Switzerland: Firm on doing it internally for 2023

A short introduction to Switzerland, would probably best be described as the country that struggled, decided for something new, return to struggle and now back in the hot seat. This is probably the easiest way to talk about Switzerland’s recent past, so while they’re at it, they might keep it going.

Internal for 2023

Many might still remember, that the public once again this year, had awarded someone nil points in the final. That country happened to be Switzerland, an unfortunate event indeed, but the Swiss broadcaster (SRF SSR) remains firm on doing an internal selection. In all fairness, Switzerland did still manage to qualify to the final, bringing it to a current 3 years in row, which the country has actually never done before, in the era of semi-finals at the competition.

In 2010, the country had enough with poor placements and non-qualifications, so they introduced a national final, in which all the regional broadcasters in Switzerland under SRF SSR had a word on. This led to the the country’s first qualification in 2011 in a 5 year period, despite a last place finish in that final, it was still a success. This concept continued all the way until 2018, in which, the national final had only produced two qualifications for the country between 2011 – 2018.

That all indeed when Switzerland not only returned to internal selection, but also it’s first qualification in 2019, since 2014. To make the success even sweeter Luca Hänni managed to secure Switzerland their best result since 1993, with a 4th place finish. Gjon’s Tears would follow up on the succes and finish 3rd in 2021. As it is known now, Marius Bear could not achieve the same success, but did still manage to keep to streak alive for Switzerland.

The Process

Now, we’re slowly approaching 2023, and somehow could have the honor to make it 4 years in a row now. The selection method remains largely the same from the past years, with the submission window being open until 8th of September 2022 (22:00 local time).

After the submission windows closes, a expert panel of 100 viewers and an expert jury of 20 members will together be in charge of picking the best submission for the 2023 contest, to be held in The United Kingdom. Both parties will decide 50% of the final outcome, the expert jury will consist of past Eurovision jury members.

A final decision will be announced in Early 2023, which could be anytime before the 2023 submission deadline in March.

In 2022, Marius Bear showed us all that “Boys Do Cry“. Here he managed to score a total of 78 points, in which unfortunately none of came from the public. Overall, the national juries still managed to help him climb to a 17th place finish in the final.

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Source(s): SRF.ch (In German)