Eurovision Score Sheet for the 2009 Final: Who Won and Who Lost?

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 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)".

Eurovision Score Sheet for the 2009 Final

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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.

Prior to the 2009 contest, Ukraine had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest six times since its first entry in 2003, winning it in 2004 with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana.[1] Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, 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 2007 with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" performed by Verka Serduchka and in 2008 with the song "Shady Lady" performed by Ani Lorak. Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, which they achieved during the 2005, 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.[2] 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.[2]

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.[3]

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.[4] 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.[5][6] 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.[7] In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the jury.

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 3 November 2008 and 16 January 2009.[8] 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.[9] On 28 January 2009, the thirty-one selected competing acts were announced.[4] On 8 February 2009, VV and Nikole withdrew from the national final and were replaced by Ira Poison and Tabu.[10]

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.[11] 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).[12]

The final took place on 8 March 2009 at the National Palace of Arts, hosted by Maria Orlova and Timur Miroshnychenko.[13][14] "Beauty Saves the World" performed by Nikita was withdrawn prior to the final due to contractual restrictions.[15] The remaining fourteen entries that qualified from the semi-final competed and 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.[16] The jury panel that voted during the final consisted of Vasyl Ilashchuk (President of NTU), Roman Nedzelskyi (First Vice President of NTU), Yevhen Kalensky (Vice President of NTU), Oleksandr Ponomaryov (singer, represented Ukraine in 2003), Serhiy Kuzin (CEO of Russian Radio Ukraine), Volodymyr Bebeshko (composer) and Taras Petrynenko (composer and singer).[17] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Irina Rosenfeld, Mika Newton, Nikita, 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 Ukrainian 2004 Eurovision Song Contest winner Ruslana performed as guests.[18]

Following the semi-final of the Ukrainian national final, Anastasia Prikhodko and her manager Olena Mozgova claimed that neither the NTU nor the jury had used trustworthy methods to choose the finalists; jury member Roman Nedzelskyi previously admitted that they did not select Prikhodko for the final as a Russian version of "Za tebe znov" had already been performed during the talent show Fabrika Zvyozd, despite the competition rules not specifying that the song performed during the semi-final should also be performed in the final.[19][20] Anastasia Prikhodko would later enter and win the Russian national final with the song "Mamo", representing Russia at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest and placing eleventh.[21][22]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top nine songs from each semi-final as determined by televoting progress to the final, and a tenth was determined by back-up juries. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 30 January 2009, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals. Ukraine was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2009.[28] The running order for the semi-finals was decided through another draw on 16 March 2009. As one of the six wildcard countries, Ukraine chose to perform in position 17, following the entry from Albania and before the entry from Estonia.[29]

The voting system for 2009 involved each country awarding points from 1-8, 10 and 12, with the points in the final being decided by a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Ukraine had placed twelfth with the public televote and sixteenth with the jury vote in the final. In the public vote, Ukraine scored 70 points, while with the jury vote, Ukraine scored 68 points.

Small, demographically-balanced juries made up of ordinary people had been used to rank the entries, but after the widespread use of telephone voting in 1998 the contest organizers resorted to juries only in the event of a televoting malfunctions. In 2003, Eircom's telephone polling system malfunctioned. Irish broadcaster RTÉ did not receive the polling results from Eircom in time, and substituted votes by a panel of judges.[2] Between 1997 and 2003 (the first years of televoting), lines were opened to the public for only five minutes after the performance and recap of the final song. Between 2004 and 2006 the lines were opened for ten minutes, and from 2007 to 2009 they were opened for fifteen minutes. In 2010 viewers were allowed to vote during the performances, but this was rescinded for the 2012 contest. Since the 2004 contest, the presenters will start the televoting process with the phrase "Europe, start voting now!". This invitation also applies to Australia from 2015 to 2023 ("Europe and Australia, start voting now!"). At the end of the voting period, the presenters will invite viewers and the audience to stop with the ten second final countdown along with the phrase "Europe, stop voting now!".[3] The UK is not able to vote via SMS or the smartphone app due to legislation implemented after the 2007 British premium-rate phone-in scandal. 2ff7e9595c