Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Ukrainian pop star Svitlana Loboda was announced winner of Ukrainian Eurovision finals 2009 at the concert that took place at Palats Ukraina on March 8 and was broadcasted live on the First Ukrainian National Channel.

Loboda will represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow on May 16.


Loboda competed in the finals against 14 other participants. Her victory was hardly surprising since 50 percent of the final results depended on viewers’ votes and she was one of the few major stars taking part in the show. The other participants included girls bands Hot Chocolate and Zaklyopky, singers Tori Joy, Natalia Volkova, Godo, Kishe and others.


Just days before the finals took place the contest was under threat of being cancelled due to the ruling of Shevchenkivskiy district court. This was brought on by the producers of the singer Anastasia Prykhodko. She was among the performers who didn’t make it into the final shortlist. Prykhodko proclaimed that the Ukrainian Eurovision jury violated her rights, and her producers launched a campaign to reinstate her in the contest appearing on TV shows and giving press-conferences.


After the Ukrainian Eurovision Finals organizers refused to cancel the March 8 concert, Anastasia Prykhodko was included in the list of Russian Eurovision finalists at the last moment. She was voted winner by the Russian jury on March 7 and will now represent Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with a song in Ukrainian, “Mama.” Anastasia Prykhodko was known in Russia as the winner of Russian Star Factory 7 and received much publicity as a victim of vial Ukrainian Eurovision committee, so it’s hard to deny that her victory had a lot to do with politics.


Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was won by Russian star Dima Bilan, who took part in the contest for the second time. According to the Eurovision rules, the following song contest was automatically scheduled to take place in Russia. Ukrainian pop star Ani Lorak took second place.