Czechia | 2019 To See Return Of Online National Final
This year, the Czech Republic decided to turn away from an internal selection when choosing their representative and instead opted for a National Final for the first time since 2008 and it appears that we will be rinsing and repeating for the next Eurovision season. The National Final format saw the release of 6 competing acts on YouTube and then the outcome was decided 50% by an international jury and 50% by an online public vote. The selection process saw Czech popstar Mikolas Josef win with his upbeat single 'Lie To Me' which then went on to be the countries most successful appearance at Eurovision ever - being only the second time they had ever made it to the grand final - and finishing 6th place with 281 points.
Czech Television confirmed that they would be seeing the return for this national final following its success this year at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest. Called 'Eurovision Song CZ', it saw Mikolas compete against 5 other Czech singers and bands - including popular singer Debbi - with original songs that had been submitted or songs that were presented to the artist following a writing camp. The winner of the 2019 edition of this national selection will be revealed at the end of January 2019 - with exact dates to specified later on.
The song submission deadline is October 30th 3018 and Czech Television have suggested that - following the success of Mikolas this year - they have seen a greater interest in performers and bands wanting to represent the country at next years Eurovision Song Contest. Official Czech Eurovision website eurocontest.cz have been releasing a series of interviews over the past couple of months with hopefuls and well known performers with their plans of possibly competing in Eurovision Song CZ.
In addition to the online televote, an international jury panel consisting of ten former Eurovision entrants were able to share their opinion on who they felt was the best hopeful for the Czech Republic. These included several fan favourites in Dami Im, Iveta Mukuchyan, Nathan Trent and the SunStroke Project. It is understood that a similar jury of past Eurovision entrants will be used once again.
This year songs were released on YouTube on January 8th a few weeks before the result was decided so it is expected that the songs will also be released at a similar time.
Who would you like to see represent the Czech Republic? Let us know in the comments below and make sure to follow Eurovoxx on social media for all the latest news and updates for everything Eurovision related!
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