Ukraine began the defence of their Eurovision title this evening with the first of three preliminary shows to decide who will succeed Jamala when the nation host the Contest in May.
Eight acts competed in this first show with two acts advancing to the final on 25th February. This was decided by a 50% televote and a 50% jury vote. The jury consisted of last year’s winner Jamala, composer and producer Konstantin Meladze and Andriy Danylko better known as is drag persona Verka Serduchka who represented Ukraine at Eurovision 2007.
Tayanna topped the televote and came second in the jury vote and finished first overall with 15 points and will advance to the final with song ‘I Love You’. Meanwhile Salto Nazad topped the jury vote and finished third in the public vote, finishing in second overall with 14 points with song ‘O, mamo!’ The six remaining songs were all eliminated. See below for the full results.
The Results:
Place Singer/Song Jury Televote Total 1 Tayanna- ‘I Love You’ 7 8 15 2 Salto Nazad- ‘O, mamo!’ 8 6 14 3SKAI- ‘All My Love For You’6 5 11 4Arsen Mirzoyan- ‘Geraldine’4 7 11 5MamaRika- ‘We Are One’5 4 9 6Roman Veremeychik & Lumiere- ‘Make It Real’2 3 5 7Monochromea- ‘Blue Bird’3 2 5 8Laliko- ‘Sugar Whisper’1 1 2
The competition will continue next weekend with the second semi final, where another eight songs will battle it out to advance to the final.
