Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

The Ukrainian national final took place at the Palace of Culture "KPI" in Kyiv and consisted of three semi-finals held on 4, 11 and 18 February 2017 and a final on 25 February 2017. All shows in the competition were hosted by Serhiy Prytula and broadcast on both UA:Pershyi and STB as well as online via NTU's YouTube broadcasts.[4][5]

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over three stages.[6] In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition either through an online submission form or by attending a scheduled audition during designated dates. Applicants also had the option of entering an online wildcard selection, the winner of which was to gain direct entry into the competition's final, however it was later announced that the winner would compete in the competition's semi-finals instead. Twenty-four acts were selected and announced on 17 January 2017. The second stage consisted of the televised semi-finals which took place on 4, 11 and 18 February 2017 with eight acts competing in each show. Two acts were selected to advance from each semi-final based on the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 8 (highest) and the two entries that had the highest number of points following the combination of these scores advanced to the final. The third stage was the final, which took place on 25 February 2017 and featured the six acts that qualified from the semi-finals vying to represent Ukraine in Kyiv. The winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 6 (highest) and the entry that had the highest number of points following the combination of these scores was declared the winner. Viewers participating in the public televote during the three live shows had the opportunity to submit a single vote per phone number for each of the participating entries via SMS or the Teleportal mobile application. In the event of a tie during the semi-finals and final, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the public televote.

The jury panel that voted during the four shows consisted of:[7]

• Konstantin Meladze – Composer and producer
• Jamala – singer-songwriter, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 for Ukraine
• Andriy Danylko – comedian and singer, represented Ukraine in 2007 as the drag artist Verka Serduchka

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries via an online submission form which accepted entries between 1 September 2016 and 15 January 2017.[6] In addition, interested performers could also attend auditions that were held between 6 November and 11 December 2016 in the following cities and locations:[8]

• 6 November 2016: Odessa (Hotel "Marenero")
• 13 November 2016: Dnipro (Hotel "Dnipropetrovsk")
• 4 December 2016: Lviv (Hotel "Reikartz")
• 11 December 2016: Kyiv (STB Headquarters)

Composer and producer Konstantin Meladze was assigned as the music producer of the show and was the lead in reviewing the received submissions and shortlisting entries to compete in the national final.[4] On 17 January 2017, the twenty-four selected competing acts were announced.[9] The twenty-four acts were allocated to one of three semi-finals during a draw that took place on 20 January, which was hosted by Konstantin Meladze.

In addition to the online form and auditions, artists and composers also had the option of submitting their entries into an online wildcard selection which accepted entries between 1 September 2016 and 10 January 2017.[6] The entries were published online at STB's official website and users were able to cast one vote per day. While at first the entry with the highest number of votes was to directly advance to the final of the competition, the winner, "Deep Shivers" performed by Kuznetsov, competed in the second semi-final instead.

The first semi-final took place on 4 February 2017. The top two entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries were eliminated. "I Love You" performed by Tayanna and "O, mamo!" performed by Salto Nazad were the qualifiers. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2017 Belarusian Eurovision entrants Naviband and 2017 Georgian Eurovision entrant Tamara Gachechiladze performed their entries "Historyja majho žyccia" and "Keep the Faith" as guests. Naviband also performed a Belarusian version of the Eurovision 2016 winning song "1944" by Jamala.

The second semi-final took place on 11 February 2017. The top two entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries were eliminated. "Saturn" performed by Rozhden and "Thank You for My Way" performed by Illaria were the qualifiers.

The third semi-final took place on 18 February 2017. The top two entries following the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining six entries were eliminated. "Time" performed by O.Torvald and "Wonder" performed by Mélovin were the qualifiers. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2017 Spanish Eurovision entrant Manel Navarro performed the 2017 Spanish entry "Do It for Your Lover" as a guest.

The final took place on 25 February 2017. The six entries that qualified from the semi-finals competed. The winner, "Time" performed by O.Torvald, was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher scores from the public televote. 193,622 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2017 French Eurovision entrant Alma and 2017 Polish Eurovision entrant Kasia Moś performed their entries "Requiem" and "Flashlight" as guests. O.Torvald and Tayanna were tied at 10 points each but since O.Torvald received a higher score from the public they were declared the winners.

The following five members comprised the Ukrainian jury:[14]

• Yurii Rybchynsky – Chairperson – poet, dramatist, scriptwriter
• Illaria – singer, songwriter, finalist of the Ukrainian National Selections in 2014 and 2017
• Sergii Grachov – composer, arranger
• Yana Pryadko – producer
• Sergii Gagarin (Serzh Gagarin) – radio presenter, producer

Split voting results from Ukraine (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Y. Rybchynsky	S. Grachov	Y. Pryadko	S. Gagarin	Illaria	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Serbia	11	11	15	13	12	15		18
02	Austria	12	12	9	17	11	14		12
03	Macedonia	13	13	8	3	3	8	3	13
04	Malta	14	14	5	7	16	12		17
05	Romania	15	3	3	8	9	7	4	6	5
06	Netherlands	6	5	7	4	6	5	6	14
07	Hungary	16	4	4	1	2	4	7	5	6
08	Denmark	17	15	12	10	7	13		15
09	Ireland	3	6	14	9	10	9	2	11
10	San Marino	18	16	18	18	18	18		16
11	Croatia	1	2	11	6	8	6	5	8	3
12	Norway	5	9	1	5	4	2	10	7	4
13	Switzerland	7	8	13	14	14	11		9	2
14	Belarus	4	7	2	2	1	1	12	1	12
15	Bulgaria	2	1	6	11	5	3	8	2	10
16	Lithuania	8	18	17	15	17	17		10	1
17	Estonia	10	17	16	16	15	16		3	8
18	Israel	9	10	10	12	13	10	1	4	7

Split voting results from Ukraine (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Y. Rybchynsky	S. Grachov	Y. Pryadko	S. Gagarin	Illaria	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Israel	23	18	18	17	19	20		17
02	Poland	4	16	24	19	24	18		14
03	Belarus	3	3	1	2	3	1	12	3	8
04	Austria	22	20	21	24	13	24		22
05	Armenia	8	11	12	20	7	13		16
06	Netherlands	9	4	14	11	9	8	3	23
07	Moldova	2	1	16	5	20	7	4	1	12
08	Hungary	10	8	3	1	2	3	8	7	4
09	Italy	24	25	11	13	23	21		13
10	Denmark	11	24	15	16	16	16		20
11	Portugal	5	2	2	6	1	2	10	2	10
12	Azerbaijan	12	6	5	12	6	5	6	11
13	Croatia	6	5	8	4	14	4	7	15
14	Australia	13	13	10	10	4	9	2	19
15	Greece	7	14	23	18	17	15		21
16	Spain	18	23	25	25	22	25		25
17	Norway	21	10	9	8	10	12		10	1
18	United Kingdom	14	19	20	14	15	17		18
19	Cyprus	16	12	19	21	21	19		12
20	Romania	17	9	4	15	11	11		8	3
21	Germany	15	22	22	22	18	23		24
22	Ukraine
23	Belgium	19	21	6	3	5	10	1	6	5
24	Sweden	20	15	13	7	12	14		4	7
25	Bulgaria	25	7	17	23	25	22		9	2
26	France	1	17	7	9	8	6	5	5	6