Scandal and Ukraine’s participation in Eurovision, Europe’s top pop song contest, seem to go hand in hand. In sticking with tradition, this year shaped up to be no different.
Although Mika Newton was officially recognized as Ukraine’s choice for this year’s contest, the results of the national final have been widely derided as unfair.
Many observers and fans think that the contest was rigged and other contestants, Zlata or Jamala, should represent Ukraine. Jamala, considered the hot favorite and already an established star, finished third in the final runoff that was broadcast on First National Channel on Feb. 26.
We hope that the SMS voting was honest, not rigged. Otherwise it appears that money played more of a role than talent, something I did not want to happen.”
– Hanna Herman, a jury member and deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration.
Voting was conducted by a panel, on the Internet and by SMS. Newton won all three, but her victory in the SMS poll aroused suspicions after it emerged that, on average, each phone that voted for her sent 14.5 messages. For Jamala, the figure was 1.7 per voter.
“We hope that the SMS voting was honest, not rigged,” said Hanna Herman, a jury member and deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration. Otherwise, Herman said it appears that “money played more of a role than talent, something I did not want to happen.”
Singer Jamala (L) takes third place despite being a hot favorite for months. (Kyiv Post photo)
It’s not the first time that foul play has been suspected. In 2010, the contest was also deemed uncompetitive when the channel’s management chose Vasyl Lazarovych, a little known singer, without holding a public vote. The choice was eventually overturned in a repeat contest.
One year earlier, singer Anastasiya Prikhodko was eliminated from the competition in a move seen by some critics as a plot to ensure victory for one of her top competitors. Prikhodko retaliated by representing Russia at Eurovision instead.
This year’s selection contest took place in a studio crammed with celebrities, 19 contestants, their teams and fans. Zlata Ognevich, 25, from the Crimean city of Sudak, started the show. While performing her most famous song “The Kukushka” she tried to imitate the singing of a cuckoo. She was joined on stage near the end of the performance by a dancer waving giant brown wings.
Jamala, or Susana Jamaladynova, demonstrated her unusual voice and performing style, which is considered to be a mix of jazz, soul, blues and gospel. She went on stage in a mocking crinoline skirt with an energetic song Smile.
Jamala. 27, was born in Kyrgystan to a Crimean Tatar family which was deported by Jozef Stalin from Crimea. Her family returned to Ukraine a year after Jamala was born.
Singer Zlata Ognevich finishes second during the national Eurovision song contest on Feb. 26. (Kyiv Post photo)
After their performances Jamala and Zlata went to their dressing rooms and nervously waited for the voting results. Meanwhile Mika Newton, born Oksana Hrytsay in Ivano Frankivsk Oblast, looked more confident. The 24-year-old singer sat in an armchair close to the entrance to the stage. Surrounded, naturally, by a bodyguard and a make-up artist, she was visible to everyone, including fans shouting: “Our Mika is the best. There is no need to test!”
The singer wore a white dress decorated with fur to perform her song “Angels.” Five male dancers dressed as angels were dancing behind her with mirrors on wheels. After the results were announced Mika Newton was crying with happiness while sad Jamala ran to the dressing room refusing to comment. Zlata said she knew everything would end this way.
Of the panel judges, Jamala was supported by two previous Ukrainian Eurovision contestants, Eurovision 2004 winner Ruslana and Ani Lorak, who represented Ukraine in 2008. Ruslana and Ani Lorak as jury members awarded Jamala the maximum 10 points. Ruslana gave another 10 points to Zlata. But both singers gave Newton a much lower score, just eight points.
“Mika Newton is an angel in real life, but my sympathies were with other candidates,” said Herman who also gave fewer points to Newton. “I liked singers Jamala and Anastasiya Prikhodko. They showed strong and energetic characters. These girls could have been noticed in Europe, especially Jamala.”
I don’t have faith in the people who will organize and control the voting. I am pretty sure that people who are trying to organize [the revote] will do everything possible to prove their case again and to degrade me and other singers again.”
– Jamala, singer.
However, the opinions of other jury members varied. Ukraine’s influential lawmaker and accordion player Yan Tabachnyk, music producer Eduard Klim, First National Channel general director Yegor Benkendorf and the channel’s vice president Walid Arfush gave more points to Newton.
The vote tallies of all jury members, which counted for 45 percent of the total, ended up placing Newton first, Ognevich second and Jamala in third. There was only a two-point difference between first and third.
Internet voting, which gave 10 percent of the final score, was also relatively tight. The final 45 percent was made up of SMS votes, which Newton also won.
But a suspicious statistic emerged: Jamala would have won the runoff if only unique Internet and SMS votes – those sent from one IP-address or cellphone – had been tabulated. She received 7,104 unique Internet votes and 6,365 unique SMS votes, compared to 2,640 and 1,996 for Newton.
Newton supporters, it turns out, have quick fingers and deep pockets. The final numbers suggest that her supporters have spent more than Hr 50 to vote for her multiple times. That’s not a fortune, but a hefty expense in these tough economic times for an average Ukrainian.
In providing for unlimited SMS and Internet voting, critics say the rules of Eurovision contestant competition selection allow for contests with the deepest pockets to win. Results of the contest triggered a sea of complaints on the Internet website hosting the runoff. One read: “It’s time to stop treating us like fools!”
More than 5,000 people left their signatures on an Internet petition to the First National Channel and demanded a revote where only one SMS or Internet vote could be cast by each person.
Amid the pressure, the channel announced a runoff between the top three, but Jamala and Zlata refused to take part.
“I don’t have faith in the people who will organize and control the voting,” explained Jamala in an open letter published on her website. “I am pretty sure that people who are trying to organize [the revote] will do everything possible to prove their case again and to degrade me and other singers again.” Zlata refused because of a serious leg injury that she announced on her web site.
So the channel announced Newton the winner, saying it had re-tabulated results according to “international standards,” where each number can vote a maximum of 20 times, and she had still come out on top.
She’ll now represent Ukraine at the final in Dusseldorf, Germany on May 10-14.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
