Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019


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

Background

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Czech Republic had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seven times since its first entry in. 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 in the semi-final achieving only one point, in 2008 Tereza Kerndlová performing "Have Some Fun" placed 18th in her semi-final scoring nine points, in 2009 Gipsy.cz performing the song "Aven Romale" placed 18th 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. 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:
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.

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. 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. 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.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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 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.
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.

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.

Points awarded to Czech Republic

Points awarded by Czech Republic

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Czech jury: