It has been no secret that the Czech national broadcaster (ÄŒT) has been struggling in the contest, not only competitively, but also economically. In the past few years, Czechia has struggled to remain in the competition, but has fought hard yearly to stay among their fellow European nations. Thankfully, Czechia will be present once again, but it had it’s costs.
Czechia goes internally for 2025
Czechia has been fighting to get the Czechs into the Eurovision spirit, but with very minimal gain. Since 2018, the Czechs have managed to arrange a national final, which has mainly been an online affair, with very little local involvement. This became very apparent in both 2023 & 2024, when international votes would dominate the vote over Czech votes, which even caused a bit of controversy for the 2024 national final.
Speaking of the 2024 national final, this was the first and only time, that the Czech broadcaster managed to arrange a live national final, with an audience, which was something the broadcaster would have hoped to have continued. Going back to the topic regarding the controversy, it probably didn’t help either, that the winner of the Czech vote, who received far more votes than all the other acts combined, still failed to win over Aiko, who only finished 5th in the Czech vote, out of 7 participants. The winner of the Czech vote even pulled more than 10 times as many votes than Aiko in Czechia, which could have caused the backlash of local support. It also didn’t help, that Czechia ultimately failed to qualify for the 2024 final in Malmö, Sweden.
After the failure of qualifying for the final, the were reasons to be concerned for the Czechs to remain in the competition, but thankfully, the Czech are not leaving just yet, and instead keeping their head higher up than ever.
In a press release by ÄŒeská Televize(ÄŒT), the Czech broadcaster has confirmed that the national final ESCZ will not take place for 2025. Hence why an internal selection will take place instead, and the broadcaster is already accepting submissions. Any interested artist, regardless of nationality, based in the Czech Republic, can submit any number of entries. Meanwhile the call is also open for composer from anywhere, until the deadline which has been set to 30th of September 23:59 CET – (Czech time as well).
Word from the Czech delegation
Regarding the situation, Czech head of delegation, Kryštof Šámal had the following to share:
- “It has been a wonderful journey to showcase Czech music on an international stage through ESCZ. Moving to a closed competition process encourages established artists to participate discreetly, without the added pressure of public competition. This approach also allows us to focus our resources on staging and both internal and external promotion. Our new direction is aimed at achieving the best possible result for Czechia, recognizing the potential for Eurovision to become the phenomenon here as it is in other European countries.“
While on topic, we even had a word with Kryštof Šámal ahead of the Czech national final last year, which you can watch below, in case you wish to know and hear more about what the Czechs hope to achieve.
Additionally, the PR and Engagement Manager for the Czech delegation, Ahmad Halloun also had some words to share regarding the decision:
- “Eurovision is a show with tremendous potential, especially among younger audiences, who are often difficult to engage (TV wise). This year, we will focus on a variety of activities both nationally and internationally, not only to promote our act but also to elevate the profile of the contest itself. We are collaborating with the EBU, various broadcasters, platforms and organizations to increase its visibility on screens and make Eurovision a more prominent part of Czech pop culture“.
The Czech Republic will be present at the Eurovision Song Contest for their 13th time, next year in Basel, Switzerland. More details will be shared in the coming months.
With all that said, let us remind that Czechia was represented by Aiko and her song “Pedestal” for the 2024 contest, which was held in Malmö, Sweden. For the 2024 season, the Czechs were the first ones, to organise a national final, which granted them more time to prepare for the contest. In the end, it all ended in the semi-final, where Czechia just missed out on the spot in the final, when they finished 11th with 38 points from the televote, only being 5 points from the 10th place.
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Source(s): CeskaTelevize.cz (In Czech) and Instagram
