Ukraine: TVORCHI wins Vidbir with 'Heart Of Steel'

Electro outfit TVORCHI is made up of friends Jefferey and Andriy who met while studying at the Ternopil National Medical University in west Ukraine in 2018. 

So far they’ve enjoyed plenty of domestic success, with four albums and several hit singles to their name. Now they will follow in the footsteps of Eurovision 2022 champions Kalush Orchestra and head to the Eurovision Song Contest, which is being held in Liverpool next May. 

Check out Heart Of Steel here.

Vidbir was hosted by Eurovision alumni Go_A’s Kateryna Pavlenko (2021), Zlata Ognevich (2013) and Eurovision 2017 host Timur Miroshnychenko, and broadcast live from a metro station in Kyiv which doubled as a bomb shelter.

This was pointed out after Jamala's interval performance, when the 2016 winner thanked audiences for tuning in:

Thank you so much for watching us, for supporting us, it’s really important for our days - from this basement - we are creating new music for Ukraine, our Ukraine.

The winning song was chosen by a combination of public voting and a jury, with the three members of the jury chosen by the public. The jury was made up of Taras Topolya (singer with Antitila), Jamala (Eurovision Song Contest 2016 champion), and Yulia Sanina (singer with THE HARDKISS).

Vidbir results:

Vidbir can be rewatched on UA:PBC’s official Eurovision YouTube channel.

Before the final, Pianoboy (Vidbir's music producer) said: 

'I am very grateful to all the musicians that managed to do an important job in really difficult circumstances, both emotionally and physically, often under sirens and shellings, in basements and with no power supply. The task was complicated as, besides writing a good song that would touch people, recording it in a studio and performing it live at auditions, the participants had to comply with all the rules of the national selection. 

As a result of great common work of the team of UA:PBC and the musicians that submitted their songs to participate in Eurovision 2023, this year we will hear a lot of interesting new Ukrainian music of very different styles, and I am confident that every listener will find their favourite there. 

There were a lot of great musicians beyond these ten finalists, and I believe that they will have their say in Ukrainian music soon. This gives me hope and confidence that the 2024 Vidbir will be no less interesting!’

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