The running order for Ukraine and the United Kingdom in the Eurovision 2023 final has been revealed.
Eurovision 2022 winners, Ukraine, will be performing in 19th place in the final of Eurovision 2023, whilst host country United Kingdom will be closing the show, performing in 26th place.
This news was confirmed at the Heads of Delegations meeting, which was held earlier today in Liverpool. The draw was overseen by Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Martin Österdahl.
Oksana Skybinska from UA:PBC and Adam Wydrzynski from the BBC tossed a coin to decide who would pick for the other delegation first. Oksana was the winner of the coin toss, thus she chose the United Kingdom’s running order first – 26th. Adam then randomly chose Ukraine’s running order – 19th.
The United Kingdom’s draw of 26th place in this years Eurovision final marks the second time in the millenium that they will close the show, the first being Molly, who closed the 2014 final with “Children Of The Universe”.
For Ukraine, they have previously performed in 19th place in the Eurovision 2021 final with Go_A and their entry “Shum”. The last two occassions Ukraine hosted Eurovision after winning, in 2005 and 2017, they performed in 22nd and 16th place respectively.
In fact, since their debut in 2003, Ukraine have only ever performed in the first half of the grand final on four occassions – in 2004 they performed in 10th place, in 2014 and 2018 they opened the final and in 2022 they performed in 10th place again.
Every other year of their participation has seen Ukraine either randomly drawn or producer drawn to perform in the second half of the grand final – 16th in 2003 and 2005, 15th in 2006, 18th in 2007 and 2008, 21st in 2009 and 2016, 17th in 2010, 23rd in 2011, 25th in 2012 and 22nd in 2013.
Are you happy with the results of the running order for Ukraine and the United Kingdom? Do you think “I Wrote A Song” will make a good show closer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
