Czech Republic will internally select their 2017 entry, but they had an open submissions with a deadline that just ended. Head of Delegation announced the great news today that they received more than 300 potential Eurovision entries.
Czech Republic confirmed in September its participation at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in Kiev. At the same time they announced the open call for songs from songwriters all over the world. Czech artists and also foreign songwriters sent their songs to the Czech internal selection.
After the deadline ended on 30th of November, Czech Head of Delegation Jan Bors today made an announcement on Twitter, that Czech Television received more than 300 songs.
more than 300 songs… wow!!! that means something, what a competition! #esc2017
— Jan Frost Bors (@Frostwii) December 1, 2016
What will happen now?
Czech Television will select the best entries out of these 300+ entries. After that it’s the time for the professional jury to choose the best out of these sorted songs. The next step is finding the best Czech artist for the song.
It is to be assumed that if the chosen entry is submitted by a Czech artist, Czech Television will not necessarily change it. The jury however still have the last word in the selection of both the song and also the artist. Czech Television did not reveal when to expect the result of their internal selection. For the 2016 contest, they came with the announcement in March 2016.
Czech Republic had the open call for the very first time in their 10 year Eurovision history. The number of more than 300 songs is more than expected for this small country in the middle of Europe. Compared with the other European countries it is an average. Some of the more experienced Eurovision, but still comparable countries receive less than 300 songs every year. These countries are for example Latvia, Switzerland, Belarus, Moldova or Slovenia. On the other hand, there are some famous national selections in for example Denmark, Sweden and Germany. They receive thousands of songs every year.
In 2016 Czech Television received approximately 40 entries from the artists and songwriters who were approached by the broadcaster. This marks an improvement, but the difference is of course the direct open submission.
Potential participants
The official Czech Eurovision fanclub OGAE Czech Republic asked some of the Czech artists during November if they submitted. One of the biggest hopes for Czech fans is young singer Mikolas Josef who just released his new video for the song Believe (Hey Hey). In the interview for the Czech website ESCportal.cz he revealed that he was working on a new song for the selection. In the end of November he was in Vienna to finish the single and submit it to the Czech Television on time.
From the other artists who are taking part in the selection we can mention Lenny, Elis (Eliška Mrázová), Leona Šenková or pame faul. From the foreign songwriters we know of famous Swedish sister duo Ylva & Linda Persson. They confirmed that they submitted more songs to the selection.
At the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest 2016 Czech Republic qualified to the final for the very first time. Gabriela Gunčíková with her song I Stand ended on a 25th place in the final receiving 41 points from the juries and dreadful null points from the televoting. Her sang is however still to be enjoyed. You find it in the video below:
