Eurovision will be held without Ukraine

For the first time in the past 12 years, Ukraine will not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest because of the socio-political situation and lack of funding, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTCU) and the European Broadcasting Union decided. The Day has learned from the NTCU’s press service that the company’s key objective is transformation into a public broadcaster. “This mission is extremely important, because the country has had no experience of creating such channels in 23 years of independence. However, the time of implementing the mission of creating a public broadcaster coincides with a very difficult stage in the nation’s life. Unstable financial and political situation, military aggression from the east, and annexation of Ukrainian territories have combined to force us to focus on the NTCU’s chief objective: creating a public broadcaster in Ukraine as soon as possible. While doing it, we have to carefully optimize all costs,” we heard from the First National Channel.

Refusal to participate in this competition has become commonplace over recent years. For example, representatives of 12 countries did not come to Denmark last year, including Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, and Bulgaria.

The NTCU has promised that Ukraine’s absence at the contest will last only for one year, and it will again send a representative to the event as soon as 2016. “We understand that Eurovision is an image-building, prestigious project. However, we have no right do anything poorly, and have no money to do this project well. Should someone come and help us, we will be only too happy, but I am afraid we will not pull off such an effort on our own,” the NTCU’s director general Zurab Alasania commented.

The decision not to participate in the entertainment song show when the country is at war has been supported by Ukrainian singers. “We consulted many performers, and they said they would not take part in the competition just because now was not the time to engage in entertainment of this kind, and the money that would have to be spent on the Ukrainian national selection for Eurovision-2015 would be better spent on more important needs,” the producer of the NTCU’s music programming creative department Vlad Bahinsky noted.

However, Ukraine will not remain entirely without Eurovision. The national TV company is negotiating for rights to broadcast the semifinal and final shows of the competition. Let us recall that Ukraine took part in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2003. Our country’s first representative Oleksandr Ponomariov came 14th then, while the second year of Ukraine’s participation saw it winning the contest with Ruslana’s “Wild Dances,” gaining most points ever over the entire history of the creative competition up to 2004.