Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Czech Republic participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) organised a national final in order to select the Czech entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Czech Republic
National selection
Selection process	Eurovision Song CZ
Selection date(s)	28 January 2019
Selected entrant	Lake Malawi
Selected song	"Friend of a Friend"
Selected songwriter(s)	Jan Steinsdoerfer Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec Albert Černý
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (2nd, 242 points)
Final result	11th, 157 points
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Background

Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Czech Republic had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since its first entry in 2007.[1] The nation competed in the contest on three consecutive occasions between 2007 and 2009 without qualifying to the final: in 2007 Kabát performing "Malá dáma" placed 28th (last) in the semi-final achieving only one point, in 2008 Tereza Kerndlová performing "Have Some Fun" placed 18th (second to last) in her semi-final scoring nine points, in 2009 Gipsy.cz performing the song "Aven Romale" placed 18th (last) in their semi-final failing to score any points. The Czech broadcaster withdrew from the contest between 2010 and 2014 citing reasons such as low viewing figures and poor results for their absence.[2] In 2015, Czech Republic returned to the contest and once again failed to qualify to the final with the song "Hope Never Dies" performed by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta, placing 13th in their semi-final with 33 points. In 2016, Czech Republic was represented by Gabriela Gunčíková and the song "I Stand". The country qualified for the final and placed 25th out of 26 entries. This marked the first qualification to the final for the Czech Republic since they debuted in the contest in 2007. In 2018, Czech Republic was represented by Mikolas Josef with the song "Lie to Me". The song finished in sixth place with 281 points, achieving their highest finish in the contest and their first appearance in the top ten.

Before Eurovision

Eurovision Song CZ

Eurovision Song CZ was the national selection process organised by Česká televize to select Czech Republic's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The winner was revealed in January 2019.

Format

The winner was determined, from among eight competing entries, by the combination of votes from a public vote and a ten-member international jury panel. For the public vote, users were able to vote for the winner from 7 January 2019 to 21 January 2019 via the official Eurovision Song Contest app. For first time, both international and Czech users were able to vote. International votes have the same weight like international juror. The international jury panel consisted of ten former Eurovision entrants:

• Cesár Sampson – represented Austria in 2018
• Rasmussen – represented Denmark in 2018
• Zibbz – represented Switzerland in 2018
• Ira Losco – represented Malta in 2002 and 2016
• Elina Nechayeva – represented Estonia in 2018
• AWS – represented Hungary in 2018
• Alma – represented France in 2017
• Ari Ólafsson – represented Iceland in 2018
• JOWST – represented Norway in 2017
• Ryan O'Shaughnessy – represented Ireland in 2018

Competing entries

Česká televize received three hundred song submissions for the Eurovision Song Contest, of which 60 were by Czech musicians. The eight selected finalists were announced on 7 January 2019 and the entries were made available to the public.[3]

Artist	Song (English translation)	Songwriter(s)	Jury		Televote	Total	Place
			Votes	Points
Andrea Holá	"Give Me a Hint"	František Valena	53	8	4	12	5
Barbora Mochowa	"True Colors"	Barbora Mochowa, Viliam Béreš, Koos Kamerling	108	12	6	18	3
Hana Barbara	"Poslední slova tobě" (The last words to you)	Hana Schořová, Marcus Tran	45	4	1	5	8
Jakub Ondra	"Space Sushi"	Jakub Ondra, Michael Gubler, Boris Carloff, Viktor Dyk, Alasdair Bouch	49	6	12	18	2
Jara Vymer	"On My Knees"	Jaroslav Vymer, Boris Carloff	40	3	2	5	7
Lake Malawi	"Friend of a Friend"	Jan Steinsdoerfer, Maciej Mikolaj Trybulec, Albert Černý	108	12	10	22	1
Pam Rabbit	"Easy to Believe"	João Filipe de Carvalho, Pamela Koky	54	10	8	18	4
Tomáš Boček	"Don’t Know Why"	Tomáš Boček, Boris Carloff, Alasdair Bouch	49	6	3	9	6

Detailed International Jury Votes
Artist	Song	AUT	DEN	CHE	MAL	EST	HUN	FRA	ISL	NOR	IRL	INTL	Total
Andrea Holá	"Give Me a Hint"	2	4	2	10	3	12	8	2	3	4	3	53
Barbora Mochowa	"True Colors"	12	12	12	8	10	6	12	6	8	10	12	108
Hana Barbara	"Poslední slova tobě"	3	3	3	6	6	2	4	4	6	6	2	45
Jakub Ondra	"Space Sushi"	10	1	1	4	4	3	10	3	2	3	8	49
Jara Vymer	"On My Knees"	6	6	8	1	8	4	3	1	1	1	1	40
Lake Malawi	"Friend of a Friend"	8	10	6	12	12	8	6	12	12	12	10	108
Pam Rabbit	"Easy to Believe"	1	2	10	3	1	10	1	8	10	2	6	54
Tomáš Boček	"Don’t Know Why"	4	8	4	2	2	1	2	10	4	8	4	49

Promotion

Lake Malawi made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Friend of a Friend" as the Czech Eurovision entry. On 6 April, the group performed at the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam to over 4500 spectators.[4] On 14 April, Lake Malawi performed during the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris venue in London, hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.[5] They will also perform "Friend of a Friend" at the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid on 20 April, and at the Moscow Eurovision Party on 26 April. They also performed during the Ukrainian Eurovision national final.[6]

At Eurovision

Albert Černý from Lake Malawi at Eurovision Song Contest 2019 during First Semi-final dress rehearsal

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (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. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, 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. Czech Republic was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[7]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Czech Republic was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from Slovenia and preceding the entry from Hungary.[8]

Semi-final

The Czech Republic performed sixth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Slovenia and preceding the entry from Hungary. At the end of the show, they were announced as one of the ten countries to qualify for the grand final, making it the country's third qualification overall and second in a row. Subsequently, at the semi-final winners' press conference, the qualifying contestants all drew to see which half of the final they would compete in. The Czech Republic was drawn to compete in the first half. It was later revealed that Czech Republic placed second in the semi-final, receiving a total of 242 points: 86 points from the televoting and 157 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[9]

Points awarded to Czech Republic

Points awarded to Czech Republic (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Iceland	Australia	Estonia		Belgium  Israel
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Finland  Poland  Slovenia  Spain	Hungary  Portugal  San Marino	Belarus  Montenegro	Cyprus	Georgia  Greece  Serbia
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Australia  Estonia  Georgia  Portugal  Slovenia	Iceland  Hungary  Serbia	Belgium  Finland  France  Greece  Spain	Belarus  Poland	Israel
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		Montenegro  San Marino		Cyprus

Points awarded to Czech Republic (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
			Australia  Iceland  Moldova	Poland
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Georgia  Hungary  Norway  Slovenia	Portugal	Estonia  Moldova  Romania	Croatia  Lithuania	Iceland  Spain
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Australia  Belgium	Finland  Italy  Netherlands  Serbia	Armenia  Austria  France  Latvia		Israel  Montenegro  Sweden  United Kingdom

Points awarded by Czech Republic

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  San Marino  Slovenia 10 points  Australia  Cyprus 8 points  Estonia  Belarus 7 points  Poland  Poland 6 points  Iceland  Serbia 5 points  Slovenia  Greece 4 points  Serbia  Hungary 3 points  Belarus  Belgium 2 points  Hungary  Portugal 1 point  Cyprus  Georgia

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Russia  Sweden 10 points  Norway  Slovenia 8 points  Australia  Italy 7 points  Azerbaijan  North Macedonia 6 points  Iceland  Netherlands 5 points   Switzerland  Azerbaijan 4 points  Netherlands  Iceland 3 points  Israel  Malta 2 points  Italy  France 1 point  Estonia  Estonia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Czech jury:[9]

• Jitka Zelenková – Chairperson – singer
• Iva Boková – journalist, show host
• Šimon Holý – film director, musician, show host
• Ondřej Cikán – radio show host, media consultant
• Aneta Kharitonova (Anett X) – singer

Split voting results from Czech Republic (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Boková	Š. Holý	J. Zelenková	O. Cikán	Anett X	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	6	4	3	12	2	2	10	10	1
02	Montenegro	12	16	4	13	13	15		15
03	Finland	4	14	9	11	11	12		16
04	Poland	7	2	11	4	8	4	7	4	7
05	Slovenia	1	1	16	1	1	1	12	6	5
06	Czech Republic
07	Hungary	14	3	13	6	5	7	4	9	2
08	Belarus	9	11	5	2	3	3	8	8	3
09	Serbia	3	15	10	3	7	5	6	7	4
10	Belgium	11	10	2	15	6	8	3	12
11	Georgia	2	9	15	10	14	10	1	13
12	Australia	10	7	6	14	12	13		2	10
13	Iceland	13	5	7	8	16	11		5	6
14	Estonia	5	13	14	9	9	14		3	8
15	Portugal	16	8	1	16	10	9	2	14
16	Greece	8	6	12	5	4	6	5	11
17	San Marino	15	12	8	7	15	16		1	12

Split voting results from Czech Republic (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Boková	Š. Holý	J. Zelenková	O. Cikán	Anett X	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	7	12	10	11	4	8	3	21
02	Albania	18	21	20	16	19	20		22
03	Czech Republic
04	Germany	14	14	11	17	16	16		23
05	Russia	22	25	23	24	17	22		1	12
06	Denmark	11	16	19	6	15	13		11
07	San Marino	25	18	24	25	25	25		18
08	North Macedonia	2	10	1	8	6	4	7	12
09	Sweden	1	2	2	4	3	1	12	16
10	Slovenia	3	3	6	2	2	2	10	14
11	Cyprus	13	5	18	15	9	12		20
12	Netherlands	8	4	3	3	7	5	6	7	4
13	Greece	19	15	16	23	14	19		24
14	Israel	23	23	22	19	18	21		8	3
15	Norway	24	22	21	22	22	23		2	10
16	United Kingdom	10	13	7	9	11	11		25
17	Iceland	4	7	14	5	24	7	4	5	6
18	Estonia	12	20	4	7	13	10	1	10	1
19	Belarus	21	19	15	13	10	17		19
20	Azerbaijan	5	9	8	1	8	6	5	4	7
21	France	17	8	5	14	5	9	2	17
22	Italy	6	1	9	10	1	3	8	9	2
23	Serbia	16	17	17	12	21	18		13
24	Switzerland	9	11	12	18	12	14		6	5
25	Australia	15	6	13	21	20	15		3	8
26	Spain	20	24	25	20	23	24		15

References

1. "Czech Republic Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
2. Jiandani, Sanjay (30 September 2013). "Eurovision 2014: Czech Republic will not participate in Copenhagen". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
3. Granger, Anthony (7 January 2019). "Czech Republic: Eurovision Song CZ 2019 Entries Released". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
4. "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
5. "18 Eurovision acts to perform in London on Sunday 14 April". Eurovision.tv. 13 April 2019.
6. "Lake Malawi to perform at Ukraine's Vidbir 2019". esctoday.com. 13 February 2019.
7. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
8. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
9. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.