Ukraine — the only country with a perfect qualification record at the Eurovision Song Contest — is ready to polish its record once more.
On Thursday its broadcaster Suspilne revealed the 10 finalists for the national selection, which will be held on December 17 — one month from today.
Vidbir 2023 finalists
2TONE Квітка (Flower)
Angelina Stronger
DEMCHUK Alive
FIINKA Довбуш (Dovbush)
Jerry Heil WHEN GOD SHUT THE DOOR
KRUTЬ Колискова (Lullaby)
Moisei I’m Not Alone
OY Sound System Ой, тужу (Oy, tuzhu)
Tember Blanche Я вдома (I’m home)
TVORCHI Heart Of Steel
This year’s musical director Dmytro Shurov — aka Pianboy — expressed his gratitude to everyone who entered and praised the final ten. In a statement, he said:
“I am very grateful to all the musicians that managed to do an important job in really difficult circumstances, both emotionally and physically, often under sirens and shellings, in basements and with no power supply. The task was complicated as, besides writing a good song that would touch people, recording it in a studio and performing it live at auditions, the participants had to comply with all the rules of the national selection.”
“As a result of great common work of the team of Suspilne Ukraine and the musicians that submitted their songs to participate in Eurovision 2023, this year we will hear a lot of interesting new Ukrainian music of very different styles, and I am confident that every listener will find their favourite there.”
“A lot of great musicians stayed beyond these ten finalists. I believe that they will have their say in Ukrainian music soon. This gives me hope and confidence that next Vidbirs will be no less interesting.”
by the english titles alone you can pick up the “vibe” they’re going for! so puckle up it will be a dragging national final full of you know what! [can’t write it down because some are sensitive of the truth].
At her best, KRUT? gives me goosebumps. I hope she has a song that pops.
Please Ukraine, still sending quality!
Go_A is still in my heart!
PS: Jamala doesn’t deserve to be judge, she’s harsh. Please, remember Maruv’s scandal
Why would she be harsch?
You don’t remember her conduct at the 2019 vidbir? “Crimea is Ukraine?”
I only recognise Jerry Heil from the line-up and judging from the song title it won’t be like her previous attempt of representing Ukraine. I’m excited. This will be a national selection to watch out for, for sure.
Considering I didn’t like her previous song vegan because I thought it was really annoying, When God shut the door sounds intriguing like it’s a much more serious song. Living through an invasion will do that to you.
It seems promising but where is Khayat !? I really wanted to see him back…. I will follow this NF with pleasure, and probably I will rule for Ukraine again as this is my fav esc country. Good luck to all the participants.
He just didn’t make the cut this time. It happens.
What a pity that this national selection has NO Ukrainian artists I know!! I hope Dzidzio will represent Ukraine in Eurovision someday!! 😀 😀 😀
Jerry Heil, Tember Blanche, TVORCHI give me good vibes
I wonder how many artists have been through through vidbir before And who are the newcomers. Can someone enlighten me please?
Jerry Krut? and Tvorchi took part before
And they were all in the 2020 edition of Vidbir. That I do remember.
Looking forward Tvorchi’s entry. They are the only one I know from this spot. Good luck to all! Can’t wait to listen all the entries.
With those song titles, surely more than one will be about the war. Let’s see if EBU doesn’t disqualify the winner for being a political song.
Feels like Ukraine can do everything with Azerbaijan and Russia …. Like sorry EBU did not want to kick off Russia from ESC even this year lol …. We all know story with AzerBUYjan (and no I am not from Armenia ;))
But Georgia always needs to change something bc of EBU – same with Armenia in 2015 …
JUSTICE FOR MARUV & ALINA.
Wel if the contest had not been in Russia 2009, Georgia might have been allowed in. Shame, it was a great dance track which would have qualified for sure.
It’s about the explicitness of the lyrics. 1944 mentions soldiers, killings, denial of guilt, stolen youth, and the cries of humanity. It doesn’t explicitly mention Russia, Putin or Krimea. That’s the objective difference in EBU’s formal approval. From a very subjective standpoint, We Don’t Wanna Put In aged like fine wine, and I’d be happy if it had the opportunity to be performed in Moscow. I’d be even happier if the hypocritical douche Dima Bilan never won in the first place, and if ESC 2009 was held in Kyiv.
You are talking about connecting the dots. Sure it was about the Russian invasion. But it was not explicitly said in a literal way, and that’s all official guidelines are about. I guess that the wordplay in WDWPI was too on the nose, even if the lyrics technically aren’t literal. The contest being in Russia was probably also important, as nobody wanted to risk performers’ safety either. As for Kirkoroff, no, Shady Lady wouldn’t be my ideal choice either. Portugal, Switzerland, Serbia, Poland, and Albania are by far my top 5. I was just going with the next one in… Read more »
PS. While Kirkorov winning would certainly put a sour taste ESC history (he’s terrible too), at least it would officially put Ukraine directly in front of Russia – TWICE.
But for the sake of the argument, let’s say Greece and fine. It’s catchy enough, and as far as I know, Kalomira is unproblematic. Perhaps an ESC in Athens would have helped WDWPI being approved. Maybe…
”It seems to be important to you to put Ukraine in front of Russia even in 2008, before the war”
I only meant from today’s perspective. I personally voted for Kirkorov’s song in the semi as late as 2019. I would not have today. These are just some of my retroactive thoughts.
As in – For me, Kirkorov isn’t a bad songwriter, only a bad person. Most of his ESC writing work is at least decent. Also, I have to take in account that he didn’t make any of these songs alone. And while I wouldn’t vote for his future project, I’m not ”cancelling” his previous ones on my lists, because they aren’t his work alone, and he’s behind the scenes.
Ha ha ha Ukraine is higher on my list than Greece, even if I do find My Secret Combination a quite nice PG-rated sex song, and Kalomira charming. Nice, as in top 15-worthy, not top 3-worthy. Sure, voting in 2008 isn’t up my alley either. How can you have three songs with the same kind of appeal in top 4? 😉 It does prove that ESC doesn’t have fixed rules, though. Anything can happen.
Me neither miss Kirkorov… I don´t want him see returning to ESC
It’s gonna be presentation with all songs and allocation draw at first dates of December
Yes, we’re going to get the songs on December 1, although we won’t get Albania’s songs until the day of the live shows.
I wonder when the songs will be released. It will be exactly one month before the selection happens.
I hope TVORCHI has a banger. I always feel like something is missing from their songs though, I’m not sure if it’s the vocals or production but it feels unfinished and empty.
Jerry Heil’s song sounds very interesting. I think she’s the frontrunner right now.
KRUTb is a dark horse in this lineup, I’m rooting for her! I just hope her song isn’t boring.
What’s Jerry Heil doing in it? Maybe Mick Jagger wrote the song.
I’m either too gay or too young to understand this reference.
Mrs. Murdoch.
Too young, I’d assume. Jerry Hall (later Murdoch) is a successful model and actress who was in a long-term relationship with The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger from 1977 to 1999.
Dovbush – that’s Oleksa Dovbush, Ukrainian historical figure
Tuzhu means “Miss (someone)”
For Dovbush it’s just an assumption. It’s also can be a slang word for “to beat something”
Wouldn’t be the first time somebody’s name was a byword for something.