Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

The Ukrainian national final took place in the NAU Center of Culture and Arts in Kyiv on 12 February 2022, and was hosted by Maria Efrosinina with Timur Miroshnychenko as backstage host.[5][6][7][8]

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 through an online submission form.[9] Twenty-seven acts were longlisted and announced on 17 January 2022. The second stage was a scheduled audition at designated dates and featured the twenty-seven acts in the longlist. Eight acts were selected to advance, which were announced on 24 January 2022. The third stage was the final, which took place on 12 February 2022 and featured the eight acts vying to represent Ukraine in Turin. The winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and a three-member expert jury,[10] consisting of 2006 and 2016 Ukrainian entrants Tina Karol and Jamala, alongside Suspilne board member Yaroslav Lodyhin.[11][12]

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 14 December 2021 and 10 January 2022. Only artists that had not performed in a concert in Russia since 2014 nor entered the territory of Crimea without due permission were able to apply for the competition.[9] A selection panel including the music producer of the show Mykhailo Koshevy and the television producer of the show Oleksiy Honcharenko reviewed the 284 received submissions, and twenty-seven entries that had been longlisted were announced on 17 January 2022.[13][14] Auditions were later held at the My Dream Space venue in Kyiv where eight entries were shortlisted to compete in the national final.[14] On 24 January 2022, the eight selected competing acts were announced.[15] It was later announced by Suspilne that Laud was disqualified from the competition as his song "Head Under Water" was previously released in 2018, which is in violation of the rules. Barleben took his place in the final lineup with the song "Hear My Words".[16]

The final took place on 12 February 2022. Former Ukrainian Eurovision entrants Tina Karol (2006), Jamala (2016) and Go_A (2021) were guest performers at the final. In addition, Ukrainian Junior Eurovision entrants Darina Krasnovetska (2018), Sophia Ivanko (2019), Oleksandr Balabanov (2020), and Olena Usenko (2021) performed a medley of past Ukrainian Eurovision entries ("1944", "Shum", "Dancing Lasha Tumbai", and "Wild Dances").[18] Alina Pash won the televised version of the competition. Later, she was ceased from participating in the national selection after it was discovered that her representative had provided Suspilne with a falsified certificate of her travel history.[19]

On 22 February 2022, it was announced that the televote winner and runner-up of the competition, Kalush Orchestra, would represent Ukraine at Eurovision.[20]

Following Alina Pash's victory, runner-up Kalush Orchestra accused the organisers of falsifying the results. Lead singer Oleh Psiuk claimed that the organisers of the selection had refused to speak to him after several technical issues had occurred during the announcement of the results. Incorrect points were given during the allocation of the televotes, leading to a failure of the electronic scoreboard, meaning that host Timur Miroshnychenko had to manually announce the results from a sheet of paper.[24] After the show, a video emerged of Psiuk confronting a producer in a corridor.[25] On a livestream, Psiuk claimed that the producer had refused to answer his questions, and went on to state that he intended to challenge the organisers in court. Suspilne and its audit partner PwC maintained the validity of the results, stating that the technical difficulties had had no impact on the results. However, Yaroslav Lodyhin, chairman of the organising committee of Vidbir as well as one of the jurors in the competition, stated that he would be ready to resign from his position as further proof of the broadcaster's good faith,[26] and his resignation came into effect on 18 February.[27] The full results of the selection were published on 22 February.[23][28]

Following the controversy surrounding Maruv at Vidbir 2019, which led to Ukraine withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest that year, a new rule was introduced starting from Vidbir 2020 which bars artists who have performed in Russia since 2014 or have entered Crimea "in violation of the legislation of Ukraine" from entering the competition.[29] On 14 February 2022, activist and video blogger Serhii Sternenko alleged that Pash had entered Crimea from Russian territory in 2015, and counterfeited her travel documentation with her team in order to take part in Vidbir.[30] Suspilne subsequently stated that they would request the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service to verify if the documentation is forged, and that Pash would not officially be the Ukrainian representative at the contest "until the verification and clarification of the facts is completed".[31] Andrii Demchenko, speaking on behalf of the Guard Service, maintained that the certificate Pash had handed in to the broadcaster had not been issued by them, but that a request to cross the border had been made by the artist, and that the public broadcaster would be provided with the results of the investigation by 16 February at 11:00 (EET).[32][33] Svitlana Ostapa, chair of the Supervisory Board of Suspilne, later called a meeting, which was held on 18 February, in order to discuss the situation surrounding Vidbir.[32][33][34]

Pash's management addressed the accusations stating that she had entered Crimea from the Ukrainian border, and that the certificate had been requested by a "team member" rather than Pash herself. They had assured to be analyzing the circumstances surrounding the obtainment of the document.[35] On 16 February, Pash claimed on an Instagram post that the State Border Guard Service had not been able to provide her with a new certificate as proof of her entrance to Crimea, as she had requested in the wake of the controversy, since related records are only kept for five years.[36] Shortly after, Pash announced on her social media pages that she would withdraw her candidacy as the Ukrainian representative at the Eurovision Song Contest.[19] On the same day, Suspilne stated it had decided to "cease her participation" and that "the artist agreed with this decision of the organizing committee".[37]

On 16 February 2022, a 2015 VK post by runner-up Kalush Orchestra member Tymofii Muzychuk surfaced, portraying the musician in front of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The band's management stated that the photo had been taken before 2014, and that Muzychuk had traveled to Russia in 2013 to perform at a Mykhailo Poplavskyi concert in Moscow and at an event in Krasnodar, which he claimed to have been his last time in the country.[38]

After it became clear that Alina Pash would not represent Ukraine at Eurovision, Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne stated that, according to the rules of Vidbir, they would select another representative among the other competing artists in the national final during the meeting of 18 February,[39][40] without specifying when they would announce the result of the selection. Runner-up Kalush Orchestra were offered the proposal on 17 February.[41] On 21 February, it was reported that the band would refuse to sign the participation contract until the detailed results of the national final were released.[42] On 22 February, simultaneously with the release of the detailed results, the band accepted the offer to represent Ukraine at Eurovision.[20]

Following the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Suspilne and Kalush Orchestra had yet to formally comment on whether their Eurovision participation would continue.[43][44] On 14 March, Claudio Fasulo and Simona Martorelli, executive producers of the 2022 contest, confirmed that Ukraine would still be competing; this was later reaffirmed by Suspilne on 19 March via a post on its social media pages.[45][46][47] They added that work would commence on the Ukrainian 'live-on-tape' backup performance, which was recorded in Lviv and to be used in the event that the delegation cannot travel to Turin for the contest.[48][49] On 2 April, Suspilne confirmed that Kalush Orchestra and the rest of the delegation was given permission from state authorities to travel to Turin for the contest, adding that the group would also take part in promotional events across Europe to raise donations for war relief efforts.[50][51][52]