Zlata Ognevich will represent Ukraine at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Gravity”.

It was an early start in the Black Sea nation on Sunday, as fans across the continent had the rare opportunity to enjoy 20 live performances with their brunchtime coffee and croissants.

With auditions and rehearsals continuing right up until midnight on Saturday and the promise of potential disqualifications during the show – a fate that befell the very first entry performed – it was unclear exactly what would come out of the selection, particularly given Ukraine’s reputation for subsequently tinkering with both song and singer depending on the whims of the government and/or the light entertainment department.

However, the winning song was a clear favourite among televoters and the jury alike, so we may indeed have found our Ukrainian entry for Malmö.

“Gravity” falls broadly within the frequently-used Ukrainian model of Woman Sings Loudly For Three Minutes, although Zlata is certainly easier on the ear than last year’s representative Gaitana, who came home from Baku with an unusually disappointing result for a country that has such a strong recent pedigree in the contest. Time will tell whether Zlata can turn around the trend and return Ukraine to the top ten!

“Gravity” was also the favourite of the #esc chat vote, with an average score of 6.50 out of 10, followed by Lena Korneeva (6.00) and Eduard Romanyuta (5.70). Meanwhile, poor “Naleteli gusenyata” by Hvozdivchanka picked up an average score of… zero! Thanks to ThomNL for counting the votes.