Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)

Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)" written by Evheniy Matyushenko and Svetlana Loboda (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 21 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. The song was later retitled as "Be My Valentine! (Anti-Crisis Girl)".

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 10 qualifying 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.

Background

Prior to the 2009 contest, Ukraine had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times since its first entry in , winning it in with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Ukraine had managed to qualify to final in every contest they participated in thus far. Ukraine had been the runner-up in the contest on two occasions: in with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" performed by Verka Serduchka and in with the song " Shady Lady" performed by Ani Lorak. Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, which they achieved during the , with the song "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly.

The Ukrainian national broadcaster, National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), broadcasts the event within Ukraine and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. NTU confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest on 3 November 2008. In the past, the broadcaster had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select the Ukrainian entry. Between 2005 and 2008, NTU had set up national finals to choose both or either the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ukraine, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. The method was continued to select the 2009 Ukrainian entry.

Before Eurovision

Evrobachennya 2009Natsionalyni vidbir

The Ukrainian national final consisted of a semi-final held on 8 February 2009 and a final on 8 March 2009. Both shows were broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi 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 the televised semi-final which took place on 8 February 2009 with the thirty-one acts competing in the show. Fifteen acts were selected by an expert jury to advance from the semi-final. 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 their votes 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.

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 (President of NTU), Roman Nedzelskyi (First Vice President of NTU), Andriy Chernyuk (Vice President of NTU), Yevhen Kalensky (Vice President of NTU), Serhiy Lapchenko (chief editor of music and entertainment at NTU) and Oleh Pylypchuk (director of music and entertainment at NTU) reviewed the 58 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, VV and Nikole withdrew from the national final and were replaced by Ira Poison and Tabu.

Shows

Semi-final

The semi-final took place on 21 February 2009 at the NTU Studios in Kyiv, hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko. The show later aired on 21 February 2009. In the semi-final thirty-one acts competed and the top fifteen entries determined by an expert jury advanced to the final of the competition, while the remaining sixteen entries were eliminated. The jury panel that voted during the semi-final consisted of Vasyl Ilashchuk (President of NTU), Roman Nedzelskyi (First Vice President of NTU), Oleksandr Ponomaryov (singer, represented Ukraine in 2003), Serhiy Kuzin (CEO of Russian Radio Ukraine), Andriy Yeromin (choreographer), Volodymyr Bebeshko (composer) and Taras Petrynenko (composer and singer).

Final

The final took place on 8 March 2009 at the National Palace of Arts, hosted by Maria Orlova and Timur Miroshnychenko. "Beauty Saves the World" performed by Nikita was withdrawn prior to the final due to contractual restrictions. The remaining fourteen entries that qualified from the semi-final competed and the winner, "Be My Valentine" performed by Svetlana Loboda

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