Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Ukraine is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Ridnym", written by Adama Cefalu, Jakob Hegner, Viktoriia Leleka and Yaroslav Dzhus, and performed by Leleka under her stage name Leléka.^[1] The Ukrainian participating broadcaster, Suspilne, organised the national final Vidbir 2026 in order to select its entry for the contest.

Prior to the 2026 contest, the National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) until 2016, and Suspilne since 2017, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Ukraine 20 times since NTU's first entry in 2003.^[2] It had won the contest on three occasions: in 2004 with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana, in 2016 with "1944" by Jamala, and in 2022 with the song "Stefania" performed by Kalush Orchestra. It 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. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Ukraine had managed to qualify to final in every contest it participated in thus far. Its least successful result had been 24th place, which was achieved in 2017 with the song "Time" performed by O.Torvald. In 2025, "Bird of Pray" performed by Ziferblat placed ninth.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, Suspilne organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Suspilne confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2026 contest on 25 August 2025.^[3] In the past, the broadcaster had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select its entry. Between 2022 and 2024, Suspilne had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection. The method is expected to be continued to select its 2026 entry.^[4]

Vidbir 2026 was the tenth edition of Vidbir, the national final to select the Ukrainian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The competition took place on 7 February 2026.^[5]

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Ukrainian Eurovision entry will take place over three stages. In the first stage, artists and songwriters had the opportunity to apply for the competition through an online submission form.^[6] 15 acts were longlisted and announced on 24 November 2025.^[7] The second stage involved the longlisted artists attending a scheduled audition, during which nine acts were selected and announced on 3 December 2025.^[8] An additional act was selected from an online selection via the Diia mobile application.^[9] The third stage is the final, which will take place on 7 February 2026 and will feature the ten acts vying to represent Ukraine in Vienna, with the results based on the 50/50 combination of votes from the public (via Diia) and a five-member jury panel (a larger one than in previous editions), with each juror assessing a different aspect of the performances while formulating their scores.^[5][10]

The jury panel that will vote during the show consists of:^[10]

• Ruslana – singer, winner of the 2004 contest
• Zlata Ognevich – singer-songwriter, represented Ukraine in 2013
• Yevhen Filatov – singer and composer
• Vitaliy Drozdov – general producer of TAVR Media Radio Holding
• Kostyantyn Tomilchenko – choreographer

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries via an online submission form which accepted entries between 3 September 2025 and 27 October 2025.^[6] Only artists that had not performed in events organized by/located in the territory of "the aggressor state" or illegally entered the territories of Crimea since 15 March 2014 and Belarus since 24 February 2022, respectively, were allowed to apply for the competition, and songs performed in the "language of the aggressor state" were prohibited.^[11] Jamala, who won the 2016 contest for Ukraine, was assigned as the new music producer of the competition and was the lead in reviewing the 451 received submissions.^[12][13] 15 entries were longlisted, of which their artists were announced on 24 November 2025.^[7] Auditions were held on 26 November 2025 where nine entries were shortlisted to compete in the national final.^[14] On 3 December 2025, the nine selected competing acts were announced.^[8] The online selection, featuring the six non-qualifying entries from the auditions, was held between 8 and 13 January 2026.^[9] The winner, Khayat, was announced on 13 January.^[15]

Among the competing artists were Monokate, who had represented Ukraine in 2021 as part of Go_A, and Jerry Heil, who had represented Ukraine in 2024 alongside Alyona Alyona. Olena Usenko, a member of the Elliens, had represented Ukraine in Junior Eurovision 2021.^[16][17]

The final took place on 7 February 2026.^[18] In addition to the competing entries, guest performers included former Ukrainian Eurovision entrants Ziferblat (2025), Zlata Ognevich (2013), Tvorchi (2023), and Jamala, as well as Satoshi, who would represent Moldova in 2026, and Svitlana Tarabarova with three former Ukrainian Junior Eurovision participants: Anastasia Dymyd (2023), Artem Kotenko (2024), and Sofiia Nersesian (2025).^[19]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[21] Ukraine was scheduled for the second half of the second semi-final.^[22]

• Official Suspilne Eurovision website