Ukraine was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 by Ruslana and "Wild Dances", performed in English. The Ukrainian broadcaster, Natsionalna Telekompaniya Ukrayiny (NTU) internally selected Ruslana to compete for Ukraine at the contest.
NTU, like their first entry in 2003, held an internal selection for the Ukrainian entry for the 2004 contest.[1] The broadcaster held an open call for artists and songs who wished to compete for Ukraine at Eurovision. Entries received by NTU were reviewed by a jury, with the winner being Ruslana Lyzhychko, becoming the second Ukrainian entry at Eurovision. Her song, "Wild Dances", was written by Oleksandr Ksenofontov and composed by Ruslana herself.
At Eurovision[]
For the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, a semi-final round was introduced in order to accommodate the influx of nations that wanted to compete in the contest. Because Ukraine placed 14th at the 2003 contest, Ruslana was forced to compete in the first Eurovision semi-final, held on 12 May 2004. Here, she performed 11th in the running order, following Greece's Sakis Rouvas and preceding Lithuania's Linas and Simona. She received 256 points, placing 2nd in a field of 22 and qualifying for the final.[2]
At the final, Ruslana gave a repeat performance of her semi-final performance, performing 10th in the running order, following Albania's Anjeza Shahini and preceding Croatia's Ivan Mikulić. She received 280 points, winning the contest for Ukraine. Therefore, Ukraine automatically qualified for the final in the 2005 contest.[3]
Both semi-final and final were broadcast on First National Channel. Commentary was provided by then a presenter and reporter of M1 music channel Rodion Pryntsevskyi.[4] He was due to provide reportages from Istanbul for the Euroserie TV show on this music channel when NTU invited him to commentate their live broadcasts.[5] Pryntsevskyi has never commentated Eurovision Song Contest neither before nor after 2004 which makes him one of 7 commentators who appeared only on a winning for their country contest.
Results of Ukrainian televoting were announced by radio DJ, producer and presenter Pavlo Shylko also known as DJ Pasha. Ukraine was the last to announce its results when it had already become clear then that Ruslana would win the contest. At the beginning of his announcement Shylko screamed in Ukrainian: "Oh, how much we love you! We will go for vacation to Turkey as entire Ukraine! Do you understand?".[6]
Ukraine
