Slovakia’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in Baku next May has taken another twist. Only a short time after stories confirming participation, national broadcaster RTVS has now confirmed that we will not be seeing Slovakia on the Eurovision stage in Azerbaijan.
Slovakia’s history in Eurovision has been wobbly since their first attempt at participation in 1993. Even this time last year, newly formed RTVS was confirming, then withdrawing from participation in Düsseldorf. As we all know, Slovakia eventually took part, narrowly failing to make the Saturday night final.
Slovakia’s first tried to participate in Eurovision in 1993. To cope with an influx of nations from central and eastern Europe, a preliminary round was held in Ljubljana. Slovakia’s song Amnestia na neveru by Elán finished fourth, so just missed out on a trip to Millstreet. Between 1994 and 1998 they participated three times with Tublatanka, Marcel Palonder and Katerína Hasprová. The best finish was 18th in 1996.
Slovakia came back in 2009 with Let’ tmou, which failed to make the final in Moscow. Highly fancied Horehronie also missed out in Oslo.
The TWiiNS got the ticket for Düsseldorf via an internal selection with the first ever Slovak song in English. One reason given for their participation was the penalty for withdrawing was higher than the participation. With the deadline for participation for Baku yet to pass, there is still time that RTVS could change their mind yet again, and we could still see them next year.
