The Hardkiss and Benny Cristo will be performing in Vidbir semi-final two.
UA:PBC has announced that The Hardkiss and Benny Cristo will be the next guest performers in Vidbir, alongside previously announced Sophia Ivanko. The Hardkiss were runners up at the 2016 edition of Vidbir, and Benny Cristo is this year’s Czech artist.
It has become almost a tradition for the Czech representative to perform at Vidbir, as Mikolas Josef and Lake Malawi have both appeared on the program in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Inviting Czech representatives has become a great tradition, and this year is no exception 😉
One more guest for the second semi-final of #Vidbir2020 – Benny Cristo from the Czech Republic with his song “Kemama” 🇨🇿✨ pic.twitter.com/STNcTkjnzS
— Ukraine at Eurovision 🇺🇦 (@uapbc) February 11, 2020
Participating in the second Semi-Final this weekend is:
- MOONZOO feat. F.M.F. Sure
- FO SHO
- Elina Ivaschenko
- Alexander porâdinsʹkij
- GARNA
- brothers
- David Axelrod
- TVORCHI
The voting in all three shows will consist of 50% jury voting and 50% public voting. The jury will consist of Andrii Danylko (Verka Serduchka, 2007), Tina Karol (Ukraine 2006) and Vitalii Drozdov (director-general of Hit FM Radio).
On their last participation in 2018, Ukraine finished 17th in the final with “Under the Ladder” by Mélovin. MARUV was due to represent the country in Tel Aviv with “Siren Song”. However, MARUV and UA:PBC could not come to an agreement on her participation for a number of reasons, including MARUV’s upcoming performances in Russia. As such, Ukraine were forced to withdraw from the contest.
Source: UA:PBC
Ukraine first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, when Oleksandr Ponomariov performed “Hasta la vista”. The following year Ruslana brought the country their first win with the song “Wild Dances”. It was a feat that would be replicated in 2016 by Jamala with her song “1944”; her emotionally charged song scored a record 534 points to take victory in Stockholm. In 2017 O.Torvald represented the country on home soil with the song “Time”. The group finished in 24th place, Ukraine’s worst result at the contest to date.
