Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

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Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country Czech Republic
National selection
Selection processEurovision Song CZ
Selection date(s)28 January 2019
Selected entrantLake Malawi
Selected song"Friend of a Friend"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (2nd, 242 points)
Final result11th, 157 points
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

The 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.

Background[]

Main article: Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2019 Contest, the 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, the 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, the 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, the 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 ČT in order to select the Czech Republic's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The winner was announced on 28 January 2019.

Format[]

Eight entries competed in the national selection where the winner was determined by the combination of votes from a ten-member international jury panel and a public vote. The international jury panel consisted of ten former Eurovision entrants while the public were able to vote via the official Eurovision Song Contest app from 7 January 2019 to 21 January 2019. Both international and Czech users were able to vote and votes from international users had a weighting equal to the votes of one jury member.

The international jury panel consisted of:

Competing entries[]

Artists and composers were able to submit their proposals to the broadcaster between 31 August 2018 and 31 October 2018. Songwriters of any nationality were able to submit songs, however artists were required to have Czech citizenship and at least one of the lead vocalists were required to have Czech citizenship for groups of a maximum of six.[3] The broadcaster received 300 submissions at the closing of the deadline, of which 60 were by Czech songwriters. ČT selected eight entries from the submissions received and the selected finalists were presented to the public on 7 January 2019.[4]

Final[]

The winner, "Friend of a Friend" performed by Lake Malawi, was selected by a 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and the public, and was announced on 28 January 2019.

Artist Song 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 4
Hana Barbara "Poslední slova tobě" 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 3
Tomáš Boček "Don't Know Why" Tomáš Boček, Boris Carloff, Alasdair Bouch 49 6 3 9 6

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.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]

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 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. 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. The 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.[8]

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. The Czech Republic was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from Slovenia and preceding the entry from Hungary.[9]

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 the 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.[10]

Points awarded to the Czech Republic[]

Points awarded by the Czech Republic[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Czech jury:[10]

  •  [cs] (jury chairperson) – singer
  • Iva Boková – journalist, show host
  • Šimon Holý – film director, musician, show host
  •  [cs] – radio show host, media consultant
  • Aneta Kharitonova (Anett X) – singer
Detailed voting results from the Czech Republic (Semi-final 1)[11]
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
Detailed voting results from the Czech Republic (Final)[12]
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. ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (Sergio) (31 August 2018). "Czech Republic: CT confirms participation in Eurovision 2019". Esctoday. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  4. ^ Granger, Anthony (7 January 2019). "Czech Republic: Eurovision Song CZ 2019 Entries Released". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
  5. ^ "This was Eurovision in Concert 2019 in Amsterdam". Eurovision.tv. 6 April 2019.
  6. ^ "18 Eurovision acts to perform in London on Sunday 14 April". Eurovision.tv. 13 April 2019.
  7. ^ "Lake Malawi to perform at Ukraine's Vidbir 2019". esctoday.com. 13 February 2019.
  8. ^ Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  9. ^ "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  10. ^ a b 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.
  11. ^ a b c "Results of the First Semi-Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  12. ^ a b c "Results of the Grand Final of Tel Aviv 2019". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 31 March 2021. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
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