in December! I love it!
Now, let’s see who is gonna be Alina Pash 2.0? Or maybe Maruv 3.0?
Ukrainian entries always slays. The war is not going to reduce the quality of their entries this year, I’m confident.
The only thing Ukraine does well is to improve bad, boring songs by developing an interesting performance show surrounding it. They are overrated by televoters though, like juries overrate Sweden or Australia every time.
I would say the public overrate most songs…when songs like “Hey ho let’s go” or whatever it is called gets 2nd best televote just shows why juries are needed to be honest…
They should withdraw for a couple of years . Enough with the drama
Why should they? they never chose to be invaded
“Drama”? Lol . You don’t have to follow every little news on Eurovision from Ukraine
Yeah because banning Russian from your national selection is going to stop Putin and his war machine isn’it it…
Eurovision is about unity, all this is causing is more division. Russia is spoken in a large segment of the population
then don’t comment on a website dedicated to it
Pray for Ukraine, regardless of win or lose. It’s about identity this year.
Pray for Europe
We all know that Ukraine will win in UK next year, whatever they sent
yass as they should
Not sure how I feel about this Russian language ban.
How would people feel if Bosnia banned Serbian, Israel banned Arabic or the UK banned Spanish (because of the Islas Malvinas/Falklands war).
The Russian language isn’t the enemy here, it’s the current Russian dictatorship. Banning a language isn’t a ‘symbolic move against the enemy state’. It doesn’t feel right for a country at Eurovision to ban an entire language.
If anything, imagine if Ukraine sent a song in Russian directed towards the Russian people so that they could understand it.
THAT would be a symbolic move against the enemy state.
That would only be symbolic if Russia was participating or broadcasting it if not it would be lost
If Ukraine sent a song in Russian it would shock Russians and ultimately go viral there.
If they don’t care about reports if homicides, they won’t care about propaganda song either
israel definitely would not allow a song in Arabic let’s be honest here
They already have sent a Palestinian-Israeli Christian singing in Arabic @Donkey. Arabic phrases are found throughout much of the songs in Hebrew too (eg 2020). Israel’s population consists of more than 50% native Arabic-speaking Muslims, Christians, Druze, Jews and more.
yeh well since the ethnic cle*nsing 2021 censorship has been at an all time high and has you lot believing that Israel is not doing the exact same thing as Russia. They wouldn’t dare send an Arab now
@Donkey, Noa Kirel literally comes from an Arab background (half Moroccan), and Nasrin Kadri is a Palestinian-Israeli singer who was also included in the selection evaluations for this year’s representative given her immense commercial success across Israel. I myself am an Arab, so please don’t tell me what Israelis think about people from Arabic-speaking backgrounds or the country’s stance on the Arabic language as a whole.
yh well I’m P*lestinian, and noa kirel was in the idf, the army that is m*rdering innocent children, so her Arab background is irrelevant. Everyone is in denial of what Israeli government is doing and it shows
I don’t like talking about this issue, because of how many intimate matters to both sides there are in it, but 2009 and 2020 saw lyrics in Arabic, alongside English and Hebrew (and also Eden Alene’s ancestral Amharic – vidbir act in 2020 Fo SHO also had Ethiopian-Jewish roots). Also Toy’s writer said that the dislikable conservative than-pm (who still has a worrying influence) “corrupts is by saying everyone hates us – if you give love they’ll love you”. I wish Belarusians and Russians were allowed to say the same without being under the threat of arrest or blacklisting.
Russians make up a decent segment of the population. All it will do is cause more division
Bosnian and serbian are same language just bosnians had frustration so they renamed the language fir their teritiry. We mock it in Balkans. Mocking to bosnian and montenegrin “language”.
You should rather say “We mock it in SERBIA”
Frustrations? How about a war where people died because aggresor states tried to wipe out everything about them? Lets see how frustrated you would be then..
How many people did your parents kill in the war?
They have every right to do whatever they want really. They can make a rule to perform in clown costume if they want. It’s National selection
In before the far left flood this page with “how can Ukraine be so mean to Russians and their “beautiful” ? language “
The Russian language is beautiful.
The difference is that Ukrainians don’t want a song in the language of a country which is currently invading them, which is totally fair.
To who? Xd every slavic language sounds odd/funny to other slavic natives
On the one hand, I am glad that they are preparing selections anyway, but on the other hand, I am shocked and the question should be asked who will perform in these difficult times. In addition, I would like to point out that the opinion about Ukraine, from a country that cares about ESC, is again turning towards they will win through politics, unfortunately at the same time the aversion to Ukraine itself in Eurovision is growing.
Hopefully Ukraine will realise that it’s in its own interest to not keeping winning.
Remember, guys, Russia is evil. I’m glad that Ukraine decides to ban songs in Russian, a language that Ukrainians are normally fluent in because they’re taught both Ukrainian and Russian.
Slava Ukraini!
Not as evil as Israel
In fact you are evil and brainwashed person that thinks purple
So you are of the agressor state.Russians are not welcome in Eurovision or Europe and you will not take part in Eurovision again.You and your kind are killers and I can not wait to see your 3rd world country collapse and Putin be killed.
xenophobia of any kind is very very bad, no matter the political situation of the world. You should be banned from here
Well Europe are no angels either, remember Iraq?
Vidbir is early this year. I wonder why. At least it makes it easier for us fans as there’s usually only FiK and ESCZ in December, as opposed to more than I care to count in February. Maybe it was to give them more time to prepare the act for Eurovision, which will be trickier than usual under their current circumstanes. This may be unpopular, but I hope Ukraine do well, but don’t win next year. It’ll just create even more drama, and other broadcasters might start getting the humf.
I’m pretty sure that if Ukraine wins again we will see another ESC1970 situation with countries withdrawing as a protest which is why I think that they won’t win
I’m glad Ukraine is banning Russian-language songs.