Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

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Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country  Switzerland
National selection
Selection processESC 2017 –
Die Entscheidungsshow
Selection date(s)5 February 2017
Selected entrantTimebelle
Selected song"Apollo"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Elias Näslin
  • Nicolas Günthardt
  • Alessandra Günthardt
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (12th, 97 points)
Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Switzerland participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Apollo" written by Elias Näslin, Nicolas Günthardt and Alessandra Günthardt. The song was performed by Timebelle. The Swiss entry for the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine was selected through the national final ESC 2017 – Die Entscheidungsshow, organised by the Swiss German speaking broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) in collaboration with the other broadcasters part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). Artists that were interested in entering the Swiss national final had the opportunity to apply to one of three open selections with defined submission periods: an online platform where entries could be uploaded for public viewing, which was organised by the Swiss-German broadcaster SRF and the Swiss-Romansh broadcaster Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha (RTR), or by submitting an entry directly to the Swiss-French broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and/or the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera. Up to 20 entries were selected to advance to a "Live Check" round. The "Live Check" was held on 4 December 2016 Zürich and involved an expert panel evaluating the live performances of the entries and selecting six entries to advance to the televised national final. The six finalists performed during the national final on 5 February 2017 at SRF's Studio 1 in Zürich where a public vote ultimately selected "Apollo" performed by Timebelle as the winner.

Switzerland was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 13, "Apollo" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

Background[]

Main article: Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-seven times since its first entry in 1956.[1] Switzerland is noted for having won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. Their second and, to this point, most recent victory was achieved in 1988 when Canadian singer Céline Dion won the contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi". Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Switzerland had managed to participate in the final four times up to this point. In 2005, the internal selection of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja, performing the song "Cool Vibes", qualified Switzerland to the final where they placed 8th. Due to their successful result in 2005, Switzerland was pre-qualified to compete directly in the final in 2006. Between 2007 and 2010, the nation failed to qualify to the final after a string of internal selections. Since opting to organize a national final from 2011 onwards, Switzerland has managed to qualify to the final twice. In 2016, Switzerland failed to qualify to the final, placing last in the semi-final with the song "The Last of Our Kind" performed by Rykka.

The Swiss national broadcaster, Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), broadcasts the event within Switzerland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. SRG SSR confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 June 2016.[2] Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Swiss entry for the 2017 contest would be selected through a national final.[2] Switzerland has selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections in the past. Between 2005 and 2010, the Swiss entry was internally selected for the competition. Since 2011, the broadcaster has opted to organize a national final in order to select their entry.

Before Eurovision[]

ESC 2017 – Die Entscheidungsshow[]

ESC 2017 – Die Entscheidungsshow was the seventh edition of the Swiss national final format that selected Switzerland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The show took place on 5 February 2017 at the SRF Studio 1 in Zürich, hosted by Sven Epiney and was televised on SRF zwei, RSI La 2 with Italian commentary by Clarissa Tami and Nicola Locarnini and RTS Deux with French commentary by Nicolas Tanner and Jean-Marc Richard.[3][4][5] The competition was also streamed online at the respective official website of each Swiss broadcaster.

Selection process[]

SRG SSR detailed several changes that modified the procedure of the selection from that of previous years. The selection process took place in three stages before the finalists for the live show and ultimately the winner are selected. The first stage of the competition involved interested artists and composers submitting their entries through an online platform, which saw the end to the individual broadcasters each conducting varying selections in order to determine the candidates they would submit for the second stage of the competition. The second stage was a Live Check (formerly titled Expert Check) live audition, where the 21 selected candidates performed the songs that qualified from the first stage. A jury panel selected six artists and songs to proceed to the third stage, the televised national final, where the winning artist and song was selected to represent Switzerland in Kyiv. The jury panels involved in the selection were required to have the following member quotas representing the different language regions in Switzerland: 68% German/Romansh, 23% French and 9% Italian.[6]

Competing entries[]

SRG SSR opened a submission period between 26 September 2016 until 24 October 2016 for interested artists and composers to submit their songs via an online platform. Submitted entries were not made accessible for public listening as in previous editions. A new regulation underscored that the entries must have had a link to Switzerland, meaning that at least one person (the performer, composer, or lyricist) were required to have a Swiss passport or be a resident in Switzerland. 160 entries were submitted following the submission deadline.[7] A 19-member jury panel composed of music experts (producers, representatives of the music industry, musicians, journalists, etc.) evaluated the entry submissions received between 31 October 2016 and 14 November 2016 and selected the 21 candidates for the "Live Check". The members of the jury were:[8]

  • Gülsha Adilji – Journalist and presenter
  • Bettina Bendiner – Head of the Entertainment Department, 20 Minuten
  • Roman Camenzind – Music producer
  • Camille Destraz - Music journalist
  • Beppe Donadio – Musician and journalist
  • Freda Goodlett – Vocal coach
  • Michael Kinzer – Swiss Music Prize jury president
  • Pascal Künzi – General Manager, Musikvertrieb
  • Nicola Locarnini – Musician
  • Simone Reich – Television magazine journalist, Ringier Axel Springer Schweiz AG
  • Jocelyn Rochat - Music journalist
  • Oliver Rosa – Swiss Music Awards organiser and artist manager
  • Yves Schifferle – Programme development SRF Entertainment
  • Lina Selmani – Chief editor, watson.ch
  • Dano Tamásy – Music editor, Radio SRF 3 Best Talent
  • Christoph Trummer - President, Musikschaffende Schweiz
  • Flavio Tuor – Music editor, RTR
  • Denise Vogel - Production Coordinator, 360° Show Production AG
  • Sébastien Vuignier – Director, TAKK Productions

The "Live Check" of the twenty-one selected candidates took place on 4 December 2016 where the candidates performed their songs in front of an expert panel which assessed the performers on criteria such as live performance skills, voice quality and stage presence. Six artists and songs qualified to the national final on 5 December 2016.[9]

Final[]

ESC 2017 – Die Entscheidungsshow took place on 5 February 2017 where the six candidate songs in contention to represent Switzerland were performed. In addition to the performances from the competing artists, Swiss Eurovision Song Contest 2014 entrant Sebalter performed his song "Weeping Willow" performed as the interval act. Public televoting solely selected "Apollo" performed by Timebelle as the winner.

Draw Artist Song (English translation) Composer(s) Televote Place
1 Nadya "The Fire in the Sky" Ricardo Sanz 18.02% 2
2 Ginta Biku "Cet air là" (That tune) Johan Czerneski, Daniel Kromo Kromolowski, Ginta Biku, LIM 8.31% 4
3 Michèle "Two Faces" Laura Kloos, Hermann Niesig, Nils Brunkhorst, Michèle Bircher 11.44% 3
4 Freschta "Gold" Iris Bösiger, Christoph Bauss, Christopher Heath, Simon Adrian, Freschta Akbarzada 6.79% 6
5 Shana Pearson "Exodus" Denniz Jamm, Andreas Stone Johansson, Mahan Moin 7.56% 5
6 Timebelle "Apollo" Elias Näslin, Nicolas Günthardt, Alessandra Günthardt 47.88% 1

Promotion[]

Timebelle made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Apollo" as the Swiss Eurovision entry. Between 3 and 6 April, they took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where they performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.[10][11] On 8 April, they performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.[12] On 15 April, they performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.[13]

At Eurovision[]

Timebelle during a press meet and greet

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.[14] On 31 January 2017, 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. Switzerland was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[15]

Once all the competing songs for the 2017 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. Originally, Switzerland was set to perform in position 14, following the entry from Norway and before the entry from Belarus.[16] However, following Russia's withdrawal from the contest on 13 April and subsequent removal from the running order of the second semi-final, Switzerland's performing position shifted to 13.[17]

Voting[]

Points awarded to Switzerland[]

Points awarded to Switzerland (Semi-final 2)[18]
Score Televote Jury
12 points
10 points  Romania
8 points  Ireland
7 points  Lithuania
6 points  Romania
5 points
 Norway
4 points
3 points
2 points
 Germany
1 point

Points awarded by Switzerland[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Swiss jury:[20]

Detailed voting results from Switzerland (Semi-final 2)[18] hide
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. von der Heide P. Loriano D. Simons A. Känzig J-M. Fontana Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Serbia 10 7 6 5 5 5 6 1 12
02  Austria 6 8 2 10 4 4 7 9 2
03  Macedonia 12 3 16 14 9 11 8 3
04  Malta 14 9 15 4 12 12 14
05  Romania 13 16 17 11 14 16 4 7
06  Netherlands 4 5 1 2 8 3 8 7 4
07  Hungary 9 11 3 6 7 6 5 3 8
08  Denmark 11 6 4 8 10 8 3 15
09  Ireland 7 10 11 9 6 9 2 12
10  San Marino 16 15 9 17 16 17 16
11  Croatia 17 13 5 13 17 14 2 10
12  Norway 1 2 10 3 1 2 10 13
13   Switzerland
14  Belarus 5 14 12 7 13 10 1 11
15  Bulgaria 3 1 8 1 2 1 12 5 6
16  Lithuania 8 17 7 16 11 13 17
17  Estonia 15 12 14 12 15 15 10 1
18  Israel 2 4 13 15 3 7 4 6 5
Detailed voting results from Switzerland (Final)[19] hide
Draw Country Jury Televote
M. von der Heide P. Loriano D. Simons A. Känzig J-M. Fontana Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Israel 7 18 14 15 11 13 17
02  Poland 20 10 11 14 24 18 15
03  Belarus 14 19 20 8 7 14 21
04  Austria 12 12 6 19 16 12 14
05  Armenia 16 13 18 18 22 20 22
06  Netherlands 4 11 2 5 8 4 7 12
07  Moldova 13 14 8 24 12 16 11
08  Hungary 6 16 3 4 18 8 3 6 5
09  Italy 11 9 19 17 3 9 2 2 10
10  Denmark 21 20 9 10 19 17 26
11  Portugal 1 3 1 6 5 1 12 1 12
12  Azerbaijan 17 23 24 20 21 21 25
13  Croatia 26 25 12 26 20 24 3 8
14  Australia 9 5 5 11 15 7 4 13
15  Greece 24 22 21 23 23 25 16
16  Spain 23 21 25 22 17 22 23
17  Norway 2 7 10 3 9 6 5 18
18  United Kingdom 15 6 15 13 14 11 20
19  Cyprus 19 15 13 25 13 19 19
20  Romania 25 26 26 21 26 26 7 4
21  Germany 18 8 23 9 10 15 8 3
22  Ukraine 22 24 22 16 25 23 24
23  Belgium 8 1 16 2 4 5 6 4 7
24  Sweden 3 2 4 7 1 2 10 10 1
25  Bulgaria 5 4 7 1 2 3 8 5 6
26  France 10 17 17 12 6 10 1 9 2

References[]

  1. ^ "Switzerland Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Brey, Marco (15 June 2016). "Switzerland introduces new national selection format". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  3. ^ Jiandani, Sergio. "Switzerland: Sven Epiney to host national final; running order released". Esctoday.com. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  4. ^ "Eurosong 2017: la finale svizzera". RSI (in Italian). 5 February 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Finale suisse". RTS (in French). 15 February 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  6. ^ Peritz, Reto (15 June 2016). "Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Swiss Regulations" (PDF). SRF. Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  7. ^ "Eurovision 2017 - Timebelle (Switzerland)". ESCKAZ. Retrieved 26 April 2021.
  8. ^ "ESC 2017 in der Ukraine: Jetzt Songs einreichen". srf.ch (in German). SRF. 26 September 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  9. ^ "«ESC» 2017 – Die 6 Finalisten der Entscheidungsshow". SRF Eurovision. SRF. Retrieved 5 December 2016.
  10. ^ Kavaler, Ron (22 March 2017). "ISRAEL CALLING! EUROVISION PROMO EVENT SET FOR APRIL 3 TO 6". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  11. ^ Laufer, Gil (5 April 2017). "Tonight: Israel Calling 2017 to be held with 28 participating countries". esctoday.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  12. ^ Jordan, Paul (29 March 2017). "Eurovision in Concert sets a new record with 33 acts". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  13. ^ Fuster, Luis (1 April 2017). "MADRID CALLING! 19 ACTS WILL TAKE PART IN EUROVISION SPAIN PRE-PARTY". wiwibloggs.com. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  14. ^ Jordan, Paul (25 January 2017). "Semi-Final Allocation draw to take place in Kyiv". eurovision.tv. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  15. ^ Jordan, Paul (31 January 2017). "Results of the Semi-Final Allocation Draw". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  16. ^ Jordan, Paul (31 March 2017). "Semi-Final running order for Eurovision 2017 revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  17. ^ "EBU: "Russia no longer able to take part in Eurovision 2017"". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 22 April 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Kyiv 2017". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b "Results of the Grand Final of Kyiv 2017". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  20. ^ Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 3 May 2017.

External links[]

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