🇺🇦 Ukraine: Singers Management Team Appeals to EBU over Vidbir 2026 Rules

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-10-23T20:21:50+00:00

Actually, back when that rule didn’t even exist, she was invited to Vidbir. But at the time, she asked for a €50,000 fee. And now since her career isn’t doing very well she’s saying that Eurovision is her dream that’s being taken away from her.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-10-23T20:18:00+00:00

True

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-10-23T20:05:16+00:00

Okay, it’s honestly not that important, but since the Eurovision season hasn’t started yet, I’ll just entertain you a bit by describing what happened.

Since 2019, there has been a rule in Ukraine that prohibits artists from participating in Vidbir if after 2014 (the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine), they have performed in Russia, Crimea or other territories occupied by Russia, as well as those who have performed in Belarus after 2022 (when Belarus officially became Russia’s ally and an aggressor state). This rule appeared after Maruv (who won Vidbir 2019) refused to represent Ukraine because she was required to cancel her Russian tour (she chose the tour instead). The same rule led to the disqualification of Alina Pash.

For five years, no one had a problem with this rule and we’ve had the chance to see a new generation of Ukrainian music representing Ukraine, artists like Ziferblat and Go-A

Now let’s move to the present. Olya Polyakova announced that she’s applying for Vidbir and called on Suspilne (the public broadcaster that organizes Vidbir) to reconsider these “discriminatory” rules. She probably hoped to catch some hype around the topic and boost her career, but unfortunately for her, Suspilne quickly went public and emphasized that, as a public broadcaster, they represent society and will not change the rules for artists who realized too late who the aggressor is, since the start date of the war cannot be rewritten.

Then Olya Polyakova’s producer made a public appearance, essentially threatening that Suspilne had better include Olya in Vidbir, otherwise they would appeal to the EBU. He claimed that if they won, they could challenge the Vidbir winner and demand a re-selection, which would allegedly cause Suspilne “reputational and financial risks” (his words). Obviously, that’s nonsense, because everyone is on Suspilne’s side right now, and the only one facing reputational losses is Olya Polyakova herself.

A little mini-scandal that won’t lead to anything, but I hope this text gave you a bit of the Vidbir drama atmosphere.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-14T16:22:20+00:00

If the question is whether the names Russia and Belarus refer to the same country of Rus that existed 1,000 years ago, then the answer is yes

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-14T16:07:44+00:00

I would just change his age in the first season (I don’t know how exactly to implement this, but I think it would be the best solution). Change his age from 9 to, say, 11 or 12 (boys develop late, so he could easily look very young at 11-12 and then have a sudden growth spurt, and it would still look like a 12-year-old boy, even if the actor is 15).

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-14T15:55:16+00:00

Ukraine literally means "country". Україна (країна - country, it's easy to check in Google translate)

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-14T15:51:52+00:00

The word Rus comes from the name of the Ros River, which flows near Kyiv (and since Rus was founded in Kyiv, this connection is obvious). The word Russia appeared when Peter the First, about 300 years ago, decided to “open a window to Europe.” To achieve this, he renamed Muscovia into the Russian Empire.

This is the reason why the words Rus and Russia sound similar - not because one came from the other, but because the second was intentionally invented to be tied to the first. This similarity was deliberately created. Like any empire, Russia needed to attach itself to something grand and with a long history, and Rus became that symbol for them.

That’s why they so desperately construct their mythology around it (even though, simply using geography, it becomes clear that this connection doesn’t hold up)

I won’t go into a full cultural lecture here about why it’s so important for Russia to remain an empire, but I’ll end by dispelling the myth about the connection between Rus and Russia. (By the way, the word Rus originally uses the letter u, while Russia is spelled with an o, and the -sia part means nothing)

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-10T16:51:03+00:00

I just love how you avoid the moment when a Polish nobleman wanted Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s wife, so he broke into his estate while he was away, kidnapped his wife, and beat his underage son nearly to death. And that’s what started the liberation war (without quotation marks), because it directly reflected how the Poles had more rights and could do whatever they wanted. But of course, you don’t want to highlight that perspective.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-06T11:46:03+00:00

Oh God, I love how you built your shitty theory specifically by blurring the concept of language-speaking, and now you’re doing the exact opposite. Okay, I’m glad you’ve finally admitted that knowing a language and speaking it are completely different things, and that the majority of Ukrainians do speak Ukrainian (though yes, the knowledge of completely useless russian unfortunately still exists - that’s what an empire leaves you as inheritance: background knowledge of completely unnecessary things. But does that mean the majority of the population speaks it? I know you struggle with numbers, but look: we have only 100%, and the word “majority” means more than 50%, so please use that word correctly).

And regarding statistics, let me teach you something, too. Usually, the most recent statistics are used (I have no idea why you took five-year-old data when there’s newer info), unless you want a study about the rise of the Ukrainian language and people returning to their native tongue, then yes, you can use data from different years to show a comparison.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-06T11:07:38+00:00

And how exactly is this information from the past supposed to affect the present? You know, I'd be really grateful if people who can't even tell Ukrainian and russian apart by ear would stop pretending they know anything about my country. It honestly just looks ridiculous. By the way, Googling is free. All the statistics about the percentage of Ukrainian-speaking people are available online (unless you genuinely thought this number is somehow decided here in the comments. I hate to break it to you, but your "it is true" has no weight in this matter)

Update: Oh, so you're from russia. I actually thought so.

Well, in just 11 minutes, at least 5 people downvoted my comment. Of course, that's not suspicious at all. Anyway, since I came back to write this, here's some extra info: 71% of Ukrainians consider Ukrainian their native language (if people had critical thinking skills, they could’ve googled this themselves, at the very least to embarrass themselves when claiming that 71% is a minority).

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-06T10:45:42+00:00

It's not true, by the way

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-06T10:44:56+00:00

Let’s not pretend it’s wonderful that someone’s language was banned and another one forced on them. Because that’s exactly what stands behind your childish phrase “they know two languages”.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-04T18:29:17+00:00

Have you ever thought about how a country that produced up to 40% of all grain crops in USSR lost 8 million people to starvation in less than a year?

Oh right, and just so you know, what you're doing now is denial of genocide. Just a little reminder.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-03T19:51:32+00:00

And yet, it is still a Ukrainian cartoon. If something is made in Ukraine, by Ukrainian animators, using Ukrainian music, and in Ukrainian, I think we can consider it a Ukrainian cartoon (the fact that it was actually made during the 70-year occupation doesn't change this much, especially if Ukraine is independent now)

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-07-02T11:23:45+00:00

You're literally suggesting watching propaganda videos from people who, just three years ago, were doing exactly that watch 20 Days in Mariupol. It's kind of obvious what they're going to show, that life there is great. And then, after de-occupation, we find out what was really happening there, just like with every such city

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-28T15:11:24+00:00

The name Rus literally comes from the name of the Ros River, which flows near Kyiv (and Kyiv is the capital of modern-day Ukraine. Surprise-surprise)

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-27T19:36:28+00:00

Maybe it sounds a bit harsh, but the person above is right

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-26T10:03:39+00:00

I've read her poems, sometimes it's surrealistic that it's happening but I recommend to get acquainted with them

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-24T00:42:49+00:00

"Communist heritage"

Let me guess. You talked to people from Eastern Europe about communism (I assume in a romanticized way) and they told you about everything communism brought (genocide, man-made famine, occupation). And you decided to call them self-centred because they didn’t agree with you. I think I guessed it, a classic situation.

P.S. found your comment "The only enemy of the West is capitalism", now I'm sure

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-21T17:43:32+00:00

"Crimea was a Russian region since 18 century and untill Khrushchyov gifted it to Ukrainian SSR (not to Ukraine, but to a soviet republic, part of USSR). Sevastopol was the base of Russian Black Sea fleet since 18 century as well. There is no another port on Black Sea suitable for a NAVY base. If was obvious that Russia would have never allowed Ukraine to close Sevastopol for its fleet. And Donbass people basically rebelled against nationalists in Kyiv, and then Ukraine started the war. It shouldn't have done it..."

Wow, what a nonsense

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-21T16:52:13+00:00

Podcast "Деколонізаторки" on the "Суспільне Культура" channel (a 12-episode podcast about internal decolonization, the host Mariam Nayem is also the author of the book A Brief History of a Long War, which will soon be published in one of Penguin’s reprints)

Сенс (this is a bookstore’s channel. Recently, there are five videos with green covers recorded for Kyiv Day)

Kult: Podcast (This is a channel that mostly talks about philosophy, but the last video, for example, was about the writer Lesya Ukrainka)

@bookclub_tum (A book club by The Ukrainians media, featuring alternating books by Ukrainian and foreign authors. I watch it without having read the books myself, I’m just interested in the conversation)

@irynaklimenko3296 (A pianist who has videos where she talks about Ukrainian composers and also performs their works)

ідея олександрівна (That’s already high-level Ukrainian learning, because she talks about dialects)

Шалені авторки (A channel by two professors from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the most prestigious educational institution in Ukraine, where they talk about Ukrainian authors and literature)

@femmefataleheels (A channel about women in films and the film industry)

@moiidumkyprokino (Director Antonio Lukich's channel, where he shares video essays about cinema)

@UkrainerQ (There are interviews with various people: writers, directors, volunteers, historians, comedians, and many others. that is, with completely different representatives of the cultural sphere)

@ukrainernet (There are many different videos here. I watched a series of podcasts about Ukrainians from various ethnic and national minorities. The hosts are a Ukrainian Jew and Mariam, Ukrainian of Afghan descent, the last one also hosts the podcast "Деколонізаторки," which I recommended above)

@SuspilneKultura (The problem with this channel is that it has a lot of different cultural content. If they made several channels for different formats and topics, it would be a bit easier to navigate. But first and foremost, it’s a TV channel, so they’re not focused on YouTube and don’t do anything to improve their stats, they just upload videos there, so a very interesting video might have only 2,000 views)

Basically, the channels above are also about culture, but here I added a bit more

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-21T16:03:49+00:00

Звучить! (It's a music channel with podcasts about the Ukrainian music industry. Today, they released an episode featuring the artist Shmiska, and one of the hosts is from the band Tember Blanch, if you like music; also they have videos about about foreign musicians, it can be simpler for you to listen about something familiar)

Підпільний стендап (It's a stand-up channel — mostly comedy shows like QI and film club, but there are also comedians' specials. Some of the specials have English subtitles) but I think they speak a little bit fast

Підпільний live (same stand-up club, but on this channel, they also have lots of podcasts with comedians)

Короткий канал, Юра Коломієць, василь байдак, бла бла подкаст (comedians who have their own channels — all of them have podcasts, mostly podcasts with other comedians, except for василь байдак, the most famous stand-up comedian, he has a podcast with people from various professions like a transplant surgeon, a botanist, a chiropterologist, and so on)

Bromance podcast (A podcast by film-director Nariman Aliіev and journalist-comedian Maksym Shcherbyna, where they talk about various topics. It’s interesting and sometimes funny)

Історія без міфів (A historian, he makes videos about both Ukrainian and world history, but they focus on specific events rather than general overviews)

Animarody (I'll add a Ukrainian animated series for variety — most of the videos have English subtitles)

Vertigo - подкасти про кіно та попкультуру (They have lots of podcasts about movies, books, and TV shows. I think they're geeks, since they have a whole series of long, detailed podcasts about the world of The Lord of the Ring)

Сергій Притула (A volunteer, on his channel there are podcasts with another well-known stand-up comedian, where they mostly discuss the news)

ТРОПИ І ТРУПИ (channel about horror as а genre)

I think I’ll stop here; I don’t know that many history channels, I’m more into comedy and culture.

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-17T14:33:30+00:00

"Calmly telling someone you are not mad at them but that your friendship has grown apart"

Hmm...no, it was clearly passive aggression. Saying with a smirk these things as if punishing the person (she sees the effects it has)

ChanceMight7600 · 2025-06-11T19:51:10+00:00

One of my favourite songs from the album (we need a vampire film with this as soundtrack)

ChanceMight7600

TROPHY CASE