Ukraine at Eurovision 2008

The real name of the performer is Carolina Cuek. She received the status of Honored Artist of Ukraine at the age of 19, becoming the youngest owner of this title. At the time of her participation, Ani released 10 albums, and the first three albums - "There, de te", "Smile" and "Blossoms" - brought her fame in Europe and the world. She participated in competitions such as the Russian "Morning Star" (1996, Moscow) and the American "Big Apple Music" (1996, New York). She has performed in the USA, Russia, Great Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Turkey.

Ani also starred in the musicals “Gypsies”, “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka”, “Crazy Day, or the Marriage of Figaro”. She is actively involved in charity work: in 2005 she received gratitude from UNICEF for helping HIV-infected residents of Ukraine as the UN Goodwill Ambassador for HIV and AIDS in Ukraine .

The national television company of Ukraine decided to select an artist for the role of representative of Ukraine. At a press conference with the president of NTU Vitaliy Dokalenko, the representative of Raiffeisen Bank as the sponsor of the competition Leonid Zyabrev and the director of the department of music and entertainment programs at NTU Elena Zagorodniuk, she officially confirmed the choice of Ani Lorak as a performer from Ukraine. The choice of the song had to go through open selection - from December 25, 2007 to February 5, 2008, all interested composers could send their songs. The final was to be held on February 16 on the First National Channel, but was postponed to February 23. NTU also announced that it will broadcast both the semi-finals of the contest and the final, and will also release an album with the 12 best selection songs. On May 11, a concert program was planned as part of Ani Lorak's Eurovision send-offs.

109 songs were sent, of which only 11 were fully consistent with the application. The jury included Eduard Klim, Vitaly Dokalenko, Alexander Ponomarev, Alexander Zlotnik, Igor Poklad, Vasily Vovkun and Sergey Kuzin, who decided to dwell on six songs. Later, their number was first reduced to 4, and then still stopped at five. Five of the following songs were selected:

• “Shady Lady” - composer Philip Kirkorov , lyrics by Karen Kavaleryan
• “The dream of bright a day” - music by Ani Lorak , words - Zhari Sak.
• “I'm your melody” - music and lyrics - Bozena Kostroma.
• “I will become the sea” - music by Vitaliy Volkomor, lyrics by Nikolai Brovchenko.
• “Waiting for you” - the music was written by Yuri Ostapenko, the lyrics belong to Ani Lorak .

It was the song “Shady Lady” that won.

The author of the music is the Russian singer and composer Philip Kirkorov, who himself has applied. The lyrics were written by songwriter Karen Kavaleryan (he is the author of a Russian text entitled “From Heaven to Heaven”), and the song was recorded in Greece. Earlier, the melody was offered to Russian performers by Dima Bilan, Sergey Lazarev, Evgenia Otradnaya, Kristina Orbakaite and the A-Studio group. On March 3, 2008, a video was shot for the song, and Katya Tsarik became the director of the video. The production was staged by director Fokas Evangeline, who staged the numbers for Sakis Ruvas in 2004, Elena Paparizu in 2005 and Dima Bilan in 2006. For the stage number, several cabinets were installed: Ani climbed onto them at one of the moments. Dress for the performance was prepared by fashion designer Robert Cavalli, whom Ani contacted during a promotional tour of the Baltic states.

The singer’s promotional tour began on March 9, 2008, when Ani Lorak performed in the interval-act of Russia's national selection for the contest. On March 31, Ani Lorak visited Belgium, taking part in the campaign of the charity organization Designers Against AIDS ( eng. Designers Against AIDS ). Ani Lorak invited the creative director of the organization, Javier Barkalu, to her Eurovision press conference on the fight against AIDS. On April 3, she visited Cyprus, giving an interview to Cypriot television and radio (including the local Russian Radio team), as well as starring for OK magazine. Ani Lorak met with the participant of the Greek national selection Kostas Martakis , giving him the prize "Best Selling Artist of the Year".

On April 6, Ani Lorak arrived in Macedonia, speaking on the show "Music Idol" (the local version of the show "Pop Idol"), and on April 7 arrived in Bulgaria. Ani was especially famous for participating in the author’s program of the Bulgarian singer Azis (Vasil Troyanov Boyanov) on Bulgarian television, as well as performing in the local show “Music Idol”. On April 12, Ani Lorak arrived in Malta, giving interviews on several national television programs and giving a concert at Sky Club. In one of the programs, she met with the representative of Malta at Eurovision Morena , who was supposed to perform in the second semifinal (as Ani Lorak).

Preparations for the competition were in Moscow, and on the evening of April 17 at the MTV Movie Awards party, Ani Lorak and Philip Kirkorov gave an interview to the press. From Moscow, Ani flew to London, giving a concert at the Scala club, and then went to Brussels and completed her promotional tour in Spain.

Ani Lorak was considered one of the favorites for Eurovision 2008. The author of the independent Internet project Eurovision-Kazakhstan, Andrey Mikheev, suggested that Lorak would be guaranteed to be in the Top 5 of the contest: ^[2]

• Music: He harnesses a rather indistinct couplet for a long time, but then he beats “like thunder” very effectively in the refrain. 7/10
• Text: But the text is really strong. The hook is rhythmic and perfectly memorable. 9/10
• Vocals: Well, it really reminds Elena Papariz very much, like, in general, the whole song. Live a little less balanced than in the studio version. 8/10
• Bottom line: Favorite of the contest. Guaranteed Top 5. 9/10

Chairman of the Russian OGAE fan club Anton Kulakov compared the performance of Ani Lorak with two participants of Eurovision 2006 - Sibel Tyuziun (8th place) and Tina Karol (7th place) - and noted the excellent work of the songwriters and the powerful vocals of Lorak: ^{[2 ]}

• Music: As a composer, Kirkorov is definitely growing. The chorus is great. 8/10
• Text: Hmm. It seems that Sibel Tuziun already had this. We support, because Kavaleryan . 8/10
• Vocals: Strong vocals. I don’t remember that in Ukraine there were women who were weak in voice. 9/10
• Bottom line: Most likely, Tina Karol's route was ordered - to her final, to the final.

According to Philip Kirkorov, Ukraine, along with Serbia, Russia, Armenia and Sweden, was among the Top 5 favorites of the contest.

Semifinal

In the finals

• Official Eurovision website
• Ukraine at Eurovision 2008 (Russian)