Czech Republic CZECHIA 2023 - Vesna - My Sister's Crown

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[Ezio]

Bam, Koruna mé sestry slaps so hard. My spirit leaves my body every time, I listen to it.

 

[AlekS]

#5 in Ukrainian Youtube trends, potentionally aiming at #3. It' impossible to beat Dorofeeva and Miley Cyrus.

 

[Sean]

Until I hear a song that makes me think otherwise, Vesna is sounding every bit a Eurovision winner in waiting. Getting strong strong vibes

 

[Sean]

Someone I know irl who isn't into Eurovision has sent me "My Sister's Crown" this morning. It's over, Prague 2024

 

[aef]

I mean winning, it's too early for me to really feel that but who knows. In any occasion, it's really time for a smaller country to win again. being at 5th position in the odds is already showing the potential to do well.

 

[aef]

I mean watching the NF performance again, you can really say that the can deliver live. So maybe it could really be their year. The message of the song fits very well into the current time of course...

 

[94ayd]

Definitely a new best result (top 5) at worst for if Vesna is chosen.

 

[DirtyFalcon]

Well i dont like as much when a country is said to be the winner when we have only 3 entries chosen. To say it will do very well of course it has huge potential, even to do better than Lie To Me. Vesna song is really beautiful and would really high in my personal ranking. To say it's one of the favourites to win is worth but to say this will be "The One" to beat, i think it's way too early. We still need to wait for Sweden, Italy and many more internal selections (already very strong and promising picks from this side).

About Vesna and the potenial of them winning Eurovision for Czech Republic : The political aspect of the song is somehing that can maybe give an edge to "My Sisters Crown" against evey other entry, even the most oustanding one . But I keep asking myself the following question: Does viewers want a winning country 2 years in a row for a political reason or because the song has a political aspect ? Last year, I could totally understand why it happened. Eurovision took place 2 and a half months after the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine. People were really emotive about this situation.

But this year, are people watching Eurovision still in that mood ? Aren't they fed up with this war because of the anxiety and stress it can bring ? Of course a war is something that cannot be ignored especially when you are neighbour of Ukraine and we need to support Ukraine without hesitation. But Don't they want to have fun or see another winning song that doesn't remind them of this war ? (not meaning they forget this war or doesn't stand with Ukraine). It's just a debate that I open. I really don't know the answer.

 

[aef]

I mean it's not a 100% a political song. The slavic+female empowerment combination could also be done in every other year. But yes, once again it's the outside Eurovision context that makes it double special.

 

[Rocket man]

If they get chosen, then yeah I would say Vesna is one of the contenders for the win this year., top 5 minimum. To actually bring Czech Republic's first Eurovision win, that all comes down to the final performance and staging. I'm not so sure juries will be into this though. Vocally the lead singer isn't strong enough to be impactful, so it comes down to stage presence and an entertaining, memorable performance from the whole group of girls.

I agree that the pollical aspect to this song gives them the edge over everyone in the contest, but at the same time, is Europe still in that mood for voting for a winner that is a great song and is also political or do people want something completely different. I'm not sure which way Europe would vote for right now.

 

[MAD20]

Voted for Vesna four times with four different email accounts, it is the one of the few at this point giving me winner vibes this year, and of course, I'm always rooting for countries pending a first victory. I hope the Czech televote does not mess things up, because I'm 99% sure they will win the international one.

 

[Slabsson79]

The song is of course political and even if it does not want to be political, it will be perceived that way.
Why i do not really grasp why some Ukrainians seriously believe the song purveys Russian propaganda, I kinda understand some reproaches from Ukraine, claiming it simply wants to capitalize on the war and thus indirectly on the suffering. Now, one could object, that Ukraine also won last year only because of war, but this slight shadow of opportunism remains...
Nevertheless my suggestions to set thing clear: Maybe replace most of the verses in Ukrainian with Czech and let Olesya, the RUssian member, stay in Prague as it really might be insultive, despite her obvious antiputin-stance.

Anyway, as we all expect VESNA to win, i am not really sure if the guys from ESCZ really know, what they will face...
Btw...i want VESNA to be in the TOP5 or even TOP3...but i do not want them to win. I kinda thing another politically surrounded song should not win as it would be negative for the contest.

 

[Diego]

Maybe replace most of the verses in Ukrainian with Czech

What? Replace the best part of the song over a dozen angry tweets? lol

I think you forget who votes for Eurovision are thousands of people across Europe and not a bunch of virtual haters

 

[Slabsson79]

What? Replace the best part of the song over a dozen angry tweets? lol

I think you forget who votes for Eurovision are thousands of people across Europe and not a bunch of virtual haters

Yes, but these people might ask, why a Czech band is singing in Ukrainian....and conclude that it is for the sake of capitalizing on the issue. The message will still be there even if sung in Czech and noone could say a word about appropriating the language.
But the truth is, that in Czech the verse would not sound so nice and melodically..

 

[AlekS]

The song is of course political and even if it does not want to be political, it will be perceived that way.
Why i do not really grasp why some Ukrainians seriously believe the song purveys Russian propaganda, I kinda understand some reproaches from Ukraine, claiming it simply wants to capitalize on the war and thus indirectly on the suffering. Now, one could object, that Ukraine also won last year only because of war, but this slight shadow of opportunism remains...

Some Ukrainians believe that her nationality will be used by Russian media against Ukraine, considering Russian propaganda has already been using actively the idea of "sisterhood" between slavic nations. + We've seen lots of Ukrainian & Russian performers lying how they support Ukraine and then performing for Russian army right after that lol.
Our winning song wasn't about the war, so I don't get why people try to make us guilty or demean the whole thing, which seems even more hateful to me. No matter what we do, haters will always say "it's because of war/politics". Now you will step in our shoes (just a little bit, not even 100th part of hate that we've been receiving this summer).

Nevertheless my suggestions to set thing clear: Maybe replace most of the verses in Ukrainian with Czech and let Olesya, the RUssian member, stay in Prague as it really might be insultive, despite her obvious antiputin-stance.

It doesn't matter. They've already issued a statement yesterday. Just for that alone she can be imprisoned in Russia. Russia can recognize them all as terrorists. Just what they did to our Eurovision host.
There's no return for her (not with putin). Which automatically sides us for the same team

 

[AlekS]

Also the idea of changing the lyrics is super stupid, because according to the band themselves (from their recent statement): "We decided to make the artistic choice to give tribute to our close sister, Ukraine. The song's chorus is sung in Ukrainian for this reason".

They have clarified things more than enough.
+ The chorus is the best part of the song, imo (not saying this because it's my language).

 

[AlekS]

Aren't they fed up with this war because of the anxiety and stress it can bring ? Of course a war is something that cannot be ignored especially when you are neighbour of Ukraine and we need to support Ukraine without hesitation. But Don't they want to have fun or see another winning song that doesn't remind them of this war ?

Why there's no 3rd option? To have fun AND being reminded of the war.
Because this is what I feel when I listen to this song. The song in general is very uplifting, fun and, actually, it fights stress and anxiety by empowering and cheering people up.

 

[aef]

Do I get the message of the song wrong? For me it's mostly about slavic and female empowerment. Not primarily about the situation - It's definitely not something like 2016, also not so sad/ serious. The emotions I get when listening to the song are more diverse, it's very intriguing in its own way.

 

[Schlagerman1]

Do I get the message of the song wrong? For me it's mostly about slavic and female empowerment. Not primarily about the situation - It's definitely not something like 2016, also not so sad/ serious. The emotions I get when listening to the song are more diverse, it's very intriguing in its own way.

In my understanding, it is actually both! It is about female empowerment, slavic people coming together, with clear references to the war, the Ukrainian and Russian people as well as a slight punch to the Russian government. I as well get all the feelings too when I hear it, and that is the songs strength. It feels like everytime you hear it you feel something different.

What I feel is that this song ticks many boxes that previous winners of ESC has had.
1. The uplifting slavic meets pop/hiphop sound of Stefania.
2. The dramatic melody and historically importance feel of 1944.
3. The way they are seeing themselves as artists (actually not being that fond of competing in a music competition, but understand the possibilities with it) as Salvador Sobral.
4. The wacky, geeky but still powerful meaning in a song like Toy.
5. The strong female empowerment, almost chanting it out like Molitva.

Add a hype that seem to go even outside the Eurovision bubble and we got ingredients of a potential Eurovision winner...BUT (and it is a big one...) that doesn't mean it is all secured that they will do it, or even do well to begin with. There are more than 3 months until the contest and a lot of things can change. We don't know how the war goes in Ukraine at that time. Probably it will look the same as it does now, but maybe one of the sides will gain more advantage over the other. We don't know either how Europe will feel about anything even mentioning anything close to the war at that time. Maybe people will feel even more engaged in it, then a song like this comes perfectly in time. Or, the Europeans are a bit fed up, looking for something to not remind themselves of it and this can fail miserably and do a Conon Osiris flop in May. The last one is also possible, the NF-performance really didn't give us anything to go on (and noone did to be honest), and knowing that the CT has trouble economically as well, I could see this becoming staged a bit awkwardly, maybe a bit like Benny Cristo got in 2021.

We are also talking about Czech Republic, a country that qualified only 4 times out of 11 (if I counted it right). Twice of those qualifications, have ended up in the bottom of the scoreboard. Especially, they have been very relied on jury votes, (in particular in 2019) to even get a chance of doing something in the contest. Mikolas Josef managed to break the mold at least, but Czechia is perhaps seen as "the slavic sister that somehow gets forgotten about" by their siblings when it comes to ESC, getting no freebies and have to work really hard and get things right in every way to even get a shot of a place above the top 20.

So yeah, maybe we shouldn't shout out "This will win!!" and everything just yet, but a good placement is really possible. It hasn't even been chosen for ESC yet, so we should take that into account first. But while I mention someone like Salvador Sobral...never in a million years did I think Portugal would win, especially with a song like that. After that, anything is possible in this contest.

 

[Yusha103]

Ukrainians and the Russians are not sisters and brothers. Also Muscovites are not Slavs.