Vidbir always brings us the necessary hype and drama. After a slick broadcast, the results show ended up in a chaos as e-government app Diia stopped working properly.
With that, at the end of Saturday night, host Timur Miroshnychenko stated that the Vidbir 2024 winner would not be revealed on 3 February. As a way to decrease capacity on the Diia app, Suspilne proposed to postpone the results until the early evening of Sunday 4 February with voting continuing the whole night and day.
The decision was met with both approval and critique. Some feared that the stretched voting could influence the outcome as people who did not watch the broadcast could vote.
Skylerr withdraws from Vidbir 2024
In the late morning of 4 February, one of the eleven contestants announced her withdrawal from the show. Skylerr performed her ballad “Time Is Running Out” directly after favourites MÉLOVIN and alyona alyona & Jerry Heil.
She received somewhat negative comments from the jury panel during the show. Judge Andriy Danylko said that he found the performance “a little bit boring”. As a result, Skylerr was not really seen as a favourite to win the show.
Citing the problems with the Diia voting app as the main reason for her withdrawal, Skylerr wrote a long post on Instagram discussing her decision. She wrote:
“Unfortunately, the voting did return in the moment, and I believe the very moment. Diia worked through the night, didn’t work in the morning, and now, as I know, started working again. The votes might not have registered correctly. I understand that it is a massive system and that the crash has equal consequences for everyone, but I believe in a fair and transparent voting, as in the moment.”
Continuing her statement, Skylerr hinted that several acts will unfairly profit from their delayed voting. This could be that their supporters who could not been able to vote on the night, might be able to vote now:
“I am not interested to take part in those PR campaigns, which resulted from the situation. “There aren’t winners in this marathon”, lyrics from my song, which is as relevant as never before today.”
Suspilne refuses Skylerr’s withdrawal
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne has responded to Skylerr’s statement to withdraw. The broadcaster states that contestants that have performed in the show and took part in the voting, have no rights to withdraw from the show anymore.
As a result, her votes and jury score will be counted as planned. In the case that Skylerr were to win Vidbir 2024, she would be able to refuse to sign the contract to formalise her Eurovision participation.
