Eurovision season is truly upon us: Swiss German-language broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) has opened its web portal and has begun to accept video entries for their portion of the 2014 Switzerland national selection.
SRF’s web platform currently features a number of submitted entries, all of which have entered in the hopes to represent Switzerland in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. While some of the entries are simply webcam videos of hopefuls singing their self-penned songs, others have submitted professionally produced videos showcasing their entries. Currently dominating the list is Melis Bilen, with five entries uploaded.
The entry period, according to the rules for Switzerland’s national selections, is from September 30 to October 28. The entries will be put up for a public vote sometime in November, likely from the 4th to 18th of that month.
These online votes will be combined with a jury vote. The online and jury votes will each have a 50 percent share in determining which nine performers will advance to the next stage, the “Expert Check”, where music industry experts judge the performers’ vocal quality and stage presence. They will be joined at that stage by six songs chosen by Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and three from Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI), the French and Italian-language broadcasters, respectively. The Expert Check will likely be held in Zurich on November 30. The jury will then select three entrants from SRF, two from RTS, and one from RSI to move on to the national grand final.
The live national final will be held in Kreuzlingen on February 1, where a televote will be combined with a jury vote to determine who will represent Switzerland in the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest.
Takasa, last year’s representative for Switzerland, was selected through a similar process. They finished in 13th place in the second semifinal in Malmö.
Do you have any favorites from the steadily-growing list of entries? Tell us in the Switzerland 2014 forum.
Photo by ZdendaPrelouc on Wikimedia Commons.
