Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016
| Eurovision Song Contest 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |
 Ukraine
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| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | National Final | |||
| Selection date(s) |
Semi-finals: 6 February 2016 13 February 2016 Final: 21 February 2016 |
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| Selected entrant | Jamala | |||
| Selected song | "1944" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Jamala | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Semi-final result | Qualified (2nd, 287 points) | |||
| Final result | 1st, 534 points | |||
| Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
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Ukraine participated in and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song "1944" written and performed by Jamala. Ukraine returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after the nation withdrew from the 2015 competition due to financial and political reasons related to the Ukrainian crisis.
The Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) organised a national final in collaboration with commercial broadcaster STB in order to select the Ukrainian entry for the 2016 contest in , Sweden. The national selection consisted of two semi-finals, held on 6 and 13 February 2016, and a final, held on 21 February 2016; nine entries competed in each semi-final with the top three from each semi-final advancing to the final. In the final, "1944" performed by Jamala was selected as the winner after tying for first place following the combination of votes from a three-member jury panel and a public televote—the tie was decided in Jamala's favour after "1944" scored the highest with the public. "1944" is the first Eurovision Song Contest song to feature lyrics in the Crimean Tatar language. The Ukrainian entry caused controversy and garnered international media interest both for Jamala, a Ukrainian singer of Crimean Tatar descent, and the song "1944", which was inspired by the story of her great-grandmother during the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars in the Soviet Union under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Despite media reports that the song could be disqualified due to its alleged political overtones, the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group cleared the song for the competition and stated that neither the title nor the lyrics of the song contained political speech.
Ukraine was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2016. Performing during the show in position 14, "1944" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed second out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 287 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 21 and placed first out of the 26 participating countries, winning the contest with 534 points. This was Ukraine's second win in the Eurovision Song Contest; their first victory was in 2004.
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