Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
| Czech Republic | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Member station | ČT |
| National selection events |
Eurosong
Internal Selection
|
| Appearances | |
| Appearances | 3 (0 finals) |
| First appearance | 2007 |
| Best result | 18th SF: 2008 SF |
| Worst result | Last: 2007 SF, 2009 SF Nul points: 2009 SF |
| External links | |
| Czech Republic's page at Eurovision.tv | |
The Czech Republic has competed at the Eurovision Song Contest three times, first taking part in 2007. On all three attempts the country failed to qualify to the final from the semi-finals, placing in the bottom two in all attempts.
After receiving nul points at the 2009 Contest and a lack of interest from the Czech public, ČT decided to withdraw from future contests.[1] Five years later ČT announced their return to the contest in 2015, with an internal selection being used to select their fourth Eurovision entry.[2]
As of 2014, the Czech Republic is one of only two countries, along with Andorra, to have participated in the contest and never to have featured in the final.
Contents
Early history[edit]
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] 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[edit]
2007[edit]
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 However one song was withdrawn before the show began, leaving only 9 songs to compete.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[edit]
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[edit]
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] Afer 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[edit]
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[edit]
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]
Contestants[edit]
- Table key
| 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 | ||
| Did not participate from 2010 to 2014 | |||||||
| 2015 | Marta Jandová & Václav Noid Bárta | English | "Hope Never Dies" | ||||
Voting history[edit]
Between 2007 and 2009, the Czech Republic's voting history was as follows:
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Commentators and spokespersons[edit]
| Year(s) | Commentator | Spokesperson |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Kateřina Kristelová | Andrea Savane |
| 2008 | Petra Šubrtová | |
| 2009 | Jan Rejžek | |
| 2010 | No broadcast | Czech Republic did not participate |
| 2011 | ||
| 2012 | ||
| 2013 | ||
| 2014 | ||
| 2015 | Aleš Háma | TBA |
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Hondal, Victor (22 July 2009). "Czech Republic withdraws from Eurovision". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ Siim, Jarmo (19 November 2014). "Czech Republic returns to Eurovision". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ a b Bakker, Sietse (2004-12-03). "CZECH REPUBLIC WITHDRAWS". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Bakker, Sietse (2008-12-25). "Do you remember... Amsterdam 1970?". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Bakker, Sietse (2005-10-06). "No Czech Republic in Athens". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Busa, Alexandru (2006-04-16). "'Czech Republic will join in 2007'". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Floras, Stella (2009-03-11). "Czech Republic: Kabat with Mala dama". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Schacht, Andreas (2008-01-26). "Tereza Kerndlova represents Czech colours!". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Siim, Jarmo (2009-01-30). "Gipsy.cz competing for Czech Republic". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (2009-03-01). "Czech Republic: Listen to the songs". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Siim, Jarmo (2008-03-26). "Czech Republic: Gipsy with a dot". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 2009-08-02.
- ^ Jiandani, Sanjay (29 July 2014). "Czech Republic: CT will not return in Eurovison 2015". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ "Czech Republic back in Eurovision". PraguePost.com. Retrieved November 21, 2014.
External links[edit]
- Points to and from Czech Republic eurovisioncovers.co.uk
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.svg){kind=small}
