Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

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For the first time ever Ukraine held a national final. 527 songs were received by NTU. A jury narrowed this down to 75. Five songs were shown each week from November 1, 2004 on and viewers picked the best one each week for fifteen weeks. The fifteen winners went forward to a public national final on February 27] 2005, although singers of entries that had been published prior to November 2004, including the heavy favourite Ani Lorak, were asked to submit a new song for the final. In addition, four wildcards were added to the line-up for the final and one of these, the hip-hop entry "Razom Nas Bahato" (Together We Are Many) by the band GreenJolly, was controversially voted the winner, beating Ani Lorak into second place. The controversial decision to add the entrants into the final was initiated by Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister on Humanitarian Policy Mykola Tomenko. While he tried to justify his decision in the contest aftermath arguing that it needed to reflect the dramatic changes in the society due to the recent Orange Revolution, the perceived government intervention into a musical contest attracted much criticism. Indeed, for many weeks the song, which almost certainly owes its victory to its familiarity as an unofficial anthem of the Orange Revolution, appeared to be in danger of falling foul of two criteria for eligibility as an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Firstly, it was openly derivative of an older revolutionary song, and therefore was arguably not an original composition, and secondly, the lyrics could be classed as political propaganda, especially since they mentioned President Viktor Yushchenko by name. However, after substantial revisions were made, the song was deemed a legitimate entry by the EBU. The song is written by Oleg Lanjak and composed by Roman Kalin.

The members of GreenJolly are Roman Kostyuk, Roman Kalyn, and Andriy Pisetskyi. The band was created in 1997 and frequently played in Ivano-Frankivsk and other Ukrainian cities and took part in various festivals. In 1998 they came second at "The Future of Ukraine' festival and second prize at 'The Melody' festival. In 1999 they won another second prize at ‘The Pearls of a Season’ festival. Roman Kostyuk works as a sound producer on Zakhidnyi Polyus radio station and Roman Kalyn is an announcer at the local television channel Tretya Studia, where he hosts two shows.

Final - February 11

№	Song	Singer	Points	Place
1	Vidlitay	Stand.Up	139	8th
2	My angel	NeDilya	54	13th
3	Ottay	Tayana	19	17th
4	Ne spy moja ridna zemlja	Mandry	142	7th
5	Nochnoy gorod	Ex-Presidenti	41	14th
6	Patriot	Yurcash	342	3rd
7	Pozavchora	Tiana Ravi	19	17th
8	Chas Pryjshov	De Shifer	341	4th
9	Zaberi menya	Foxy	23	15th
10	Svit za viknom	Viktor Pavlik	60	12th
11	Paperoviy choven	Gavrilas	15	19th
12	Nashe lito	Tartak	342	5th
13	Znaky pitannya	Daleko	110	9th
14	Another little shot	Ani Lorak	1952	2nd
15	Lovy mene	Talita Kum	105	10th
16	Veter	Lourdes	23	15th
17	Freedom	Volya	62	11th
18	Zemlya rodnaya	Tartak	342	5th
19	Razom nas bahato	Greenjolly	2247	1st

Individual Entries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Albania - Andorra - Austria - Belarus - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Croatia - Cyprus - Denmark - Estonia - Finland - France - Germany - Greece - Hungary - Iceland - Ireland - Israel - Latvia - Lithuania - Republic of Macedonia - Malta - Moldova - Monaco - Netherlands - Norway - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia - Serbia and Montenegro - Slovenia - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Turkey - Ukraine - United Kingdom Note: Countries in italics are semi-finalists who did not advance to the final.