Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest

The Czech Republic has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since making its debut in 2007. After receiving nul points in the semi-final of the 2009 contest and a lack of interest from the Czech public, Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) decided to withdraw from future contests.[1] ČT announced their return to the contest in 2015, with an internal selection being used to select their fourth Eurovision entry.[2]

Czech Republic
Member stationČT
National selection events
Participation summary
Appearances8 (3 finals)
First appearance2007
Best result6th: 2018
Nul points2009 SF
External links
Czech Republic's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

In 2016, Gabriela Gunčíková became the first Czech entrant to reach the final, finishing 25th with the song "I Stand". After the country failed to qualify in 2017, Mikolas Josef became the second Czech entrant to reach the final and the first to reach the top ten, placing sixth in 2018 with the song "Lie to Me”. In 2019, Czech band Lake Malawi finished eleventh, achieving the country's second best result in the contest.

Early history

During the time of Czechoslovakia, Československá televize (ČST) is known to have broadcast a number of editions of the Contest in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s and 1970s.[3][4] Karel Gott, one of the most popular Czechoslovakian artist, represented Austria in the 1968 contest, held in London, United Kingdom. Furthermore, the Prague Theatre of Illuminated Drawings from the Czech capital performed as interval act in the 1984 contest, held in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

After the dissolution of the state in 1993 the Czech Republic's partner Slovakia immediately attempted to enter the Contest, entering the contest three times between 1994 and 1998, before withdrawing.

Czech broadcaster Česká televize had originally planned to send an entry to the 2005 Contest, held in Kiev, Ukraine. However, this did not materialise for various reasons.[3] ČT again looked at sending an entry to the 2006 Contest in Athens, Greece, but failed to do so after having doubts that the country would qualify for the final.[5]

Participation

2007
Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007

In April 2006 ČT officially confirmed their presence at the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland.[6]

ČT held a national final to select the first Czech entry. Eurosong 2007 featured 10 songs, with the public voting for the winner through SMS voting. However one song was withdrawn before the show began, leaving only 9 songs to compete. The winner was rock band Kabát with the song "Malá dáma".[7] At the contest's semi-final on 10 May 2007 the Czech Republic performed 16th in the semi-final, however only received one point (which came from Estonia) from the televoters around Europe.

2008
Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008

For the 2008 Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, ČT again held a national final to select the entry for the country. 10 acts again competed for the chance to represent the Czech Republic in Serbia, with the winner of Eurosong 2008 being Tereza Kerndlová with "Have Some Fun".[8] At the second semi-final of Eurovision 2008 Kerndlová performed 8th in the running order, receiving 9 points for her performance (1 points from Turkey and Malta, 2 points from Croatia and 5 points from Macedonia), placing 18th of 19 entries, and failing once again to qualify the Czech Republic to the final.

2009
Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Despite placing in the bottom two twice, ČT confirmed that they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. ČT decided to hold an internal selection for the artist who would represent the country at the contest in Russia, with a public vote on the song they would sing. The broadcaster chose Romani band Gipsy.cz in January 2009 to compete in Moscow – the band had previously competed in the two previous national finals, coming both times in the top three.[9] Two songs were presented to the Czech public to vote on: "Aven Romale" and "Do You Wanna".[10] After voting had concluded after 14 days, the final winner was "Aven Romale", which featured lead singer Radoslav Banga dressing-up as a super-hero character, Super Gypsy.[11]

The group performed 2nd on the night of the first semi-final of the contest, held on 12 May 2009. However the group managed to receive nul points from the 20 countries voting in the semi-final, becoming the 16th entry to achieve this result since the current voting method was introduced in 1975.

Withdrawal

On 22 July 2009 ČT officially announced their withdrawal from the 2010 Contest, stating a lack of interest from the Czech public to the contest and poor viewing figures for the shows.[1]

Return

Despite a July 2014 statement by ČT that the Czech Republic would not participate in Eurovision 2015,[12] ČT announced on 19 November 2014 that the Czech Republic would in fact participate at Eurovision 2015 with a song to be chosen by an expert panel from a field of five specially commissioned nominees.[13] The song however failed to qualify from the semi-final. However it did give the Czech Republic their best score and placed 13th with 33 points. On 31 August 2015, ČT announced that it would participate in the 2016 edition, in-which the Czech Republic qualified to the final for the first time in the contest's history. The placement in the final was 25 out of 26 countries. The televoting gave the Czech Republic zero points and the juries gave 41 points. The following year, Martina Barta was internally selected to perform "My Turn," and finished thirteenth in her semi-final.

2018
Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

The Czech Republic returned to a national selection for the 2018 contest, deciding their contestant by a combined online vote and an international jury of former Eurovision competitors. The winner was "Lie to Me" by Mikolas Josef. He performed the song in the Ukrainian national selection show and at Eurovision pre-parties in Riga, London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and Madrid. At the first dress rehearsal for semi-final 1, Josef injured his back while performing a backflip. He was transferred to several hospitals and was temporarily unable to walk, but still promised to perform by the time of the first semi-final. The choreography was adjusted to accommodate his injury, and his performance earned the Czech Republic their second appearance in the grand final. At the grand final, Josef performed the original choreography, complete with a front-flip that did not result in injury. "Lie to Me" wound up placing fifteenth in the jury vote and fourth in the televote, resulting in a sixth place overall. This marked the Czech Republic's first-ever appearance in the top ten and first time receiving televote points in the final. Following the contest, Head of Delegation Jan Bors confirmed that the national selection model would be used in future contest appearances as a result of Josef's success.

2019
Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

A a similar concept of the national final was used in 2019, deciding the entrant by a combination of an online voting of the Czech public and an international jury of former Eurovision competitors. Unlike the 2018 contest, the results of the international voting public were added as one individual jury member. Placing second in the Czech public vote and joint first in the jury vote, "Friend of a Friend" by Lake Malawi was announced as the winner to represent the Czech Republic in Tel Aviv. Lake Malawi managed to qualify, making it the third time the Czech Republic participated in a Eurovision final. They ended on eleventh place, which is the second best result of the country in Eurovision Song Contest.

2020
Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

During the press announcement of the 2019 entry, provisional plans for a televised national final for the 2020 contest were revealed, and the final was to be held on 25 January 2020.[14] However, in November 2019, ČT announced that the televised national final had been cancelled, and that an online selection would again be used.[15]

Contestants
Table key
2
 Second place
3
 Third place
◁
 Last place
X
 Entry selected but did not compete
Year Artist Language Title Final Points Semi Points
2007
 Kabát Czech "Malá dáma" Failed to qualify 28 ◁ 1
2008
 Tereza Kerndlová English "Have Some Fun" 18 9
2009
 Gipsy.cz English, Romani "Aven Romale" 18 ◁ 0
2015
 Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta English "Hope Never Dies" 13 33
2016
 Gabriela Gunčíková English "I Stand" 25 41 9 161
2017
 Martina Bárta English "My Turn" Failed to qualify 13 83
2018
 Mikolas Josef English "Lie to Me" 6 281 3 232
2019
 Lake Malawi English "Friend of a Friend" 11 157 2 242
2020
 Benny Cristo English "Kemama" Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 1] X
2021
 Benny Cristo[16]

Heads of delegation
Year Head of delegation Ref.
2015–2019 Jan Bors
[17]
2020 Cyril Hirsch
[18]

Commentators and spokespersons
Year Commentator Spokesperson Ref.
2007 Kateřina KristelováAndrea Savane
2008 Petra Šubrtová
2009 Jan Rejžek
2010–2014 No broadcastDid not participate
2015 Aleš HámaDaniela Písařovicová
2016 Libor Bouček
2017 Radka Rosická
2018
2019
[19]

Photogallery

See also

Notes
  1. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References
  1. Hondal, Victor (22 July 2009). "Czech Republic withdraws from Eurovision". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  2. Siim, Jarmo (19 November 2014). "Czech Republic returns to Eurovision". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  3. Bakker, Sietse (2004-12-03). "CZECH REPUBLIC WITHDRAWS". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  4. Bakker, Sietse (2008-12-25). "Do you remember... Amsterdam 1970?". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  5. Bakker, Sietse (2005-10-06). "No Czech Republic in Athens". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  6. Busa, Alexandru (2006-04-16). "Czech Republic will join in 2007". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  7. Floras, Stella (2009-03-11). "Czech Republic: Kabat with Mala dama". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  8. Schacht, Andreas (2008-01-26). "Tereza Kerndlova represents Czech colours!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  9. Siim, Jarmo (2009-01-30). "Gipsy.cz competing for Czech Republic". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  10. Jiandani, Sanjay (2009-03-01). "Czech Republic: Listen to the songs". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  11. Siim, Jarmo (2008-03-26). "Czech Republic: Gipsy with a dot". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
  12. Jiandani, Sanjay (29 July 2014). "Czech Republic: CT will not return in Eurovision 2015". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
  13. "Czech Republic back in Eurovision". PraguePost.com. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
  14. "Česko posílá na Eurovizi kapelu Lake Malawi s Albertem Černým. Poslechněte si vítěznou píseň" (in Czech). Česká televize. Retrieved 2018-01-28.
  15. Farren, Neil (6 November 2019). "Czech Republic: No Televised National Final in 2020". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  16. Jiandani, Sanjay (13 May 2020). "Czech Republic: CT confirms Benny Cristo for Eurovision 2021". ESCToday. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  17. Granger, Anthony (30 October 2019). "Czech Republic: Jan Bors Steps Down as Head of Delegation". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  18. Granger, Anthony (1 November 2019). "Czech Republic: Cyril Hirsch Announced as Head of Delegation". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 5 December 2019.
  19. Granger, Anthony (4 May 2019). "Czech Republic: Libor Boucek Announced as Commentator". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
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