Although they still haven’t solved the ‘Host city crisis’, Ukraine started to receive submissions from artists for their National Final. Starting from today, interested performers may submit their applications to take part in the Ukrainian preselection.
The preselection will be carried out by the broadcasters STB and UA:Pershiy. The first stage of the selection takes place from 19.11.2016 till 15.01.2017. Performers are able to take part in it in two ways: They should either apply online on the website of STB channel, or attend the live auditions in one of these six cities in Ukraine: Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Odessa, Lviv, Dnipro and Kyiv.
Candidates are allowed to submit their applications from 19th of November 2016 until 15th of January 2017. The number of entries who will qualify to the next stage of the preselection will be revealed later by STB, but it is already decided that it won’t be less than 20 or more than 40. The artists who are qualified to perform at the National Final will be announced on the last day of 2016, on 31th of December.
In February, 3 or 4 rounds of semi-finals will take place, and a number of 8 to 12 performers will compete for the Final. At each round, 2 or 3 entries will qualify. All of the shows will be broadcast simultaneously on STB and UA:Pershiy. The finalists will be selected based on both public vote and jury vote.
For the first time, an ‘online selection’ round is added this year. This round will run from 1st of October 2016 till 10th of January 2017. In order to participate in the online selection, it is neccessary to register on STB site, and enter their personal information correctly. All profiles and entries will be published on a special section of STB website in chronological order. Visitors of the site will be able to vote by “liking” the profiles of the participants. It will be possible to vote once per day and only for one participant. Participant receiving highest number of likes will get a wildcard and qualify directly to the Final.
The applications must follow the exact criteria that are necessary to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest. For example, artists younger than 16 are not allowed to take place in this selection round, and no more than 6 people are allowed on stage. Participants are required to sing live using recorded musical accompaniment. The song should not exceed 3 minutes.
If you are interested in participating in the selection round, click here to fill the application form.
P.S.: Don’t forget to indicate whether you wish to participate only in the general selection, or also the selection of online wildcard!