Vidbir 2026 Preview
Current 4th Favourites for Eurovision Ukraine select tonight in what should be a marathon and nervy vidbir, packed with some familiar names.
Jerry Heil comes into this as the favourite with her song proving a grower and posting stronger numbers (away from the official playlist thanks to her music video) that the others can't compete with. She is working with a far more international team and a bigger budget, but whether her staging is going in the right direction is a bit dubious based on some small snippets suggesting she's a fan of The Ring. Loreen 'Statements' flashbacks.
Perhaps her biggest danger is more what the jury decides to do with Vidbir juries often going random. Jerry was unable to win there in either '23 or '24 despite having on those occasions the far superior entry, in my opinion, whereas this time it's already narrower. I'm expecting to see comments along the lines of "It was great, but let's try something different..."
The main alternatives are my personal favourite Monokate and Leleka. Monokate is of course also trying to win for a second time after Go_A's 2020 victory - the last time the Jury and Televote were unanimous. Leleka enters as the more natural "something different" option and was the most hyped act from auditions. Her song doesn't work all that much in studio but there is strong live potential. Both of these offer more vocally than Jerry and I expect to see both ranked higher with the jury.
Beyond them there are several spoilers in Khayat, Valeria Force, Molodi and Laud. None of these should be able to threaten the win, but they can sneak into a top 3 on either side- important because of the way vidbir distributes it's points: 10 for 1st on each side, 9 for 2nd and so on.
For Jerry fans, the good news is the Televote decides in the pretty likely event of a tie. I'd probably have to side with her if my life depended on this for that fact alone but I don't expect it to be a comfortable night for her: Vidbir never is straightforward.
At Eurovision, Jerry offers the safest option and it's hard to see Ukraine lower than 5th with her, but it's harder to see them lower than 7th with anyone given their Televote power and fact this is a lineup many would envy anyway. To actually win however, the real top end range of potential, I find Catharticus the worst option of the "big three".