Ukraine participated in Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)“ written by Evheniy Matyushenko and Svetlana Loboda. The song was performed by Svetlana Loboda. The Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) organised a national final in order to select the Ukrainian entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The national selection consisted of a semi-final, held on 8 February 2009, and a final, held on 8 March 2009; thirty-one entries competed in the semi-final with the top fifteen advancing to the final. In the final, „Be My Valentine“ performed by Svetlana Loboda was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a seven-member jury panel and a public televote.

Ukraine was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 17, „Be My Valentine (Anti-Crisis Girl)“ was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 16 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed sixth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 80 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 21 and placed twelfth out of the 25 participating countries with 76 points.

National final

The Ukrainian national final took place in Kyiv and consisted of a semi-final held on 8 February 2009 and a final on 8 March 2009. All shows were broadcast on the First National TV Channel as well as online via NTU’s official website 1tv.com.ua.

Format

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition. Thirty-one acts were selected and announced on 28 January 2009. The second stage consisted of a semi-final which took place on 8 February 2009 with the thirty-one acts competing. Fifteen acts were selected to advance from the semi-final based on the votes from an expert jury. The third stage was the final, which took place on 8 March 2009 and featured the fifteen acts that qualified from the semi-finals vying to represent Ukraine in Moscow. 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 15 (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 final had the opportunity to submit a vote for the participating entries via telephone or SMS. In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the jury.

The jury panel that voted during the two shows consisted of:

• Vasyl Ilashchuk – NTU President
• Roman Nedzelskiy – NTU First Vice President
• Oleksandr Ponomaryov – singer, represented Ukraine in 2003
• Sergiy Kuzin – Russian Radio Ukraine CEO
• Andriy Eryomin – choreographer
• Vladimir Bebeshko – composer
• Taras Petrynenko – composer and singer

Competing entries

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 3 November 2008 and 16 January 2009. A six-member selection panel consisting of Vasyl Ilashchuk (NTU President), Roman Nedzelskiy (NTU First Vice President), Andriy Chernyuk (NTU Vice President), Yevgeniy Kalenskyi (NTU Vice President), Sergiy Lapchenko (NTU Chief Entertainment and Music Editor) and Oleg Pylypchuk (NTU Entertainment and Music Director) reviewed the 63 received submissions and shortlisted thirty-one entries to compete in the national final. On 28 January 2009, the thirty-one selected competing acts were announced. On 8 February 2009, Oleg Skrypka and VV and Nikole withdrew from the national final and were replaced by Ira Poison and the group Tabu.

Semi-final

The semi-final aired on 21 February 2009 at the NTU Studios, hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko. The show was filmed on 8 February 2009. The top fifteen entries following the votes from an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining sixteen entries were eliminated.

Semi-final – 8 February 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Result
1	Tori Joy	„Smile“	Viktoria Petryk, Andrey Tymoshchyk, N. Doncheva	Finalist
2	Goryachiy Shokolad	„Every Kiss“	Dmitry Klimashenko, Tetyana Reshetnyak	Finalist
3	Bagira	„Sexy Mama“	Iryna Bagley	Eliminated
4	Solomia	„Not Perfect“	Olena Karpenko	Eliminated
5	Tatyana Bryantseva	„Sweet and Sugar Baby“	Yaroslav Schogla, Iryna Mironova	Finalist
6	Maya	„Ty ne odin“ (Ти не один)	Maya Yanchishin	Eliminated
7	Andriy Knyaz	„Ne ydy“ (Не иди)	Andriy Furdychko	Eliminated
8	Zaklyopki	„Time Is Up“	Katya Komar, Sergiy Kabanets	Finalist
9	Nazar Savko	„Ty prosto slukhay“ (Ти просто слухай)	Nazar Savko	Eliminated
10	Nazad Shlyahu Nemae	„V ochah nebo“ (В очах небо)	Dmitry Mitusov, Denis Nazarov	Eliminated
11	Anastasia Prikhodko	„Za tebe znov“ (За тебе знов)	Anastasia Prikhodko	Eliminated
12	Natalia Volkova	„Gush“	Taras Panenko	Finalist
13	Zoryana	„Vklyuchayu Play“ (Включаю Плей)	Zoryana Skirko	Eliminated
14	4 Kings	„Tearin‘ Up My Heart“	Roman Polonskiy, Anna Rozina	Finalist
15	Gala	„Sly Lover“	Gennadiy Krupnik, Maryna Kursanova	Eliminated
16	Svetlana Loboda	„Be My Valentine“	Evheniy Matyushenko, Svetlana Loboda	Finalist
17	Inna Oliynik	„I Don’t Wanna Be Your Again“	Inna Oliynik	Eliminated
18	Kishe	„Midnight“	Timofey Reshetko, Yevgeny Matyushenko	Finalist
19	Ana	„You’re Like a Paradise“	Anna Zotyeva	Finalist
20	Eduard Romanyuta	„Silence“	Dmytro Tarasov, Oleksandra Malygina	Eliminated
21	Vesta Kameneva	„My Devotion“	Yevhen Kryvoshlyk, Yulia Goncharova, Vesta Kameneva	Eliminated
22	Inshiy Den	„U loni sniv“ (У лоні снів)	Volodymyr Omelchenko, Andriy Stukalo	Eliminated
23	Nikita	„Beauty Saves the World“	Roman Babenko, Jay B.	Finalist
24	Aleksandr Panayotov	„Superhero“	Taras Demchuk, Natalya Safonova	Finalist
25	Denis Barkanov	„You Are My Love and Pain“	Vyacheslav Batulin, Igor Kulik	Finalist
26	Ira Poison	„You Freed Me“	Sergey Pavlov	Finalist
27	Manya	„Fayna Ukraina“ (Файна Юкрайна)	Alexandra Lushnikova	Eliminated
28	Tabu	„You Are“	Tetyana Bubliy, Cyrkel Maksym	Eliminated
29	Andriana	„Oberezhno“ (Обережно)	Hristyna Bazar, Andriana Ryabets	Eliminated
30	Godo	„Zagadaymo bazhannya“ (Загадаймо бажання)	Pierpaolo Guerrini, David Mario Reyes, Yuriy Lukyanenko, Tatyana Ostrovskaya	Finalist
31	Lenara Osmanova	„Flash“	Zera Kengigaeva, Elmara Mustafaeva	Finalist

Final

The final took place on 8 March 2009 at the National Palace of Arts, hosted by Maria Orlova and Timur Miroshnychenko. The fifteen entries that qualified from the semi-finals were to compete, however fourteen entries ultimately competed after „Beauty Saves the World“ performed by NikitA was withdrawn from the final. The winner, „Be My Valentine“ performed by Svetlana Loboda, 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 jury. Yevgeniy Kalenskyi replaced Andriy Eryomin as a jury member in the final. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2009 Belarusian Eurovision entrant Petr Elfimov, 2009 Lithuanian Eurovision entrant Sasha Son, 2009 Polish Eurovision entrant Lidia Kopania, 2009 British Eurovision entrant Jade Ewen and winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 for Ukraine Ruslana performed as guests.

Final – 8 March 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Total	Place
1	Lenara	„Flash“	1	11	12	9
2	Goryachiy Shokolad	„Kiss“	8	5	13	8
3	Tetyana Bryantseva	„Sweet and Sugar Baby“	4	1	5	13
4	Denis Barkanov	„You Are My Love and Pain“	7	12	19	5
5	Zaklyopki	„Time Is Up“	13	9	22	2
6	Natalia Volkova	„Gush“	10	6	16	7
7	4 Kings	„Tearin‘ Up My Heart“	6	4	10	11
8	Ana	„You’re Like a Paradise“	2	2	4	14
9	Svetlana Loboda	„Be My Valentine“	14	14	28	1
10	Godo	„Zagadaymo bazhannya“  (Загадаймо бажання)	3	8	11	10
11	Nikita	„Beauty Saves the World“	—	—	—	—
12	Aleksandr Panayotov	„Superhero“	9	13	22	4
13	Ira Poison	„You Freed Me“	12	10	22	3
14	Kishe	„Midnight“	5	3	8	12
15	Tori Joy	„Smile“	11	7	18	6

Gallery

(photos of GODO)