Leléka won Vidbir 2026 with “Ridnym” and then represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna, finishing ninth in the final. That sentence alone places her in a remarkable line of Ukrainian music history. Vidbir, Ukraine’s national selection for Eurovision, has produced winners, runners-up and cultural moments that travelled far beyond a single television night. Leléka’s victory was different from many of them, because it was not built on spectacle. It was built on a quiet, folk-rooted song about loved ones, change and the way home, performed by a singer whose career had been formed far from the Eurovision stage, in jazz rooms, theatre work and film composition in Berlin and Kyiv.
Her result also sits in the context of Ukraine’s Eurovision record, which includes three victories and an unbroken run of final qualifications that few countries can match.
Who Is Leléka?
Leléka is the stage name of the Ukrainian singer, arranger and film composer Viktoriia Leleka. The name itself carries meaning: in Ukrainian, “leleka” is the word for stork, a bird associated in Ukrainian culture with home, family and return. For a singer whose best-known song is addressed to loved ones — “Ridnym” translates as “To Relatives” or “To Loved Ones” — the name is unusually fitting, even if it began as the name of a band rather than a solo brand.
She was born in Shakhtarske in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine. Shakhtarske is a mining town, and her background is a long way from the Kyiv and international music scenes in which she later worked. That distance matters to her story. Leléka is not a performer who grew up inside the Kyiv pop industry. She is a trained theatre and music professional who built a career step by step, first in Kyiv, then in Germany, and whose Eurovision breakthrough came after years of work in jazz and film music rather than after a rapid rise through television talent shows.
In Ukraine, before Vidbir, she was also known as the composer of the music for the television series And There Will Be People (I budut liudy), a historical drama. That credit is important because it shows the breadth of her musicianship. She is not only a vocalist who performs songs written by others. She composes, arranges and writes for screen, and that composer’s ear shapes the way “Ridnym” is put together, with its blend of folk instruments, strings, electronic textures and jazz phrasing.
Education: Kyiv Theatre, Then Berlin and Dresden
Leléka graduated from the I. K. Karpenko-Karyi National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Kyiv. While she was studying there, she also worked as an actress at the Molodyi Theatre in Kyiv. Theatre training of this kind gives a performer more than stage technique. It teaches text, character, breath control, ensemble discipline and the ability to hold a stage without relying on elaborate production. All of those qualities are visible in her Vidbir and Eurovision performances, which were notably restrained by Eurovision standards, relying on voice, stillness and meaning rather than on large-scale staging effects.
In 2016, she moved to Berlin. The move was a turning point. In Berlin she founded the ethno-jazz group Leléka, the ensemble that shares her stage name and that remains central to her musical identity. She also studied jazz vocals at the Dresden Conservatory, formally the Carl Maria von Weber University of Music in Dresden, and later earned a master’s degree in film composition. That combination — theatre acting, jazz singing and film composition — is rare, and it explains why her music does not fit neatly into a single genre label. It moves between folk, jazz, art pop and electronic music, with a composer’s attention to texture and a jazz singer’s attention to phrasing.
The Berlin years also made her part of a Ukrainian artistic diaspora in Germany. She was living and working abroad while remaining musically and culturally connected to Ukraine, writing and singing predominantly in Ukrainian, and taking part in cultural initiatives that promoted Ukrainian music internationally. That position — physically abroad, artistically Ukrainian — would later become part of the public conversation around her Eurovision representation. Many Ukrainian artists have built careers abroad while keeping Ukrainian language and themes at the centre of their work, and Leléka is one of them.
The Band Leléka: Folk-Jazz Roots
The group Leléka describes itself as a folk-jazz ensemble, and its music takes Ukrainian folk material and treats it with jazz freedom: improvisation, open arrangements, and a willingness to let a song breathe rather than forcing it into a pop formula. After the self-titled EP Leléka in 2017, the band released its debut album Tuman in 2019, and a second album, Sontse u sertsi, in September 2021. Those records established the band’s sound well before Eurovision audiences encountered it: Ukrainian-language texts, folk roots, jazz instrumentation, and a vocal style praised for warmth and natural power.
The band also earned recognition in the European jazz world. It won the Creole — Global Music Contest in 2017 and the European Young Jazz Talent Award at the Internationale Jazzwoche Burghausen in 2018, and Leléka came in second place at the Young Munich Jazz Prize in 2019. Those are specialist awards, not mainstream pop prizes, and they tell a different story from a typical Eurovision biography. They show a musician who had already been recognised by jazz juries and festival audiences before a television audience of millions ever heard her name.
Alongside the band, Leléka developed a separate solo art project called Donbasgrl, sometimes written Donba₴grl. She launched that project in 2024, debuting with the single “Zbroia”, based on a poem by Lesya Ukrainka, with a music video addressing themes of depression. In 2025, Donbasgrl was selected for the Eurosonic Noorderslag showcase festival in the Netherlands, where she performed a full set developed with the German music producer Jakohitsdifferent, and in the same year she released the single “Zhyva”, also produced with Jakohitsdifferent. Later in 2025 she headlined the Green Futures stage at the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom. That sequence — a literary, personal solo project running alongside a folk-jazz band and a film-composing career — shows an artist who was already working on several tracks at once when Vidbir came calling.
Film and Television Composition
Before she was a Eurovision name, Leléka was a working composer for screen. In 2020, her ensemble created and produced the music for the Ukrainian historical television series There Will Be People. Film and television composition is a discipline that rewards restraint, timing and emotional precision: the music must serve a story, not overpower it. That discipline is audible in “Ridnym”, which builds slowly, leaves space around the vocal, and uses its string orchestra and bandura as colour rather than as decoration piled on top of the song.
Her later film-composition work continued after Eurovision as well. On 14 March 2026, she released Anima Mundi, an EP made in collaboration with Italian composer Stefano Lentini, which includes three compositions featured in the sixth season of the Italian series The Sea Beyond. That release, coming so soon after the Eurovision final, shows that Eurovision was an episode in a longer composing and performing career, not the whole of it. The screen-composing catalogue shows the same musical mind working in a different medium.
What “Ridnym” Is About
“Ridnym” is a song about inner change, the acceptance of fear, and moving forward at a moment when familiar supports disappear. According to official descriptions of the song, its central idea is the transformation of pain into hope: the recognition that everything passes, that nothing is permanently safe, and that strength comes from facing fear rather than denying it. Its imagery draws on nature — greenery rusting, leaves burning, roots nourished by water, seeds blooming to show the way home — to describe a return to origins and a path forward at the same time.
The title itself does a lot of work. “Ridnym” means “to the dear ones” or “to loved ones”, and Leléka has described it as symbolising both Ukrainians who care deeply about preserving their country and people across Europe who stand for freedom, democracy and human dignity. That double address — to family and to a wider community of shared values — is part of why the song travelled well beyond Ukraine. It is specific enough to be Ukrainian, in language, in the bandura, and in its folk roots, but its theme of holding on to loved ones through change is not tied to one place.
The song’s history goes back further than Vidbir. Leléka has said that the first idea for “Ridnym” appeared in January 2022, during mass protests in Berlin against Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine’s borders. She recalled feeling a strong emotional need to spread her wings over Ukraine and protect the people closest to her heart, and a sense of kinship with Europeans who took to the streets in support of Ukraine. The song was later assembled from musical sketches she already had, after she decided, spontaneously, to enter the national selection with it. It existed in a different language version at first, before taking its final Ukrainian form. That slow, personal origin — a sketch from 2022, finished for a 2026 selection — helps explain why the song sounds considered rather than hurried. It was not written to a Eurovision formula in a few weeks. It grew over years.
Musically, “Ridnym” blends folk-jazz elements, art pop and electronic sound, with a string orchestra and the bandura, the traditional Ukrainian plucked instrument. The bandura is not a token gesture in the arrangement. Played in the Eurovision final by Yaroslav Dzhus, one of the song’s co-writers, it gives the song its most recognisably Ukrainian sound and anchors the electronic and orchestral layers in a folk tradition. The credited songwriters of “Ridnym” are Adama Cefalu, Jakob Hegner, Viktoriia Leleka and Yaroslav Dzhus, a team that mirrors the song’s blend of Ukrainian and international musical influences.
Vidbir 2026: How Ukraine Chose Its Entry
Vidbir 2026 was the tenth edition of Vidbir, Ukraine’s national final to select its Eurovision entry, organised by the public broadcaster Suspilne. The selection took place in three stages. First, artists and songwriters applied through an online submission form, and fifteen acts were longlisted and announced on 24 November 2025. Second, the longlisted artists attended auditions, and nine acts were selected and announced on 3 December 2025. An additional act was then chosen through an online selection via the Diia mobile application, bringing the final to ten acts. That tenth finalist was KHAYAT, who won the wildcard round with the song “Hertsi”, receiving 91,758 votes, or 32.41 percent, in an online vote in which more than 283,160 Ukrainians took part between 8 and 13 January.
The final took place in Kyiv on 7 February 2026. It was hosted by Timur Miroshnychenko, the official voice of Eurovision in Ukraine, and television presenter Lesia Nikitiuk, with a pre-show hosted by Anna Tulieva, who also hosted a new Eurofans zone during the main show. The final was broadcast on the Suspilne Culture television channel, on the Eurovision Ukraine YouTube channel, and on the Suspilne Culture and eurovision.ua websites, with radio coverage on Radio Promin. The slogan for the year was “Be Unique”, a principle the organisers said would run through the stage design, postcards, performances and jury formation.
The results were based on a 50/50 combination of public votes, cast via the Diia application, and votes from a five-member jury panel, larger than in previous editions, with each juror assessing a different aspect of the performances. The jury consisted of Ruslana, winner of Eurovision 2004 with “Wild Dances”; Zlata Ognevich, who represented Ukraine in 2013 with “Gravity” and finished third; Yevhen Filatov, singer and composer; Vitaliy Drozdov, general producer of TAVR Media Radio Holding; and Kostiantyn Tomilchenko, producer, choreographer and director who had staged Jamala’s winning 2016 performance of “1944”. That jury combined Eurovision winners, a former representative, a composer, a radio producer and a stage director — a deliberately broad range of professional perspectives.
The Final Night: A Maximum Score
Ten acts competed in the Vidbir 2026 final. In running order, they were Valeriya Force with “Open Our Hearts”, MOLODI with “Legends”, Monokate with “TUT”, The Elliens with “Crawling Whispers”, LAUD with “Lightkeeper”, Leléka with “Ridnym”, Mr. Vel with “Do or Done”, KHAYAT with “Hertsi”, Jerry Heil with “CATHARTICUS”, and ShchukaRyba with “Moia zemlia”. Leléka performed sixth, a mid-draw position that meant the audience had already heard five songs and still had four to come — a position that rewards a performance strong enough to stay in the memory through the rest of the show.
Her performance was one of the most restrained of the evening. Reporting on the night described an act that relied on voice, silence and meaning, without excessive effects, and that stood out precisely because it did not chase spectacle. That restraint was a risk in a national final, where louder and more visual performances often dominate audience memory. In this case, it worked.
The voting produced a clear result. The jury awarded Leléka the maximum 10 points, and the public also gave her the maximum 10 points, for a combined total of 20 points. The public vote behind that score was substantial: Suspilne later released the full televoting data, showing Leléka in first place in the televote with 60,050 votes in total, made up of 54,830 app votes and 5,220 SMS votes. The runner-up was LAUD with “Lightkeeper”, who scored 9 points from the jury and 9 from the public for 18 in total, followed by Jerry Heil with “CATHARTICUS” on 16 points, 8 from each side. Mr. Vel finished on 13, KHAYAT on 12, Monokate on 9, and Valeriya Force, MOLODI and The Elliens tied on 6 each, with ShchukaRyba on 4.
A maximum from both halves of the vote is a rare and decisive outcome. It means that professional jurors and the voting public, voting independently, agreed on the same winner. There was no split to argue over, no tie-break to explain, and no sense that one side had carried the result against the other. Leléka won Vidbir 2026 outright, and she would represent Ukraine at Eurovision 2026 in Vienna.
From Kyiv to Vienna: Eurovision 2026
The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 was the seventieth edition of the contest, held at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, following Austria’s victory in 2025. The semi-finals took place on 12 and 14 May 2026, and the grand final on 16 May 2026. Ukraine, drawn to compete in the second semi-final, performed in the second half of that show on 14 May. Leléka qualified from the semi-final in sixth place with 174 points, keeping alive Ukraine’s remarkable record of never having failed to qualify from a semi-final since semi-finals were introduced.
One moment from the second semi-final attracted particular attention in later reporting: Leléka held a sustained note reported as lasting 30 seconds, described as the longest sustained note in the history of the competition. It captures something real about her vocal approach. A thirty-second sustained note is not a trick; it requires breath control, pitch stability and the confidence to hold a single sound while an arena waits. It is the kind of feat that a jazz-trained vocalist with theatre discipline can attempt, and it became a talking point that carried into the final.
In the grand final on 16 May, Leléka performed seventh. Her final result was ninth place with 221 points, made up of 54 points from the national juries and 167 points from viewers. Reporting on the final noted that she received 12 points from the Swiss jury and 12 points from the public in Czechia, Georgia and Poland. At the end of her performance, she said “Glory to Ukraine” from the stage and raised her hand with an open palm and three fingers extended upward, a gesture widely understood by Ukrainian viewers as symbolising the Tryzub, the Ukrainian trident and state coat of arms, and one of the country’s oldest symbols of national identity. Source: Ukrinform, 17 May 2026, “Bulgaria wins Eurovision 2026, Ukraine finishes ninth”, which reports the ninth-place finish, 221 points and the 54 jury points.
Ninth place with 221 points is a strong result in a field of more than thirty countries, and it continued two patterns in Ukraine’s Eurovision history at once. First, it kept Ukraine in the top ten, a position the country has reached in most of its participations. Second, it followed Ziferblat’s ninth place in 2025 with “Bird of Pray”, meaning Ukraine finished ninth in two consecutive years, with two very different kinds of songs. The winner of Eurovision 2026 was Bulgaria’s DARA with “Bangaranga”, but Ukraine’s ninth place, achieved with a folk-jazz song in Ukrainian, stood as evidence that a quiet, culturally rooted entry could still reach the top ten in a contest often dominated by large-scale pop staging.
Ukraine at Eurovision: The Context Around Leléka
To understand why Leléka’s result mattered, it helps to know the scale of Ukraine’s Eurovision record. Ukraine first participated in 2003, when Oleksandr Ponomariov performed “Hasta la vista”. The following year, Ruslana won with “Wild Dances”. Jamala won again in 2016 with “1944”, and Kalush Orchestra won a third time in 2022 with “Stefania”. Alongside those three victories, Ukraine has finished second twice, with Verka Serduchka in 2007 and Ani Lorak in 2008, and third with Zlata Ognevich in 2013 and with alyona alyona and Jerry Heil in 2024 with “Teresa & Maria”. Ukraine is one of only two remaining countries with a complete semi-final qualification record.
Leléka’s entry sits naturally in that history, and also slightly apart from it. Like Jamala’s “1944” and Kalush Orchestra’s “Stefania”, “Ridnym” is a Ukrainian-language song rooted in Ukrainian culture and shaped by recent Ukrainian experience. Unlike those winning entries, it is not built around a dramatic historical narrative or a folk-rap fusion designed for a large stage. It is quieter, more interior, and more concerned with personal change than with public history. That it still reached ninth place suggests that Eurovision audiences and juries responded to that quieter register, and that Ukraine’s Eurovision identity is broad enough to include both the anthemic and the intimate.
Her Vidbir victory also connects her to the other artists in this site’s coverage. Jerry Heil, who finished third at Vidbir 2026 with “CATHARTICUS”, had represented Ukraine at Eurovision 2024 alongside alyona alyona. Ziferblat, who had represented Ukraine in 2025, passed the baton to Leléka as the next representative. Tina Karol, who represented Ukraine in 2006 and later served as a Vidbir jury member and music producer, belongs to the same institutional story. Leléka’s win is therefore not an isolated event. It is one chapter in a continuous national selection story that has run since 2016 and that keeps returning to the same themes: Ukrainian language, cultural roots, and the search for a song that can speak both to Ukraine and to Europe.
The Sound of Leléka: Why It Stands Out
Much Eurovision coverage focuses on results, and results matter, but Leléka’s longer significance may lie in her sound. Folk-jazz is not a common Eurovision genre. It does not offer the instant hooks of pop, the rhythmic drive of dance music, or the dramatic arc of a power ballad. What it offers is texture, space and vocal character. Leléka’s voice has been described by jazz critics as having aura and a bright, soft sound full of natural power, a description that fits the way she sings “Ridnym”: not by pushing volume, but by letting tone and phrasing carry emotion.
The bandura is central to that sound. In Ukrainian music, the bandura carries centuries of association with storytellers, folk tradition and national memory. Using it in a contemporary song that also includes electronic production and a string orchestra is a statement about continuity: tradition is not preserved by freezing it, but by letting it live inside new music. Yaroslav Dzhus’s bandura playing in the Eurovision final made that statement visible on a European stage, with the instrument at the centre of the performance rather than hidden in the arrangement.
The Donbasgrl project shows another side of the same artist. Where the band Leléka works with folk-jazz ensemble sound, Donbasgrl is a solo, art-pop and electronic project, drawing on poetry, including Lesya Ukrainka, and addressing personal themes such as depression. An artist who can move between a folk-jazz band, a literary solo project, film composition and a Eurovision entry is not following a single commercial path. She is following a musical curiosity that crosses genres, and Eurovision audiences encountered only one part of that curiosity in “Ridnym”. To understand Leléka fully, listen beyond the contest entry, to the band albums, the Donbasgrl singles and the screen music, where the same voice and the same composer’s ear appear in different forms.
The Question of Representing Ukraine From Abroad
Leléka’s victory also raised a public question that deserves honest treatment: can a singer who has lived abroad for years represent Ukraine? She moved to Berlin in 2016, built her band there, studied in Dresden, and has lived much of her professional life in Germany. Some commentary after Vidbir asked whether that distance affected her claim to represent the country. The question is understandable, and it is not unique to Leléka; it has been asked about diaspora artists in many countries’ Eurovision selections.
The facts that answer it are musical and cultural rather than geographical. Her songs are predominantly in Ukrainian. Her band is built on Ukrainian folk material. Her Eurovision song grew from a response to events affecting Ukraine in 2022 and is addressed to loved ones and to a community defined by shared values around Ukraine. She has taken part in charity concerts, cultural initiatives and the promotion of Ukrainian music internationally while living abroad. And her victory itself was decided by Ukrainian voters and a Ukrainian jury, who chose her over nine other finalists, including artists based in Ukraine. Representation, in a national selection, is ultimately decided by that vote, and the vote in Vidbir 2026 was decisive: maximum points from both the jury and the public.
That debate is part of the story of “Ridnym” because the song itself is about distance and closeness: about loved ones who remain close even at a distance, about roots that nourish growth elsewhere, and about a way home that is not only a place but a direction. A singer who has lived abroad and written a song about remaining connected to home is, in a sense, singing about her own experience. The song’s theme and the singer’s biography fit together in a way that makes the debate itself part of the work’s meaning.
What Comes After Eurovision
Eurovision can be a peak that is hard to follow, but Leléka’s post-contest activity suggests a career continuing on its own terms rather than pausing after Vienna. The Anima Mundi EP with Stefano Lentini, released on 14 March 2026, returned her to screen composition, with pieces written for an Italian television series. That is a telling next step: not a rushed follow-up single designed to repeat “Ridnym”, but a composing project in a different medium, with a different collaborator, in a different country. It fits the pattern of her career before Eurovision, in which band work, solo work and screen work ran alongside each other.
For Ukrainian music, her result also has a practical significance. A ninth-place finish with a Ukrainian-language folk-jazz song demonstrates to broadcasters, juries and future Vidbir entrants that a quiet, culturally specific entry can succeed at Eurovision without conforming to a generic pop template. That matters for the future of Vidbir, because it widens the range of songs that future entrants may feel able to submit. If Vidbir’s purpose is to find a song that represents Ukraine honestly, rather than to chase a predicted Eurovision formula, then Leléka’s victory and ninth place are evidence that honesty and success are not opposed.
For Leléka herself, the most important legacy of 2026 may be simpler: a song that began as a sketch in Berlin in January 2022, addressed to loved ones, was heard by millions of people in Kyiv, Vienna and beyond, and finished in the top ten of the world’s largest song contest. That is a rare journey for any song, and it is the reason “Ridnym” will be remembered as more than a contest entry. It is a song about holding on to people through change, performed at a moment when that theme spoke to a whole country and to many people beyond it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won Vidbir 2026?
Leléka won Vidbir 2026 with the song “Ridnym”. She scored the maximum 10 points from the jury and the maximum 10 points from the public, for a combined total of 20 points.
When was the Vidbir 2026 final?
The Vidbir 2026 final took place in Kyiv on 7 February 2026. Ten acts competed, and the result was decided by a 50/50 combination of public votes via the Diia application and a five-member jury.
What does Ridnym mean?
“Ridnym” translates as “To Relatives” or “To Loved Ones”. Leléka has described the word as symbolising both Ukrainians who care about preserving their country and people across Europe who stand for freedom, democracy and human dignity.
Did Leléka represent Ukraine at Eurovision 2026?
Yes. After winning Vidbir 2026, Leléka represented Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Vienna with “Ridnym”. She qualified from the second semi-final in sixth place and finished ninth in the final.
What was Ukraine’s result at Eurovision 2026?
Ukraine finished ninth in the Eurovision 2026 final with 221 points: 54 points from the national juries and 167 points from viewers. In the second semi-final, Ukraine placed sixth with 174 points.
Who wrote Ridnym?
“Ridnym” was written by Adama Cefalu, Jakob Hegner, Viktoriia Leleka and Yaroslav Dzhus. Yaroslav Dzhus also played the bandura in the Eurovision final performance.
What kind of music does Leléka make?
Leléka leads a folk-jazz ensemble of the same name, blending Ukrainian folk material with jazz, art pop and electronic elements. She is also a film composer and runs the solo art project Donbasgrl.