Suspilne, the Ukrainian national broadcaster, has revealed the longlist for the Ukrainian selection for Junior Eurovision 2026.
From a record 642 applications, 15 artists in all have been longlisted for its national selection show for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The longlisted artists comprise one group, one duo, and thirteen soloists. They are:
- Band VYHOR (Mariia Vaskivska (13), Tina Kolodiichuk (9), Zoriana Panchenko (13), Daria Udovychenko (12), Oleksandra Svarnyk (14) and Kateryna Yaiuk (11))
- Mariia Blyznuk (11)
- Kateryna Vatan (12)
- Sofiia & Veronika Voznika (12 & 10)
- Vladyslav Danielvskyi (11)
- Roman Doroshenko (12)
- Sofiia Dupelych (14)
- Dmytro Karabet (10)
- Erika Kolesnichenko (11)
- Sofiia Nazarenko (10)
- Anastasiia Pshedina (9)
- Marko Serdynskyi (12)
- Zlata Solonenko (11)
- Oliviia Tkachyk (10)
- Karina Shtefanesa (10)
The longlisted artists will take part in live auditions in Respublika Park Shopping Centre and Neopolis Theme Park in Kyiv on July 26. From the auditions, ten artists will be selected for Star School which will be held in Bukovel. The jury that will select the ten artists are Svitlana Tarabova, Alyona Alyona and Mélovin. Based on the results of Star School, six acts will be selected for the national final.
The final of the Ukrainian selection for Junior Eurovision 2026 will be held in September. A combination of a professional jury (50%) and public voting (50%) will select the Ukrainian representative for Ta’ Qali.
Sofia Neresesian represented Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with “Motanka”. She won the public vote and finished second overall with 177 points. This was Ukraine’s best result at Junior Eurovision since 2013.
Source: Suspilne
Ukraine debuted in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006 and has competed in the contest ever since. To date, Ukraine has only won the competition once. In 2012, Anastasiya Petryk won in Amsterdam with the song “Nebo”. She scored 138 points, including eight sets of 12 points. Ukraine has hosted the contest twice, the first time in 2009 and the second in 2013 following their victory in Amsterdam.
