Performing during the show in position 9, "Tick-Tock" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 10 May.

Ukraine's least successful result had been 19th place, which they achieved during the 2005, with the song "Razom nas bahato" performed by GreenJolly.

Between 2011 and 2013, NTU had set up national finals with several artists to choose both the song and performer to compete at Eurovision for Ukraine, with both the public and a panel of jury members involved in the selection.

[4][5] The second stage was the televised final, which took place on 21 December 2013 and featured the twenty acts vying to represent Ukraine in Copenhagen.

[4][5][7] Among the competing artists was Viktoria Petryk who represented Ukraine in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Twenty entries competed and the winner, "Tick-Tock" performed by Mariya Yaremchuk, was selected through the combination of votes from a public televote and an expert jury.

[13][14] The official music video of "Tick-Tock", directed by Serhiy Knyazev and produced by Alternatyva Company, was released on 17 March.

[16][17] Mariya Yaremchuk made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Tick-Tock" as the Ukrainian Eurovision entry.

On 7 February, Yaremchuk performed an alternate version of "Tick-Tock" during the semi-final of the Maltese Eurovision national final.

[18] On 5 April, Yaremchuk performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Sandra Reemer.

[21] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

On 20 January 2014, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in.

[23] In Ukraine, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on Pershyi Natsionalnyi with commentary by Timur Miroshnychenko and Tetiana Terekhova.

[30][32] The performance also featured the use of a wind machine with a night starry sky as well as images of clocks and cog wheels appearing on the LED screens.

The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.