Having announced in April 2006 that they would sponsor a representative of Czech Republic at Eurovision 2007, ČT had assembled a list of ten acts to participate in Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 by January 2007, the official announcement of the participants in Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 being made 14 February 2007. ČT stated that seven of these ten acts had been recruited for Czech Republic's Eurovision 2007 on the basis of having scored recent chart success: this category included Kabát whose 2006 album Corrida was the bestselling album in the Czech Republic for that year despite not being released til December 2006. The remaining three acts had been invited to participate in Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 at the discretion of a five-member panel of station representatives assembled by ČT: this category included veteran vocalist Helena Vondráčková who had been responsible for Czechoslovakia's highest profile music festival victory at the Intervision Song Contest in 1977 and whose was the only name ČT would confirm as participant in Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 prior to the official February 14, 2007 announcement. Reportedly a large number of acts approached by ČT declined to compete at Czech Republic's Eurovision 2007 with :cs:Anna K|Anna K, :cs:Richard Krajčo|Richard Krajčo, :cs:Kryštof |Kryštof and Lucie Vondráčková being specifically mentioned as disinterested parties as was Aneta Langerová who'd won Česko hledá SuperStar, the Czech edition of the Pop Idol franchise, in its inaugural season in 2004. In addition to the nine acts who would in fact compete in Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007, the original list also featured Helena Vondráčková who was to compete with the song "Samba". The original list for Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 also announced the songs to be performed by L.B.P and Kabát to be respectively "So Real" and "Burlaci"; a further announcement was made the following day with these song selections amended to "Story of Life" and "Malá dáma". Although Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 final was not broadcast until 10 March 2007, the competing songs were made available for listening from the date of ČT's original announcement of the entrants for the Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 with voting - done via SMS - beginning on 23 February 2007: around that time ČT announced that Helena Vondráčková could not compete with the song "Samba" as she'd recorded the track too far in advance of the current Eurovision contest. Vondráčková first submitted another song: "Ha ha ha", for consideration, then withdrew from the Czech Republic's Eurosong 2007 citing dissatisfaction with the SMS voting process.
Final
The final was held on 10 March 2007 at Veletržní Palác in Prague, hosted by Jirí Korn and Katerina Kristelová. The winner was chosen by SMS voting.
Draw
Artist
Song
Televote
Place
1
Vlasta Horváth
"Adios"
—
—
2
:cs:L.B.P.|L.B.P.
"Story of Life"
15,907
4
3
Petr Kolář
"Přísahám"
—
—
4
Lili Marlene
"Žena ze stínadel"
—
—
5
Gipsy.cz
"Muloland"
25,257
2
6
Petr Bende
"Zaklínám své moře"
—
—
7
Helena Zeťová
"Love me again"
12,538
5
8
Sámer Issa
"When I am with her"
16,233
3
9
Kabát
"Malá dáma"
28,343
1
At Eurovision
In a May 5, 2007 announcement of Kabát s leaving Prague for Helsinki to perform in the Eurovision semi-final that May 10, the group's bass player Milan Spalek opined "the fact his band play hard rock could work against them in the Eurovision." In the Eurovision semi-final held May 10, 2007, Kabát performed in the 16th spot, just after the eventual winner Serbia. Kabát received one point - that coming from Estonia - resulting in a last place on their Eurovision debut. Only three other countries have done this. Kabát frontman Pepa Vojtek subsequently stated that the band members were unfamiliar with the nature of Eurovision prior to their 2007 participation after which Vojtek would contend that "a rock group is not a good idea for the particular event."
