Malta and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia have already announced that they’ll stage national selection contests in November—the earliest we’ve ever seen selection shows for Eurovision. But today SRF, Swittzerland’s German-language broadcaster, bucked the trend by announcing it’ll stage its show in January.
But the marathon that leads to Switzerland’s grand final is about to kick off. In a nation built around consensus, you gotta start early, y’all! As announced on their website this morning, the national selection process will take place in three stages, resulting in six finalists who will sing in the live national final on the 31st January 2015. The process will involve candidates from each of its broadcasters: German-language SRF, Romansh-language RTR, French-language RTS and Italian-language RTI.
SRF will use an Internet platform to determine its nine candidates, just as it did last year. From the 29th September to 27th October 2014, artists can upload their songs to srf.ch/eurovision. Online users will then vote for their favourite songs. Parallel to this, a jury will give its verdict too, amounting to 50% of the total vote.
In a second phase, SRF’s 9 candidates, along with 6 candidates from RTS and 3 candidates from RSI, will then perform their song live in front of a panel of experts. The experts will evaluate the song, the vocals and the artist’s stage presence. Out of these 18 candidates, the jury will select three for SRF and RTR, two for RTS and one for RSI, giving us the six finalists.
The six acts will then present their songs in the nationally televised live show on January 31, 2015. They’ll also have to perform a cover of another song. (Last year’s Swiss representative Sebalter covered Avicii’s “Wake Me Up”). This program will be broadcast live from the Bodensee-Arena in Kreuzlingen.
The television audience and a panel of experts will determine (50/50) who will represent Switzerland in the 60th Eurovision Song Contest in Austria.
Photo: Eurovision.tv (EBU)
Ah, yes, the Swiss online selection – always contains some interesting entries. This is of course inevitable due to the large number of entries!
I’m pretty sure you remember Demis Mirarchi (JESC 2004). He’d be like, 21 now! Demis should definitely represent Switzerland in the grown-ups’ contest next year!
Good Switzerland!
WAA HOO!! I AM AFTER GETTING A TWEET FROM
ADAM ALSING FROM MELODIFESTIVALEN 2011!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!