(, ; meaning "National selection"), informally known as , is a Ukrainian musical competition originally organized by

Suspilne The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine JSC (, ''NTSU''), also known as Suspilne (, , ) or previously UA:PBC, is the national public broadcaster of Ukraine. As such it was registered on 19 January 2017.STB State Security (, ), or StB / ŠtB, was the secret police force in communist Czechoslovakia from 1945 to its dissolution in 1990. Serving as an intelligence and counter-intelligence agency, it dealt with any activity that was considered oppositio ...

, which determines the Ukrainian representative at the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

. In late August 2021, it was announced that the two broadcasters had terminated their partnership, and that Suspilne was looking for a new selection format for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 The Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was the 66th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Turin, Italy, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Måneskin. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and h ...

, thus bringing an end to the original concept for ''Vidbir''. In October 2021, Suspilne announced that the 2022 edition of ''Vidbir'' would be organized by it alone under a new format. In the first year of the show, the local record by SMS voting was set by receiving 344,268 unique votes, 37.77% of which supported

Jamala Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova. (born 27 August 1983), known professionally as Jamala,. is a Ukrainian singer. She represented and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with her song "1944 (song), 1944". In 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024 ...

, who eventually became the winner of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes (Måns Zelmerlöw song), Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organis ...

Winners

Cast

Over the 8 editions of Vidbir, 11 music experts have been on the jury, two of them

Ruslana Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko (, ; born 24 May 1973),Руслана – Биография< ...

and

are

Eurovision winners 72 songs written by 150 songwriters have won the Eurovision Song Contest, an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The contest, which has been broadcast every year since its debut in , is on ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

respectively. Jamala is the only member of the Vidbir cast who has participated in every edition, as a contestant in 2016, as a jury member in 2017—2019, 2022—2025 and as an interval act in 2020. Several participants have had different roles in different editions of Vidbir.

Julia Sanina Yuliia Oleksandrivna Bebko (; []; born 11 October 1990), professionally known as Julia Sanina ( ), is a Ukrainian singer and the front woman of the Ukrainian alternative rock band The Hardkiss. Biography Sanina was born into a family of mus ...

was a participant in 2016, a jury member in 2023 and a presenter in 2024.

Tina Karol Tetiana Hryhorivna Liberman (born 25 January 1985), better known by her stage name Tina Karol, is a Ukrainian singer and founder of the Tina Karol Charitable Foundation, Tina Karol charitable foundation. In 2006, she was chosen to represent Uk ...

was a jury member in 2020 and 2022, as well as a music producer in 2025.

Kateryna Pavlenko Kateryna Anatoliivna Pavlenko (, ; born August 10, 1988), also known as Monokate (), is a Ukrainian singer, composer, and folklorist. She is the lead vocalist of the Ukrainian electro-folk band Go_A, who would have represented Ukraine at Eurov ...

is the winner of Vidbir 2020, host of the 2023 edition and will be one of the jurors of 2025 edition. Starting from 2023, the participants of the expert jury are selected through the Ukrainian

e-governance Electronic governance or e-governance is the use of information technology to provide government services, information exchange, communication transactions, and integration of different stand-alone systems between government to citizen (G2C), ...

app

Diia Diia ( , ; also an acronym for , , ) is a mobile app, a web portal and a brand of e-governance in Ukraine. Launched in 2020, the Diia app allows Ukrainian citizens to use digital documents on their smartphones instead of physical ones for identi ...

. Key: : Judge / Host / Music producer / Showrunner : Competed as a contestant

Seasons

Series overview

Color key

2016

The final took place on 21 February 2016. The six entries that qualified from the semi-finals competed. The winner, "

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free France, Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command First Army (France), French Army B, part of the Sixt ...

" performed by

, was selected through the combination of votes from a public tele-vote and an expert jury. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher scores from the public tele-vote. "1944" is the first Eurovision Song Contest song to feature lyrics in the

Crimean Tatar language Crimean Tatar (), also called Crimean (), is a Turkic languages, Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not ...

. 382,602 votes were registered by the tele-vote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2016 Irish Eurovision entrant

Nicky Byrne Nicholas Bernard James Adam McGarry Byrne Jr. (born 9 October 1978) is an Irish pop singer, songwriter and radio and television presenter. He is best known for being a member of the pop group Westlife; Westlife has since released twelve albums, ...

performed the 2016 Irish entry "

Sunlight Sunlight is the portion of the electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by the Sun (i.e. solar radiation) and received by the Earth, in particular the visible spectrum, visible light perceptible to the human eye as well as invisible infrare ...

" as a guest.

2017

Final took place on 25 February 2017. Special guests included

Alma Alma or ALMA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film * ''Alma'', an upcoming film by Sally Potter * ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922 * ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017 * ''Alma'' ( ...

Manel Navarro Manel Navarro Quesada (born 7 March 1996) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Do It for Your Lover" and finished last in the final. Career 2014–16: Early beginnings Nava ...

Tamara Gachechiladze Tamara "Tako" Milanova (; ka, თამარა "თაქო" მილანოვა, ; born 17 March 1983) is a Georgian singer, songwriter and actress. She represented Georgia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, with the song " Keep the ...

Naviband Naviband (stylised as NAVIBAND, until late 2016 also called NAVI) is a Belarusian indie folk band. The band was founded as a duo between singer/songwriter and guitar player Artsiom Lukyanenka and singer/songwriter Kseniya Zhuk (Lukyanenka), later ...

, and Kasia Moś.

2018

Final took place on 24 February 2018. Special guests included

Mikolas Josef Mikolas Josef (; ; born 4 October 1995), also known mononymously as Mikolas (stylised in all caps), is a Czech singer-songwriter and former model. He represented the Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Lie to Me" a ...

and

Madame Monsieur Madame Monsieur is a French duo consisting of vocalist Émilie Satt and producer Jean-Karl Lucas. They France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018, represented France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal with the song "Mercy ( ...

. 179,455 unique votes were received from SMS and App voting.

2019

The final took place on 23 February 2019 with special guests

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, () is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is ...

and

Bilal Hassani Bilal Hassani (; ; born 9 September 1999) is a French singer-songwriter and YouTuber. He in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song " Roi", finishing in 16th place. Early life Hassani was born in Orsay, Paris Region to a Moroccan fami ...

. More than 167,500 unique votes were received from SMS and app voting. Maruv was declared the winner after receiving the most votes among the six finalists. On 26 February 2019, three days after the final was aired, Ukraine withdrew from the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the with the song "Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

after

Maruv Hanna Borysivna Korsun (; []; born 15 February 1991), known professionally as Maruv (stylized in all caps), is a Ukrainian singer. She used to be part of the band of the same name, the successor of the band The Pringlez, from February 2017 t ...

and UA:PBC were unable to reach an agreement on her participation in the contest as a result of controversy.

2020

Following the cancellation of the

Eurovision Song Contest 2020 The Eurovision Song Contest 2020 was planned to be the 65th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It would have taken place in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the with the song " Arcade" by Duncan Laurence. This w ...

due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Go_A Go_A () is a Ukrainian folktronica band formed in 2012. The band represented Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021, performing " Shum", and placed fifth in the final. The band's name was made by combining the English word "Go" with the G ...

was internally re-selected to represent Ukraine in the , this time with the song " Shum".

2022

Following controversy regarding her travel history,

Alina Pash Alina Ivanivna Pash (, ; born 6 May 1993) is a Ukrainian singer, rapper and songwriter. In 2016, Pash participated in the sixth season of the Ukrainian edition of ''The X Factor'', placing 3rd. In 2018, she released the single "Bitanga", th ...

's status as a legitimate participant, and therefore winner, of was challenged, which resulted in her participation being ceased by

Suspilne The National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine JSC (, ''NTSU''), also known as Suspilne (, , ) or previously UA:PBC, is the national public broadcaster of Ukraine. As such it was registered on 19 January 2017.Kalush Orchestra Kalush Orchestra is a Ukrainian folk-hip hop group founded in 2021 as a side project of Kalush (rap group), Kalush, performing hip-hop music in the Ukrainian language. They Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, represented Ukraine in the ...

, was chosen as the Ukrainian entrant for the

2023

2024

In this edition, the public determined a wildcard entry through an online vote. During the show, aired on 3 February 2024, the voting app crashed, causing the voting window to be extended to the following day.

2025

The final was held on 8 February 2025 with many veteran Ukrainian Eurovision performers as guests, including

Alyona Alyona Aliona Olehivna Savranenko (; born 14 June 1991), better known by her stage name Alyona Alyona (; stylized in all lowercase), is a Ukrainian rapper, singer, and songwriter. She released her debut album, ''Pushka'' (), in 2019, followed by an ex ...

Jerry Heil Yana Oleksandrivna Shemaieva (; born 21 October 1995), known professionally as Jerry Heil ( ), is a Ukrainian singer, songwriter and YouTuber. She began her career after launching her YouTube channel in 2012, publishing vlogs and musical cover ...

, Kalush,

Mélovin Kostiantyn Mykolaiovych Bocharov (, ; born 11 April 1997), better known by his stage name Mélovin (stylised in all caps; , ), is a Ukrainian singer and songwriter. He first came to prominence after winning season six of '' X-Factor Ukraine''. ...

Ruslana Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko (, ; born 24 May 1973),Руслана – Биография< ...

, and

Tvorchi Tvorchi (stylised in all caps; from ) is a Ukrainian electronic music duo from Ternopil, formed in 2018 by producer Andrii Hutsuliak and vocalist Jeffery Kenny. They have released four studio albums: ''The Parts'' (2018), ''Disco Lights'' (201 ...

. Artem Kotenko and

Svitlana Tarabarova Svitlana Vasylivna Tarabarova (; born 26 July 1990) also known by the stage name TARABAROVA, is a Ukrainian singer, songwriter, music producer, and actress. She is the winner of the National Music Award "Song of the Year 2014" and the "Golden ...

also performed "Hear Me Now," which finished in third place at

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 22nd edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster RTVE, Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). The contest took place on 16 No ...

Ratings

Notes

References

External links

* {{Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest selection events Recurring events established in 2016 Singing talent shows Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest Ukrainian reality television series 2016 Ukrainian television series debuts 2020 Ukrainian television series endings