Today, Czech Television (ČT) released the video of the song Benny Cristo will represent The Czech Republic with at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.
Benny Cristo won the Eurovision Song CZ, 2020 with the song Kemama on 3 February 2020. He never got to perform the song at Eurovision, as the contest was cancelled due to COVID-19.
On 13 May 2020, the Czech Television broadcaster announced that Benny would return. This time he will sing Omaga. Czech Republic drew the first half of the second semi final, which occurs on May 20, 2021.
The song was co-written by Filip Vlček, who is a bass guitar player in the group John Wolfhooker. Filip will also accompany Benny on the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam in May as a backing vocalist. Besides Filip, two pairs of dancers will be there on stage too. The song is not an afropop like last year’s Kemama and the overall feeling is slightly different. A fun fact is that a few days before the song was released, the song did not have its final title. That was decided at the last minute. The lyrics are in English but contain one phrase in Czech language.
Benny Cristo – a brief biography
Benny was born Ben da Silva Cristóvão on 8 June, 1987. With the professional name of Benny Cristo, he appeared on the television show, Česko Slovenská SuperStar. He reached the finals.
His first album, Definitely Different was released in 2010. A year later he released a self named second album, and one more, Made In Czechoslovakia in 2014. He has also released 20 singles, of which the last, Kemama, was to be the Czech Republic’s Eurovision Song Contest 2020 entry.
His most successful single was Aleiaio, the single just before Kemama’s release which reached number 3 in the Czech chart.
Czech Republic At The Eurovision Song Contest
The Czech Republic first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007, but failed to qualify to the finals with Kabát and Malá dáma. After two more occassions of not making the final, the country withdrew until 2015.
On their return they fared no better, but finally in 2016, Gabriela Gunčíková gave them their first trip to the final with I Stand.
Their most successful entry to date came in 2018 when Mikolas Josef took Lie To Me to sixth position.
