Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

The Ukrainian national final took place on 23 December 2012 at the NTU Studios in Kyiv.[2][3] The show was hosted by Timur Myroshnychenko, Tatyana Goncharova and Tetyana Terekhova and broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi as well as online via NTU's official website 1tv.com.ua and the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[4]

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over two stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition by attending a scheduled audition. Twenty acts were selected and announced on 21 December 2012.[5] The second stage was the televised final, which took place on 23 December 2012 and featured the twenty acts vying to represent Ukraine in Malmö.[6] 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 20 (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 show had the opportunity to submit a single vote per phone number for each of the participating entries via SMS. 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 1 October 2012 and 21 December 2012.[1] Auditions were held on 21 December 2012 at the NTU Headquarters in Kyiv where a seven-member selection panel reviewed the 52 received submissions and shortlisted twenty entries to compete in the national final.[5]

The final took place on 23 December 2012. Twenty entries were to compete, however nineteen entries ultimately competed after "Zeleniy dubochok" performed by Oksana Pekun and Maxim Novitskiy was withdrawn during the final. The winner, "Gravity" performed by Zlata Ognevich, 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. The jury panel consisted of Egor Benkendorf (NTU President), Walid Arfush (producer), Olena Mozgovaya (music producer), Yuriy Rybchynsky (poet) and Olga Navrotska (stylist and designer). 14,612 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Matias, Oleg Vynnyk, Pavel Sokolov, Shanis and Tetyana Vorzheva performed as guests.[7]

Following Zlata Ognevich's win at the national final, it was revealed that "Gravity" would undergo a revamp before being submitted to the EBU.[8] On 27 January 2013, the composer of the song Mikhail Nekrasov opened a survey on the social network VK in order to gauge public opinion about possible changes including adding another refrain, increasing the tempo of the song (originally at 85BPM), possibly changing the backing vocalists and making modifications to the beginning and end of the song.[8] On 6 February, the survey had come to a close with the following decisions being taken under consideration by the producers:[8]

• 35% believe the ending is strong as it is with 25% advising that it should be performed higher and louder.
• 40% believe 85BPM is optimal with 24% advising an increase to 87-88BPM.
• 41% believe the lyrics that the backing vocalists sing "You'll never, you'll never break free from gravity" are adequate with 40% advising that Ognevich should also sing these lines.
• 60% believe a third refrain is required with 45% advising that the third refrain should need more development.
• 69% of voters believe the beginning has to be more powerful.
• 86% believe the current backing vocalists should not be changed with 46% believing their vocals should be more simplified so they do not overshadow Ognevich.

Nekrasov revealed that the song's main focus would remain on the instrumental, but that certain modifications have already started to take form such as changes in the backing vocals and the addition of new sounds to the instrumental.[8] In an interview with Novyi Kanal, Ognevich revealed that they have received over 300 ideas for the music video of the song from a competition they opened invited fans to submit their concepts and that Angela Lisitsa would be responsible for designing the outfit for her Eurovision performance.[8] On 11 March, the revamped version of "Gravity" was presented to the public through the release of the official music video on YouTube.[9]