Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

Czech Republic originally planned participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song Kemama performed by Benny Cristo. Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) organised a national final in order to select the Czech entry for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eurovision Song Contest 2020
Country Czech Republic
National selection
Selection processEurovision Song CZ
Selection date(s)3 February 2020
Selected entrantBenny Cristo
Selected song"Kemama"
Selected songwriter(s)Osama Verse-Atile
Ben Cristovao
Charles Sarpong
Rudy Ray
Finals performance
Semi-final resultCancelled
Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2019 2020

Background

Prior to the 2020 Contest, the Czech Republic had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight 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. In 2019, the Czech Republic was represented by Lake Malawi with the song "Friend of a Friend". The song placed on eleventh place with 157 points, achieving their second best result in the contest.

Before Eurovision

Eurovision Song CZ

Eurovision Song CZ was the national selection process organised by ČT to select the Czech Republic's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The winner was revealed on 3 February 2020.[3]

Format

The winner was determined from among seven 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 20 January 2020 to 2 February 2020 via the official Eurovision Song Contest app. Both international and Czech users were able to vote.[3] International votes had the same weight as the international jurors. The international jury panel consisted of ten former Eurovision entrants.

Competing entries

Česká televize received 152 song submissions for the Eurovision Song Contest, of which 72 were by Czech musicians.[4] The seven selected finalists were announced on 13 January 2020 at a press conference, and the entries were presented to the public on 20 January 2020.

Artist[3] Song[5] Songwriter(s)
Barbora Mochowa "White & Black Holes" Barbora Mochowa, Viliam Béreš, Tereza Frantová
Benny Cristo "Kemama" Osama Verse-Atile, Ben Cristóvão, Charles Sarpong, Rudy Ray
Elis Mraz feat. Čis T "Wanna Be Like" Elis Mraz, Čis T
Karelll "At Least We've Tried" Karelll
Olga Lounová "Dark Water" Olga Lounová, Aleena Gibson, Trevor Muzzy, Ashley Dudokovich
Pam Rabbit "Get Up" Boris Carloff, Pamela Koky
We All Poop "All the Blood (Positive Song Actually)" Šimon Martínek, Michal Jiráň, Jakub Božek

Final

Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place
Votes Points
We All Poop "All the Blood (Positive Song Actually)" 6648124
Karelll "At Least We've Tried" 6764105
Olga Lounová "Dark Water" 553696
Pam Rabbit "Get Up" 676397
Benny Cristo "Kemama" 78 10 12 22 1
Elis Mraz feat. Čis T "Wanna Be Like" 75810182
Barbora Mochowa "White & Black Holes" 87 12 2 14 3

At Eurovision

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. On 28 January 2020, 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 second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[6] However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.

In the Eurovision Song Celebration youtube broadcast in place of the heats, it was revealed that the song would have performed 6th, between San Marino and Serbia[7]

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. "Czech Republic presents 7 hopefuls for Rotterdam 2020". eurovision.tv. EBU. 13 January 2020.
  4. Jiandani, Sanjay (14 August 2019). "Czech Republic: 152 songs submitted for Eurovision 2020". esctoday.com. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  5. Jiandani, Sanjay (20 January 2020). "Czech Republic: Listen to the national final entries and start voting!". esctoday.com.
  6. Groot, Evert (28 January 2020). "Which country performs in which Eurovision 2020 Semi-Final". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  7. Eurovision Song Contest (14 May 2020). "Part two of Eurovision Song Celebration". Retrieved 3 June 2020.
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