Ukraine participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The Ukrainian entry was selected through a national final, organised by the Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine. Zlata Ognevich represented Ukraine with the song "Gravity", which qualified from the first semi-final of the competition and placed 3rd in the final, scoring 214 points.
Before Eurovision
Evrobachennya 2013 - Natsionalyni vidbir
On 28 September 2012, NTU confirmed Ukraine's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 by formally launching their selection procedure and opening the submission period from 1 October until 22 December 2012, for interested artists and composers to submit their proposals. A seven-member professional jury were to select 20 songs from the submissions to compete in a televised show on 16 February 2013. However, several changes to the original schedule for the selection occurred. On 23 November 2012, NTU announced that the national final would take place on 23 December 2012, with a casting phase being held the day before to narrow down applicants to 20 competitors. On 19 December 2012, NTU changed the original submission deadline from 22 December 2012 to 21 December 2012 in order to schedule a dress rehearsal for the televised show. In addition, the casting phase was also rescheduled to 21 December 2012. On 21 December 2012, a jury panel selected 20 finalists out of 52 applicants.
Final
Evrobachennya 2013 took place on 23 December 2012 in Kiev, hosted by Timur Myroshnychenko, Tetyana Terekhova and Tetyana Goncharova. 20 songs were originally set to compete. Oksana Pekun & Maxim Novytskyj were drawn to perform first in the national final, however, immediately after their performance they announced their withdrawal from the competition live on stage. The winner was chosen by a combination of jury and SMS vote. Each member of the jury panel rated each entry from 1-10. After summing the jury totals, the entry that received the most points was awarded 20 points, while the entry that received the fewest would be awarded one point. If there were ties in the jury totals, all entries scoring the same number of points in the jury totals would be awarded the same number of points. The public votes were awarded from 1 point to 20 points based on the number of SMS votes each entry received. The jury panel consisted of Egor Benkendorf, Walid Arfush, Olena Mozgova, Yurij Rybchunskyj and Olga Navrotska. After the jury and public votes were combined, Zlata Ognevich emerged as the winner with the song "Gravity". Interval acts during the competition included Tetyana Vorzheva, Shanis, Matias, Pavel Sokolov and Oleg Vynnyk.
Preparation
The composer of "Gravity", Mikhail Nekrasov, revealed that the Ukrainian entry would be undergoing revisions before officially being handed over to the EBU. On 27 January 2013, Nekrasov opened a survey on the social networkVK in order to gauge public opinion about possible changes including adding another refrain, increasing the tempo of the song, possibly changing the backing vocalists and making modifications to the beginning and end of the song. On 6 February 2013, the survey had come to a close with the following decisions being taken under consideration by the producers:
69% of voters believe the beginning has to be more powerful.
40% believe 85BPM is optimal, 24% advise an increase to 87-88BPM.
60% believe a third refrain is required, 45% advise that the third refrain would need more development.
41% believe the lyrics that the backing vocalists sing are adequate, 40% advise that Ognevich should also sing these lines.
86% believe the current backing vocalists should not be changed, 46% believe their vocals should be more simplified so they do not overshadow Ognevich.
35% believe the ending is strong as it is, 25% advise that it should be performed higher and louder.
Nekrasov revealed that the song's main focus would remain on the instrumental, but that certain modifications have already started to take form such as changes in the backing vocals and the addition of new sounds to the instrumental. In an interview with Novyi Kanal, Ognevich revealed that they have received over 300 ideas for the music video of the song from a competition they opened invited fans to submit their concepts and that Angela Lisitsa would be responsible for designing the outfit for her Eurovision performance. On 11 March 2013, the final version of the song was released on YouTube along with the music video.
At Eurovision
Ukraine was allocated to compete in the first semi-final on 14 May for a place in the final on 18 May. In the first semifinal, the producers of the show decided that Ukraine would perform 7th, following Russia and preceding the Netherlands. On stage, Ognevich was joined by Igor Vovkovinskiy, the tallest living person in the United States, who played the role of a fantasy giant. In addition, four backing singers were also on stage: Ann Bailey, Holly Petrie, Cleveland Watkiss and Dasha Mineeva. Ukraine qualified from the first semi-final, placing 3rd and scoring 140 points. At the first semi-final winners' press conference, Ukraine was allocated to perform in the second half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Ukraine would perform 22nd, following Greece and preceding Italy. Ukraine placed 3rd in the final and scored 214 points.
