Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

On 29 December 2009, NTU announced Vasyl Lazarovych as the Ukrainian entrant at the Eurovision Song Contest 2010.[4][5]

The song that Vasyl Lazarovych represented Ukraine with was selected through a national final. Composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 13 January 2010 and 7 February 2010.[6] Songwriters could hold any nationality, however songs were required to be performed in either English, Ukrainian, Spanish or Italian.[7] A seven-member selection panel reviewed the received submissions and selected five songs to compete in the national final.[8] On 2 March 2010, the titles and songwriters for the five selected competing songs were announced, with the songwriters coming from Ukraine as well as Romania, Germany, Slovenia and Sweden.[9]

The final took place on 5 March 2010 at the NTU studios in Kiev, hosted by Maria Orlova and Timur Miroshnychenko.[10] All five competing songs were performed by Vasyl Lazarovych in both Ukrainian and English versions, and the winning song, "I Love You", was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury.[11] In the event of a tie for the first place, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the jury. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2010 Eurovision entrants Eva Rivas, Sopho Nizharadze, Safura Alizadeh and Miro, as well as Ukrainian singers Irina Rosenfeld, Tatyana Nedelska and Katya Burzynska performed as guests.

On 15 March 2010, one week before the deadline for Eurovision entries to be submitted to the EBU, it was announced that NTU may hold another national final to replace Lazarovych as the Ukrainian entry for the Contest, with a new national final to take place on 20 March 2010.[12] However EBU rules may prevent a new national final being held, as Eurovision rules state that national final details must be made known to the EBU by 31 January 2010, and if Ukraine failed to find a replacement song by the submission deadline - 22 March 2010 - due to possible legal action by Lazarovych, then Ukraine may be forced to withdraw.[13] On 17 March 2010, NTU held an emergency press conference to announce plans for a new national final, to be held on 20 March 2010, after objections to NTU's internal selection of Lazarovych and thus an unfair competition for anyone who wished to take part.

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries by attending an audition on 18 March 2010. A selection panel reviewed 67 received submissions and selected twenty entries to compete in the second national final. The twenty selected competing acts were revealed as 20-second clips, and later as full-length versions on 19 March 2010 during the show Shuster Live, broadcast on the Ukraina channel.[14][15] Among the competing artists was the previous selected artist Vasyl Lazarovych.[16][17]

The final took place on 20 March 2010 at the Savik Shuster Studio in Kiev, hosted by Savik Shuster and Olha Freimut.[18] The winner, "To Be Free" performed by Alyosha, was selected through the combination of votes from a public SMS vote and an expert jury.[19] "To Be Free" was composed by Alyosha herself, with lyrics provided Bogdan Chykalyuk who had written the lyrics in 1977 in America.[20] Masha Sobko and Alyosha were tied at 36 points each but since Alyosha received the most votes from the jury she was declared the winner.

After the national final, allegations were made that the song "To Be Free" plagiarized the Linda Perry and Grace Slick song "Knock Me Out", and had been made available publicly 2 years before the national final. NTU stated in a press release that they would conduct an investigation over the issue.[21][22]

On 22 March 2010, at the start of the Heads of Delegation meeting, it was announced that NTU had been given an extended deadline by the EBU to submit their entry, proposing that they change the song that Alyosha will perform at the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the Head of the Ukrainian Delegation, Viktoria Romanova, "Ukraine has to submit all documents on the new song in Oslo no later than Friday, March 26th 2010."[23] However, it was later stated that because NTU had not submitted their entry to the EBU by the original deadline, the broadcaster would be fined, and would continue to be fined every day after the deadline that no entry has been received.[24][25] The replacement song, "Sweet People", was presented to the public on 24 March 2010.[22]

• In the Semi-final 2 Ukraine came 7th with 77 points: the public awarded Ukraine 7th place with 77 points and the jury awarded 10th place with 78 points.
• In the Final Ukraine came 10th with 108 points: the public awarded Ukraine 13th place with 94 points and the jury awarded 6th place with 129 points.