Ukraine in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020


Ukraine was represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was held in Warsaw, Poland, with the song "Vidkryvai" performed by Oleksandr Balabanov. Their entrant was selected through a national selection, organised by the Ukrainian broadcaster UA:PBC.

Background

Prior to the 2020 contest, Ukraine had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest fourteen times since its debut in. Ukraine have never missed a contest since their debut appearance, having won the contest once in with the song "Nebo", performed by Anastasiya Petryk. The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has hosted the contest twice, at the Palace of Sports in, and the Palace "Ukraine" in. In the contest, Sophia Ivanko represented her country in Gliwice, Poland with the song the "Spirit of Music". She placed 15th out of 19 entries with 59 points.

Before Junior Eurovision

National final

UA:PBC announced that they would be participating at the 2020 contest in June of that year. The broadcaster launched the Ukrainian selection process on 5 August 2020, accepting submissions until 25 August 2020. All applications that complied with the rules were uploaded on YouTube and the candidate that had received the most likes on the platform advanced automatically to the next stage of the program. The final shortlist was announced on 28 August 2020 with an online vote due to open a week later on 5 September 2020 to decide the winning entry alongside a professional jury.

Competing entries

The submissions accepted by UA:PBC were revealed online and users had until 27 August 2020 to vote for their favourite entries by giving a like. The entry with the most likes directly advanced to the national final. A selection panel then reviewed the remaining submissions and selected ten entries to compete in the national final: eight original songs and two cover songs. On 18 August 2020, Maksym Tkachuk was disqualified from the competition as it was discovered that he had performed in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea after its annexation as part of a competition allegedly organised by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, breaching the Section 3.4. on the national selection's rules. On 28 August 2020, the eleven selected competing acts were announced on Instagram.
ArtistSongResult
Angelina McFarlane"My Spirit"Advanced
Anhelina Terennikova"The Vibe"Advanced
Anastasiya Fuchenko"Funky Boy"Eliminated
Anna Motyl"Zavtra" Eliminated
Anna Tkach"Flying So High"Eliminated
Daniela Dmitrieva"Polyubila" Eliminated
Daniela Shapochnikova"Tvoye maybutnye" Advanced
Darya Moskalenko"Ya Viryu" Eliminated
Darya Rebrova"My vilni" Eliminated
Daryna Roman"Human of the World"Eliminated
Dmytro Banar"Zhyttya yak fortepiano" Eliminated
Fishki"Strybay" Eliminated
Katerina Huliy"Make Up Your Mind"Eliminated
Iosif Kozlovsky"Dreaming in the Rain"Eliminated
Iryna Sheheda"Syla-lyubov moya!" Eliminated
Karina Zajec"Zhyva" Eliminated
Lidiya Okilko"Svitanok" Eliminated
Los Bananas"Dive in the Water"Eliminated
Mariya Danilova"Syayvo" Eliminated
Mariya Tkachuk"Vstyhnemo vse!" Eliminated
Milena Putyato"Move Your Body"Eliminated
Nikita Boyarintsev"Idy vpeder" Eliminated
Oleksandr Balabanov"Vidkryvai" Advanced
Oleksiy Bekreshov"Hochu ya" Eliminated
Olena Usenko"Never Get Free"Advanced
Polina Babiy"SuperBit"Advanced
Sofia Adamiv"Zatamuju podyx" Eliminated
Sofiya Kostyrko"Muzyka" Eliminated
Sofiya Mohilna"Ty mozhesh zminyti vse" Eliminated
Sofiya Salvarydu"Hora" Eliminated
Sofia Shkidchenko"OK"Advanced
Valeriya Kostyuchenko"Ya taka yak ye" Eliminated
Veronika Petrus"Mriya zhyttya" Eliminated
Viktoriya Borbunevych"Kozhen den" Eliminated
Yaroslav Politov"Ya b tudy" Advanced
Yelizaveta Bilokon"Litayu ya" Eliminated
Yevangelina Zamula"We're the One"Eliminated
Yuliya Karimi"People"Advanced

ArtistSongResult
Alisa Botvintseva"Ukrayintsi" Eliminated
Alisa Chydzhan"Letyt halka cherez balku" Eliminated
Alina Hyrych"Ahov" Eliminated
Anastasiya Bratashchuk"The Start"Eliminated
Anastasiya Zhukova"Better Love"Eliminated
Arina Hmelyuk"Golden Slumbers"Eliminated
Darin Osman"A Natural Woman"Advanced
Darina Sidorova"Sila" Eliminated
Daryna Kryvenko"Solovey" Eliminated
Ivanna Ohyr"Oh! Darling"Eliminated
Kateryna Herasymchuk"Make the World Go Away"Eliminated
Kristina Dushutina"Symphony"Eliminated
Kristina Osychenko"Teche voda" Eliminated
Liliya Lavriv"Mahiya muzyky" Eliminated
Maksym Tkachuk"Dzhamajka" Disqualified
Mariya Vavrish"Runnin' (Lose It All)"Eliminated
Matviy Krupskyy"Novyi den" Eliminated
Nika Korniyenko"Holubka" Eliminated
Nikita Achkasov"My Oasis"Advanced
Oleksandra Mazur"Yesterday"Eliminated
Oleksandra Melkonyan"Dance Monkey"Eliminated
Polina Zahnoy"Move"Eliminated
Sofiya Bishova"Giant"Eliminated
Sofiya Samolyuk"Listen"Eliminated
Sofiya Vinnik"Cheremshina" Eliminated
Valeriya Koval"Strange Birds"Eliminated
Vera Melnichenko"Bad Dreams"Eliminated
Veronika Dubina"Take Me Home"Eliminated
Yehor Umanets"Creep"Eliminated
Yelizaveta Doroshenko"Warrior"Eliminated
Yelizaveta Grihorenko"Right Now"Eliminated
Yelizaveta Sokolovskaya"Can't Pretend"Eliminated

Final

The eleven competing entries were published online on 5 September 2020 and the winner was selected through the combination of both public online vote and the votes of jury members made up of music professionals. Eight jury members each awarded one vote to their favourite entry and each member had an equal stake in the final result. The jury panel that was responsible for 8/9 of the final result consisted of: Jamala, Alina Pash, Taras Topolya, Ruslana Khazipova, Dmytro Shurov, Larysa Klyuyevska, Timur Miroshnychenko, Lyubov Morozova. For the online vote, users will be able to vote for their favourite entries from 5 September 2020 to 8 September 2020 via UA:PBC's official website junior.eurovision.ua, and the results had a weighting equal to the votes of a single jury member. Originally, the winner was to be revealed on 12 September 2020. However, UA:PBC confirmed through its official Instagram account that Oleksandr Balabanov will represent Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020. He received 5 points in total from the jurors, with Daniela Shapochnikova winning the online voting.

Artist and song information

Oleksandr Balabanov

Oleksandr Balabanov is a Ukrainian singer. He represented Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "Vidkryvai".

Vidkryvai (Open Up)

"Vidkryvai " is a song by Ukrainian singer Oleksandr Balabanov. It represented Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020.

At Junior Eurovision

After the opening ceremony, which took place on 23 November 2020, it was announced that Ukraine will perform eleventh on 29 November 2020, following Spain and preceding France.

Voting

Ukraine received 106 points; 52 from the juries and 54 from online voting, reaching 7th place.
ScoreCountry
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point