Defending Eurovision champions are one of the bookies’ hot favourites to win the song contest trophy this year. And as they gear up to sing in Liverpool, this year’s entrants TVORCHI promise to inspire strength over sadness. 

TVORCHI — that’s Andrii Hutsuliak and Jeffery Kenny — will sing “Heart of Steel” for Ukraine this year. Against the shadow of war, the pair want to showcase and celebrate Ukraine’s resilience. 

In an interview with wiwibloggs at the Barcelona Eurovision Party, the EDM duo spilled about their preparations for Liverpool, their reaction to winning their national final, and their messages of hope for their listeners. 

Ukraine Eurovision 2023 singers TVORCHI want to inspire strength

TVORCHI will sing “Heart of Steel” for Ukraine in the Eurovision 2023 grand final on Saturday 13 May. 

They earned the right to fly the Ukrainian flag in Liverpool by winning their national final Vidbir — hosted in a converted underground metro station — back in December. But the pair told us they were shocked to receive the trophy. 

On the Barcelona blue carpet, Jeffrey told wiwibloggs: “We didn’t really try to make a song for Eurovision at all. We just picked what we had and went with it for the competition, so when we won, we just had the thought of — oh man, what do we do next?!”. 

Now, they’re busy putting the final touches on their plans for Liverpool.

Jeffery added: “It’s a very big honour to represent the country and a huge responsibility as well”.

With their song “Heart of Steel”, TVORCHI are aiming to subvert narratives about sadness and despair, and instead showcase the strength of Ukraine. 

“A lot of people misunderstand what we’re trying to do this year. This year there’s nothing about sadness its about strength […] Ukraine has been already more than one year fighting and standing strong, and that’s what we want to put out to the world — everyone around the world, have hearts of steel.”

“That’s what we want to inspire people with when we’re singing the song in Liverpool.”

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Vicci
Vicci
11 months ago

It has always been in my top10

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago

Yeah, I can see that happening and it sucks, Sweden sucks

Zanoni
Zanoni
11 months ago

They took out my #1 overall NF song, so it took me a while to warm up to “Heart of Steel,” but I eventually did. It helped that someone here pointed me to their legitimately great 2020 Vidbir song.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago

This actually grew on me, it’s a good song but it’s not winner material, especially after how the year shaped up

Kfjfk
Kfjfk
11 months ago

Uk*ainians are so annoying at this point

Patrick Pastor
Patrick Pastor
11 months ago
Reply to  Kfjfk

Yes, it’s very annoying to sing about resilience in the face of an invasion. Such an inconvenience.

Devito
Devito
11 months ago
Reply to  Patrick Pastor

Making a song contest about fundraising for Ukraine is annoying. For the second year in a row! Frankly, our generation has become like a… marshmallow. And as a consequence, we have been gifted with leaders without balls to take down dictators. The creation of NATO and the EU and, later, the fall of Berlin’s walls and the collapse of the Soviet Union gave us the impression that life is a gentle fantasy in Europe. If you dare look at history, wars keep happening over and over again. Only not in Europe for the past 30 years, where we live. So… Read more »

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago
Reply to  Devito

Whataboutism much?

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago
Reply to  Benito Camelo

Questions aside, your comment got off to a great start but you beat around the bush a lot, man. I get some of your concerns but it’s natural human behavior (regarding not being worried about what happens elsewhere), unfortunately, though

Croozzer
Croozzer
11 months ago
Reply to  Devito

I’m surprised you didn’t write that we are helped because we are white-haired, blue-eyed people (in fact, we are not). I would add that I don’t think you have ever thought about all the wars you named outside the context of Ukraine.

Patrick Pastor
Patrick Pastor
11 months ago
Reply to  Devito

My original point was how people singing about what affects them seems to annoy entitled people who can’t understand issues not pertaining to the contest. With that being said, you make some excellent points in what – most people will not care about an issue until it affects them directly. As for why we don’t do more to topple dictators, well….that’s a broad question with no shortage of answers. Let me ask you something: what happens when dictators get toppled by a foreign power these days? Do the people immediately accept the new government and everything goes perfectly? No. What… Read more »

Elll
Elll
11 months ago
Reply to  Devito

Let me remind you that Russia is holding hostage one of the largest nuclear power plants and also threatens the world with a nuclear strike every day. Did this happen in the Congo or somewhere else? Has even one nuclear power behaved like this? Do you understand the consequences of this war not only for Europe but for the world. I do not think so

Patrick Pastor
Patrick Pastor
11 months ago
Reply to  Elll

Exactly. There are at least four ways I can think of to get rid of Putin….and none of them are practical: Nuking Russia is out of the question….for reasons that are – hopefully – obvious. Russia’s too large to invade, and any invasion would only serve to rally the Russians around Putin. Assassinating him will probably only serve to put someone worse in power. Even if – somehow – you depose Putin and set up a provisional government, there’s going to be an enormous power vacuum….one that could easily be filled with regional warlords. Which will destabilize the world’s largest… Read more »

Elll
Elll
11 months ago
Reply to  Patrick Pastor

yes, that’s why Ukrainians should die slowly in front of the whole world because this is the safest option. Meanwhile someone can say that Ukrainians are very annoying because they don’t keep quiet while they are being killed

Elll
Elll
11 months ago
Reply to  Devito

by the way, in most of the wars you mentioned russian ears stick out. And yes, Yugostavia says hello

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago
Reply to  Kfjfk

Ukrainians have been quiet for a while already, tf is u talkin abt?

Marlinken
Marlinken
11 months ago

Obviously, I’m not a monster so was happy that the continent sent love to Ukraine last year. ‘Stefania’ was a great song too.

As music, this doesn’t really work for me; it feels more American than Ukrainian, but it’s a decent “winner country” song. I’d have preferred ‘When God Shut the Door’

James
James
11 months ago
Reply to  Marlinken

It helps that majority of Ukraine’s Eurovision entries don’t really adhere to what people expect Ukrainian modern music to sound like.

Vivian
Vivian
11 months ago

I quite like this song. It’s probably only getting hate because people don’t want to see Ukraine win again

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago
Reply to  Vivian

I think the same, the song is good but people don’t want to see Ukraine winning again (which is reasonable, this year has many great songs)

Bernard
Bernard
11 months ago

Still can’t decide whose song is more boring – theirs or Loreen’s. Same level of nothingness for 3 minutes straight.

Itchybean
Itchybean
11 months ago

Poor song but with a million refugees in Europe it’ll do well in the televote. Facts people

Milan
Milan
11 months ago

A very good song, my top 5 this year (not that the competition is fierce…)

Ffs
Ffs
11 months ago

LOL

Alfie28
Alfie28
11 months ago

GLORY TO UKRAINE! Don’t care about the haters. Can’t wait to see the staging and performance. Ukraine always impresses.

Zisk
Zisk
11 months ago
Reply to  Alfie28

If the staging is anything like the national final it should do well.

Benito Camelo
Benito Camelo
11 months ago
Reply to  Alfie28

I’m all in for Ukraine winning the war too, but may the best song win in May imo