“It’s quite a traumatic story”: Members of the band O.Torvald, Ukraine’s representatives at Eurovision 2017, speak for the first time about their Eurovision experience.
Zhenya Galich, lead singer of the Ukrainian band O.Torvald, which represented Ukraine at Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv following Jamala‘s victory, speaks candidly in a television interview about their Eurovision experience, the treatment from the media and fans, and of course, the disappointing final results.
“It’s quite a traumatic story with complete disregard for us by the media and most fans after the defeat in 2017. So 2018 was a terrible year,” says Galich. The band faced a wave of hate after their performance in the contest. “The fact is that there was a wave of hate, and we didn’t overcome it, and that’s probably our fault. We didn’t have a ‘Plan B’. We didn’t even expect or want to represent Ukraine at Eurovision! We just thought to expand our audience through the national selection.”
The lead singer admitted that the band members felt like black sheep from the very beginning. Even during the national selection, the three judges argued over the distribution of points between the band and singer MELOVIN, who, as we remember, represented Ukraine the following year with the song “Under The Ladder”.
“We immediately understood that after the country won first place in the competition last year, it would be difficult to reach high positions. And the second thing is that Eurovision was held in our country. And this is a competition that is organized by a huge community of organizers who participate in preparing this show. A few days before the semi-final, we sat down, and one of the organizers said in conversation, like, guys, you understand that you won’t even make it to the top 20. It’s not realistic now,” the singer noted.
Ukraine at Eurovision 2017
O.Torvald represented Ukraine at Eurovision 2017 with the song “Time” after winning the local national selection. The band automatically participated in the final due to Ukraine’s victory the year before and finished in 24th place with 36 points.
Source: kanaldim.tv
Eurovision 2025: This will be Ukraine’s 20th participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Ukraine joined the competition in 2003 and has won it three times. Ukraine’s last victory was in Eurovision 2022 with the song “Stefania” performed by Kalush Orchestra.
