Ukraine Skyrockets to Number One at Junior Eurovision

KYIV, Ukraine, December 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Anastasiya Petryk, 10, from Ukraine won the 10^th Junior Eurovision Song Contest with her song Nebo  (Ukrainian for sky). The Ukrainian-language ballad allowed Anastasiya to wow the international televoters and jury with her powerful performance and become the first among competition entries from 12 countries.

Ukrainian entry got 138 points, while the runner-up and last year's winner Georgia - 103. Armenia, Russia, and Belgium completed the top ten of the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. This is the highest score for Ukraine over its seven years in the competition. Notably, the second best result was demonstrated by Petryk's older sister Victoria. She took the second place in the 2008 Junior Eurovision Song Contest with her upbeat performance of Matrosy.

In 2009, Ukraine hosted the seventh Junior Eurovision Song Contest in its capital city Kyiv. The right to host Junior Eurovision is awarded by the European Broadcasting Union, as opposite to Eurovision Song Contest, where the hosting rights are automatically granted to the winning country. Namely, having won in 2012, Sweden will host the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

Ukraine is known to be one of the best performing countries at Eurovision. The country representative Ruslana won in 2004, bringing home both the Eurovision trophy and the right to host the 50^th Eurovision Song Contest in 2005.

Ukraine first began participating in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2003. The silver voice of Ukraine Oleksandr Ponomaryov represented Ukraine with his song Hasta la Vista at the time. Besides the victorious 2004, Ukraine became a huge success in 2007 and 2008 at Eurovision - the sensational cross-dressing singer-comedian Verka Serduchka and the pop star Ani Lorak both climbed to number two, threatening the competition leaders. Another success was nailed by Ukrainian singer Mika Newton, who charmed the audiences and judges of the competition and got the fourth place.

Ukraine also did well in the dance spin-off of the program, taking the second place in the 2007 Eurovision Dance Contest, and third - in 2008.

Eurovision Song Contest is one of the most watched television shows in the world, gathering hundreds of millions in front of TVs. The contest airs live with both the audience and panels of judges from all participating countries awarding points to participating acts.