Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012
Ukraine participated in Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Be My Guest" written by Gaitana and Kiwi Project. The song was performed by Gaitana. The Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) organised a national final in order to select the Ukrainian entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. Twenty-one entries competed in the final held on 18 February 2012 and "Be My Guest" performed by Gaitana was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a seven-member jury panel and a public televote. Ukraine was  drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2012. Performing during the show in position 7, "Be My Guest" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 26 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed eighth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 64 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 25 and placed fifteenth out of the 26 participating countries with 65 points. Background. Prior to the 2012 contest , Ukraine had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times since its first entry in 2003, winning it in 2004 with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Ukraine had managed to qualify to final in every contest they participated in thus far. Ukraine had been the runner-up in the contest on two occasions: in 2007 with the song "Dancing Lasha Tumbai" performed by Verka Serduchka and in 2008 with the song "Shady Lady" performed by Ani Lorak. Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, which they achieved  during the 2005, with the song "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly. The Ukrainian national broadcaster, National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), broadcasts the event within Ukraine and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. In the past, NTU had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select the Ukrainian entry. Between 2005 and 2011, NTU had set up national finals to choose both or either the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ukraine, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. NTU confirmed their intentions  to participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 23 August 2011, announcing that they would organise a national final to select the 2012 Ukrainian entry. Before Eurovision. Evrobachennya 2012 - Natsionalyni vidbir. The Ukrainian national final took place on 18 February 2012 at the NTU Studios in Kyiv. The show was hosted by Timur Myroshnychenko and Tetyana Terekhova and broadcast on as well as online via the official Eurovision Song Contest website "eurovision.tv". Format. The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over two stages. In the first stage, artists  and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition by attending a scheduled audition during designated dates. Twenty acts were selected and announced on 26 January 2012. An additional two acts were selected as wildcards: one from the Inter Channel talent show "Show #1" and one from an internet vote via "say.tv" out of four non-qualifying entries from the auditions. The second stage was the televised final, which took place on 18 February 2012 and featured the twenty-two acts vying to represent Ukraine in Baku. The winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a  public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 22 (highest) and the entry that had the highest number of points following the combination of these scores was declared the winner. Viewers participating in the public televote during the show had the opportunity to submit a single vote per phone number for each of the participating entries via SMS. In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the entry that received the highest score from the jury. Competing entries. Artists and composers had  the opportunity to submit their entries between 25 November 2011 and 25 January 2012. On 10 November 2011, Nerealnye (The Incredibles) was selected as the "Show #1" winner and received the first wildcard to compete in the national final. Auditions were held on 25 January 2012 at the NTU Headquarters in Kyiv where a four-member selection panel consisting of Vlad Baginsky (NTU music producer), Volodymyr Kozlov (RU Music Director), Victoria Romanova (Ukrainian Eurovision Head of Delegation) and Ivo Bobul (singer) reviewed the 54 received submissions and shortlisted twenty entries to compete in the national final. On 26 January 2012 , the twenty selected competing acts were announced. On 15 February 2012, "Dance" performed by Max Barskih was selected as the internet vote winner out of four non-qualifying entries from the auditions and received the second wildcard to compete in the national final. On 16 February 2012, "I Will Fight to the End" performed by Matias was withdrawn from the national final due to a conflict of interest with selection panel member Vlad Baginsky during the auditions. Final. The final took place on 18 February 2012. Twenty-one entries competed and the winner, "Be My Guest" performed by Gaitana, was  selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Ties were decided in favour of the entries that received higher scores from the jury. The jury panel consisted of Egor Benkendorf (NTU President), Walid Arfush (producer), Yuriy Rybchynsky (poet), Semyon Horov (director and composer), Mariya Manyuk (artist agent), Rudolf Kirnos (media producer) and Olena Mozgova (music producer). 16,825 votes were registered by the televote during the show. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2010 Ukrainian Eurovision entrant Alyosha, 2012 French Eurovision entrant Anggun, 2012 Swiss Eurovision entrants Sinplus, Matias and Zlata Ognevich  performed as guests. At Eurovision. Ukraine competed in the second half of the second semi-final (7th on stage), on 24 May 2012, following Portugal and preceding the Bulgaria. Gaitana received 64 points and placed 8th, thus qualifying for the final on 26 May. The public awarded Ukraine 17th place with 24 points and the jury awarded 3rd place with 109 points. In the final, Ukraine was drawn to perform 25th, after Serbia and preceding Moldova. The Ukrainian entry scored a total of 65 points and placed 15th in the final. The public awarded Ukraine 20th place with 37 points  and the jury awarded 7th place with 125 points.