Ukraine 2022: Kalush Orchestra with ‘Stefania’

Ukraine are quite partial to scrapping their Vidbir results, at least unlike 2019, they have managed to get an entry sent at all:

I'll be brief here because I begrudge them for making me write a second review. Is the ceiling lower than Alina Pash? Obviously. Will it still do well? Yep.

Ukraine are Ukraine, despite the infighting between Kalush and the broadcaster, you'd imagine they'll still be able to put on a great staging with this and the year isn't strong enough for us to debate them losing their qualifying streak. It should be chanceless in the outright with this being jury poison and I also don't see the mass televoting appeal to get this as high as ‘Shum’. The ‘sympathy vote’ could come into play a little but Stefania isn't really the prime candidate for that to work with unlike ‘1944’ or ‘SOFA’. It shouldn't be enough however to propel this into any threatening position although investments are likely safe from the threat of withdrawal- it's weird timing for the official announcement so it looks pretty decisive.

A low top 10 seems the ceiling at this stage and that probably suits the delegation just fine.

Personal Rating: 4/10

Competitive Rating: 7/10

Early Prediction: Semi 1: 3rd-6th, 8th- 12th in the final.