Czech Republic CZECH REPUBLIC 2020 - Benny Cristo - Kemama

[escYOUnited]

 

[Loindici]

Only 8 songs selected to compete in this national final?

As far as I can recall, their HOD stated that there would be no less than about 20 songs competing, then we're done to "only" 8 acts? I expected a national final similar to what Melfest is today, or at the very least something, which could be compared to Eesti Laul, but... well? It seems that I got these information wrong.

Preferring quality than quantity, perhaps?

 

[FRFanESC]

Actually, I don't see the problem. It's better to have 8 good songs that could end up in the top 15 rather than 20 songs with 8 good songs (for example) and 12 average songs and taking the risk that one of the average song wins the selection.

 

[nofuxCZ]

Only 8 songs selected to compete in this national final?

As far as I can recall, their HOD stated that there would be no less than about 20 songs competing, then we're done to "only" 8 acts? I expected a national final similar to what Melfest is today, or at the very least something, which could be compared to Eesti Laul, but... well? It seems that I got these information wrong.

I don't remember him ever stating there would be 20 songs. Highly doubt he said that, it's a miracle that we even have a 1-night TV national final. And yeah, quality > quantity.
We will get to a bigger NF eventually, now it's too soon.

What are your thoughts about these names?

Out of the list I wrote I only like Viah. Alternative electro pop, not very common in Czech music scene. The only interesting artist imo. Right up my alley, it could be good
Other artists - Markéta and Olga are somewhat known but their songs are quite basic and sometimes quite kitschy, nothing for me.
Both are great singers though, so they could surprise with a good song.

 

[John1]

I don't remember him ever stating there would be 20 songs. Highly doubt he said that, it's a miracle that we even have a 1-night TV national final. And yeah, quality > quantity.
We will get to a bigger NF eventually, now it's too soon.

Afaik, he reported in early 2019 that this new Czech NF would be built up like this, but... hey, as you said above, quality is better than quantity.

 

[randajad]

Afaik, he reported in early 2019 that this new Czech NF would be built up like this, but... hey, as you said above, quality is better than quantity.

The HoD also revealed in the comments there will be 8 NF participants.

Does this count or did he said it earlier?

 

[ESC94]

Let´s hope they send a good entry which also helps to raise the interest for the ESC in the country, since the viewing figures are still pretty small despite their success in the last two years.

 

[HayashiM]

Let´s hope they send an good entry which also helps to raise the interest for the ESC in the country, since the viewing figures are still pretty small despite their success in the last two years.

There's quite a lot of bias against Eurovision here in Czechia, especially amongst the not so young people - they find the contest too political, too sunshiny and colourful, too LGBT friendly, too international... Combine that with a very short history of our participation and - until recently - very bad results, and you can perhaps understand the small viewing figures.

A lot more time (and more of Mikolas Josefs and Lake Malawis) will be needed to change this. Luckily the broadcaster doesn't seem like wanting to go away anytime soon.

 

[shameless]

^thanks for the local insight, its always interesting to read. I really hope that a younger czech audience that doesn't know about the stigma from an older generation can get attached to ESC. I wonder what would happen if a country that doesn't really care about it much (which to my concern are mainly Italy, to some extent France and UK and lately Croatia and Romania) would end up winning.

 

[ESC94]

There's quite a lot of bias against Eurovision here in Czechia, especially amongst the not so young people - they find the contest too political, too sunshiny and colourful, too LGBT friendly, too international... Combine that with a very short history of our participation and - until recently - very bad results, and you can perhaps understand the small viewing figures.

A lot more time (and more of Mikolas Josefs and Lake Malawis) will be needed to change this. Luckily the broadcaster doesn't seem like wanting to go away anytime soon.

It´s great that the Czech Republic decided to try again after their very unsuccessful first attempts, and I think they are on the right way. The viewing figures in Italy were also very low in the first years after their return, but after many good results the interest seems to be growing there, which I hope will be the case in Czechia as well.

Good luck from Germany!!

 

[Ritararita]

Jan Bors recently started following/befriended these singers:
Olga Lounová
Markéta Konvičková
Katie Kei
Adriana Bessogonov
Viah
MiKael aka Michael Foret
EVAH

I am not saying it means anything, but last year he also befriended/started following Tomáš Boček, Barbora Mochowa, Hana Barbara and Jara Vymer at the time they selected the finalists

I am not too impressed by the new set of Jan Bors' friends, tbh. :? Let's hope they all were just candidates for the 4 filler spots. Viah is great, but too subtle, too not-for-the-diva-loving-Eurovision-audience to go anywhere farer than Paenda this year. MiKael would be a great composer of elevator music. Evah (sister of Lake Malawi's drummer, btw) released only one mediocre song so far. Both Olga Lounová and Markéta Konvičková are good vocalists with no identity (sometimes they sing in English, sometimes in Czech, uptempto, slow tempo, comedy songs, wailing ballads, slutpop, covers, musical, whatever...) and with not even one truly iconic hit after being 10 or more years in the business. I don't hate them, they are both nice and all, but let's say that I would prefer someone more consistent as the Czech representative.

Adriana Bessogonov and Katie Kei (Kateřina Kolčavová) could potentially surprise, though. They are fresh meat from the latest edition of The Voice CZ-SK and both seem to be good live vocalists, but Adriana has no own repertoir to judge so far. Katie has (1,2,3), but in my personal opinion, she is lacking that certain something that makes the difference between technically good singer and star. Viewers of The Voice were angry at coaches for not pushing buttons during her blind audition, but I don't blame them. (But I will happily change my opinion on her if she comes up with some uncompromising banger, ofc).

 

[nofuxCZ]

From the FB posts it also seems like there might be a former Czech ESC participant and former ESC winner performing at our live NF (as the Czech team asked who we would like to see perform at the NF from these two groups)

 

[Ritararita]

For the ESCZ show and its possible parameters, I imagine it could be similar to recent Global Social Awards. It wasn't ČT's show, just a YouTube livestream, but it took place at Fórum Karlín as well and its end credits were surprisingly full of people normally working for ČT, including at least two who are part of Czech Eurovision team - Jan Bors' boss Jan Potměšil and social media guru Jitka Fürst. And - some awkward dialogues of the hosts aside - it wasn't bad show at all, imo.

Two small updates of my previous speculations:

Emma Smetana won't be competing. Few days ago she was asked in this interview what she thinks about Eurovision and if she can imagine herself as Czech representative. She said that Eurovision is her guilty pleasure, she watches it every year and this year she and Jordan Haj even were in Tel Aviv to support Lake Malawi in person. But she "never thought about" competing and thinks she's too introverted for that.

Pam Rabbit's Instagram posts from the past few weeks were frequently liked by Jan Bors and Boris Carloff. I hope it means she's in.

 

[HayashiM]

From the FB posts it also seems like there might be a former Czech ESC participant and former ESC winner performing at our live NF (as the Czech team asked who we would like to see perform at the NF from these two groups)

I love what Jan Bors says by the end: "We want authenticity. We are not looking for songs for Eurovision, we want the songs the artists want to really sing by themselves."
Of course, that can lead us to a national final just like the one we had this year, where a big part of the songs are a calamity, but the few ones that are good can be both something really good and quite different.

Can't wait for the show in January

 

[ESC94]

I´m also very excited, the Czech Republic is definetly a country to watch for in the next decade.

 

[nofuxCZ]

Karel Gott, perhaps the biggest Czech singer of all times, passed away.
He was the first Czech at Eurovision - represented Austria in 1968
Rest in peace.

 

[HayashiM]

I'd just like to add a few songs of Gott's I find particularly worth mentionning (some might think Gott is a stage name, but it was in fact his true family name):

"Kdepak ty ptáčku hnízdo máš?" ("Where do you have your nest, bird?") from 1973, featured in the Czecho-German co-produced winter version of "Three Wishes for Cinderella" fairytale classic:

A "Forever young" cover "Být stále mlád" (2001) that for me fits his musical longevity very well - he succeded to remain popular under both communism and democracy, he still remains popular amongst both young and old:

(He also made a rap cover of this song in German, in a duet with Bushido that I am personally not very fond of.)

"Die Biene Maja" ("Maya the honey Bee", 1977) - another fairytale song, this time for the Japanese anime series of the same name. I believe it is this song that made him especially famous in Germanophone countries:

And finally my favourite song "Stokrát chválím čas" ("Sometimes when we touch") - a 1978 ballad describing the beauties of a beloved one's body:

Rest in peace, Karel Gott.

 

[Lindon]

Long before " Die Biene Maja" Karel Gott was extremly sucessful in the German speaking countries with this song in 1970.

Here is a gig in 1970 at the Peter Alexander variety show with this song. If you were invited to this show, you were on the top of show business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The model for the Peter Alexander Show was the variety show of Dean Martin at the time.
The show had an incredible average audience share of 71% with 38 million viewers.

 

[HayashiM]

Long before " Die Biene Maja" Karel Gott was extremly sucessful in the German speaking countries with this song in 1970.

Thanks for the correction

 

[honzak11]

Karel Gott, perhaps the biggest Czech singer of all times, passed away.
He was the first Czech at Eurovision - represented Austria in 1968
Rest in peace.

Truly shocking 111 ....

Karel Gott won the Czech Music Awards (Zlaty Slavik) as the best male singer 41 times, most recently in 2017.
Over the course of his career he released over 100 albums and 100 compilation albums, and sold an estimated 50–100 million records worldwide.
What a LEGEND! x12s

 

[Sammy]

The best tribute to his best song ever! Karel - we'll never forget you!