In what is now an annual tradition, Ukrainians have voted to determine the jury members for their Eurovision selection Vidbir 2025. After a week of voting through the Diia app, the public chose Jamala, Serhiy Tanchynets and Kateryna Pavlenko as the three to form the jury panel in February.
It originally seemed like the voting would turn out to be a three-horse race between Jamala, Serhiy and Go_A frontwoman Kateryna. However, later in the week, Vidbir 2023 and 2024 musical producer Dmytro Shurov started to catch up. By Saturday, he had overtaken Kateryna. But on Sunday, Kateryna overtook Dmytro again to secure her place as a judge.
It’s the first time Kateryna Pavlenko will be on the panel. In late 2022, although a fan favourite, she lost out on a place. Back then, Suspilne offered her the role of co-host for the first Vidbir during the war, which was hosted in a metro station in Kyiv.
Kalush’s Oleh Psiuk and Tvorchi’s Andrii Hutsuliak both also came votes too short to make the top three. Almost half a million Ukrainians cast their votes.
Vidbir 2025 jury: role and influence in the result
Unlike in the selection shows of other countries, the Vidbir jury panel is quite visible throughout the programme. After each performance, they give feedback in a talent-show-style setting. That is not strange, as Vidbir was originally co-created by the same producers as the country’s equivalent to X Factor. The jury will determine 50% of the total votes.
Both Jamala and Serhiy Tanchynets were on the panel last year too. With the exception of 2020, the “1944” star has featured on the panel each year since 2017. Serhiy, the lead singer of rock group Bez Obmezhen, joined the jury for the first time last year.
The biggest change between this year’s and last year’s jury is Andriy Danylko‘s absence. The entertainer, known for his drag persona Verka Serduchka, who finished second at Eurovision 2007, refused to be on the jury. Speaking to Telegram channel What do you know about Bobul?, Danylko revealed that he did not want to be part of the jury as he dislikes the current format.
Vidbir 2025 jury voting full results
- Jamala: 156,048 votes — 35.28%
- Serhiy Tanchynets: 89,516 votes — 20.24%
- Kateryna Pavlenko: 52,359 votes — 11.84%
Tensions run high between wildcard contestants
Nine Vidbir 2025 finalists have already been revealed. An additional tenth contestant will be chosen by the Ukrainian public through Diia app voting in the next few weeks. Among those who did not go through are some larger, and perhaps, unexpected names. FIÏNKA, Yagody, ENLEO and TESLENKO all did not make the final cut despite being expected favourites.
The hours before the reveal of the finalists were marred with scandal. TESLENKO shared a set of stories in which his manager made clear that TESLENKO wouldn’t participate in Vidbir 2025 if fellow contestant ENLEO were to make the final nine.
In the past few weeks, ENLEO has received backlash over an old TikTok interview that resurfaced in Telegram groups. In this small clip he says that he doesn’t listen to Russian artists, but then says he still listens to some songs he listened to before the war, which included a Russian rapper like Oxxxymiron.
It led Suspilne to react with a statement on Friday afternoon, saying that they could not ban an artist over the music they listen to. However, the broadcaster made clear that they did not support such behaviour:
“We are sorry that Ukrainians continue to listen to the music of the aggressor country. However, the rules of Eurovision do not prohibit this. We cannot prohibit listening to Russian music. This is about everyone’s choice. What we can do as a public broadcaster is to support and develop our own, Ukrainian music.”
On Saturday evening, TESLENKO’s manager shared another Instagram story in which he claimed that Suspilne were setting up the selection for a certain artist to win. TESLENKO himself did not repost this statement.
Wiwibloggs reached out to ENLEO’s management team to hear ENLEO’s side of the story in a fair hearing, but has yet to receive a response.
What do you think about the choice for the jury at Vidbir 2025? Do you agree with it? Let us know in the comments down below!
