Participant: Olexandr Ponomaryov
Song: Hasta La Vista
Writer(s): Mirit Shem-Ur
Composer(s): Svika Pick

This year it is the first time for Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest. The circle of participating countries is growing all the time. Who could have imagined 20 years ago that we are going to hear: "Good evening Riga, this is Kiev calling and here are the results of the Ukrainian jury"?

Olexandr Pronomyov (29) is one of the most popular singers of its country, which is situated on the Black Sea. The Ukrainian television NTU was very keen on a good debut and asked several composers from all over Europe to write a song - also Ralph Siegel from Germany. The TV's choice was Svika Pick from Israel, who already had a big success in 1998 with "Diva" and Dana International.

The composer is going to backup Olexandr on stage in Riga. We are very excited how the Ukraine will be presented on the international stage. In the video it was quite obviously that the Ukraine should be shown as modern and not poor country. But the reality is a little bit different for the majority of the Ukrainians. Most of them don't have a television at all and are not able to watch the Eurovision!

The song extremely sounds like ABBA's "Kisses of Fire".