Ukraine in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

The first castings for the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest started on 19 August 2010. They ended after three days on 21 August. A 7-member jury were to announce 30 artists to pass to the next round of their national selection, scheduled to start in October. There the artists presented their songs for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. By the end of December, 15 candidates were still in the running to become their country's next Eurovision participant.[2] The final decision will be made on the 27 February.

35 artists were chosen after castings concluded on 21 August. The selected artists include Verka Serduchka (who was automatically qualified for the final[3]), who represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, and Anastasia Prikhodko, who represented Russia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, as well as several past national final entrants.[4][5] On 14 October, Verka Serduchka withdrew from the competition. NTU replaced Serduchka with Pavel Tabakov.[6][7]

Each heat contained seven acts. Three songs from each heat qualified via a jury vote, and one by a public televote to the semi-finals.[8]

The first heat was broadcast on 31 October. The three jury qualifiers were Khrystyna Kim, Alyona Korneyeva and Dariya Medovaya. Televoting was opened after the heat and closed before the second heat, with the final qualifier only being known after all the heats.[9] Qualifying through the SMS voting was girl group Zaklyopki, with an additional wildcard being awarded to El Kravchuk.

The second heat was broadcast on 7 November. The three jury qualifiers were Ivan Berezovsky, Eduard Romanyuta and Bahroma. Televoting was opened after the heat and closed before the third heat, with the final qualifier only being known after all the heats.[13] Qualifying through the SMS voting was duo Neksi, with an additional wildcard being awarded to the group Para normalnyh.

The third heat was broadcast on 14 November. The three jury qualifiers were Oleksiy Matias, Shanis and Jemchug. Televoting was opened after the heat and closed before the fourth heat, with the final qualifier only being known after all the heats.[18] Qualifying through the SMS voting was Vitalyj Galaj, with an additional wildcard being awarded to the group ARMIYA.

The fourth heat was broadcast on 21 November. The three jury qualifiers were Anastasiya Prikhodko, Mika Newton and Zlata Ognevich. Televoting was opened after the heat and closed before the fifth heat, with the final qualifier only being known after all the heats.[22] Qualifying through the SMS voting was Mila Nitich, with an additional wildcard being awarded to Vladislav Levitsky.

The fifth heat was broadcast on 28 November. The three jury qualifiers were Jamala, Tanya Vorzheva and Denis Povalyj. Televoting was opened after the heat and closed before the first semi-final, with the final qualifier only being known after all the heats.[23] Qualifying through the SMS voting was Pavlo Tabakov, with no additional wildcard being awarded in this heat.

Each semi-final contained eight acts from all twenty-four qualifiers of the heats. Five songs from each heat qualified via a jury vote, and two by a public televote to the final on 26 February 2011.

The final was held on 26 February 2011 at the Savik Shuster Studio in Kiev, hosted by Savik Shuster, Gaitana, Irina Rosenfeld, Evgeniya Vlasova, Olesya Batsman, Irina Zhuravska, Timur Miroshnichenko and Tatyana Goncharova. Tanya Vorzheva and Vitaliy Galay were disqualified for having over six performers on stage. ARMIYA and Neksi withdrew, but the latter performed one of their songs out of competition. The winner was chosen by a combination of televoting (45%), jury voting (45%) and internet votes (10%). "Angel" performed by Mika Newton was announced as the winner.[24][25][26]

Just as in the previous year, the outcome of the final led to controversy and chaos; jury member Hanna Herman asked for the re-evaluation of the votes as rumors of miscounting votes swerved around.[27]

A new final was scheduled to take place on 3 March 2011 since most objections against the previous result revolved around artist being voted multiple times from the same phone numbers, in the new final only votes coming from unique phone numbers would be counted. The results were to be decided entirely by televoting.[27]

Jamala was originally set to perform in the new final with the song "Smile", but she withdrew from it on 1 March 2011 claiming that votes would again be rigged.[28] Very soon afterwards Zlata Ognevich also withdrew, stating that she was due to take part in another television show that day. This left Mika Newton as the artist to represent Ukraine, but it remained unknown which song she would perform on Eurovision.[29] On 4 March 2011, Newton and the competitions organizer NTU declared "Angel" would be sent to the 2011 contest "with better arrangements".[30] A new music video of the song was presented on 15 March 2011 featuring the revamped version.[31]

• In the Semi-final 2 Ukraine came 6th with 81 points: the public awarded Ukraine 5th place with 91 points and the jury awarded 7th place with 76 points.
• In the Final Ukraine came 4th with 159 points: the public awarded Ukraine 4th place with 168 points and the jury awarded 7th place with 117 points.