Ukraine participated in Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Show Me Your Love" written by Mikhail Nekrasov, Tina Karol and Pavlo Shylko. The song was performed by Tina Karol. The Ukrainian broadcaster National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU) organised the music competition series Ty – Zirka! in order to select the Ukrainian entry for the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece. Twelve contestants competed in the competition which consisted of four shows: three elimination shows, held on 28 January, 11 February and 25 February 2006, and a final, held on 11 March 2006. Three acts qualified to compete in the final, where "I Am Your Queen" performed by Tina Karol was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a three-member jury panel and a public televote. The song was later retitled as "Show Me Your Love".
Ukraine competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 18 May 2006. Performing during the show in position 15, "Show Me Your Love" was announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 20 May. It was later revealed that Ukraine placed seventh out of the 23 participating countries in the semi-final with 146 points. In the final, Ukraine performed in position 18 and placed seventh out of the 24 participating countries with 145 points.
Background
Prior to the 2006 contest, Ukraine had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest three times since its first entry in , winning it in with the song "Wild Dances" performed by Ruslana. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Ukraine had managed to qualify to final in every contest they participated in thus far. Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, which they achieved during the , with the song "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly.
The Ukrainian national broadcaster, National Television Company of Ukraine (NTU), broadcasts the event within Ukraine and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. NTU confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 November 2005. In the past, the broadcaster had alternated between both internal selections and national finals in order to select the Ukrainian entry. In 2005, NTU had set up a national final with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ukraine. The method was continued to select the 2006 Ukrainian entry.
Before Eurovision
Ty – Zirka! Ty – Zirka! (Ukrainian: Ти – Зiрка!) was the Ukrainian version of the Irish music competition series You're a Star which selected the Ukrainian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The competition commenced on 28 January 2006 and concluded with a final on 11 March 2006. All shows in the competition took place at the NTU Studios in Kyiv, hosted by Maria Orlova and Igor Posypaiko and broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi.
Format
The competition and ultimately the selection of the Ukrainian Eurovision entry took place over three stages. In the first stage, singers had the opportunity to apply for the competition by attending a scheduled audition during designated dates. Twelve acts, two from each audition, were selected and worked with a professional team of stylists, choreographers, vocal teachers and psychologists throughout the process. The second stage consisted of the televised elimination shows which took place on 28 January, 11 February and 25 February 2006. Each of the contestants performed cover versions of famous world and/or national hits, and three contestants were eliminated per show based on the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. The third stage was the final, which took place on 11 March 2006 and featured the remaining three acts vying to represent Ukraine in Athens. Each finalist performed their candidate Eurovision songs and the winner was selected via the 50/50 combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury. Both the public televote and the expert jury assigned scores ranging from 1 (lowest) to 12 (highest) during each of the shows based on the number of contestants in the respective show. Viewers participating in the public televote during the four live shows had the opportunity to submit their votes for the contestants via telephone or SMS. In the event of a tie, the tie was decided in favour of the contestant/entry that received the highest score from the public televote.