Mikolas Josef Lie to Me Czech Republic

On 29 January Czech broadcaster CT will reveal which of its six finalists — Doctor Victor, Debbi, Eddie Stoilow, Eva Buresova, Mikolas Josef and Pavel Callta — has won Eurovision Song CZ and the ticket to Eurovision 2018.

But ahead of next Monday’s reveal, the broadcaster has today announced that Mikolas won the jury vote with his toe-tapping track “Lie to Me”.

He and the other five artists were judged by an international jury comprised solely of former Eurovision contestants, including several acts from the most recent edition of the contest. Indeed, eight of the 10 jury spots were filled by artists who sang at the contest in 2016 or 2017.

The other two spots were filled by Liora (Eurovision 1995) and Jalisse (1997).

Eurovision Song CZ: International Jury

  • Dami Im (Australia 2016)
  • Iveta Mukuchyan (Armenia 2016)
  • Jalisse (Italy, 1997)
  • Liora (Israel 1995)
  • Nathan Trent (Austria 2017)
  • Naviband (Belarus 2017)
  • Norma John (Finland 2017)
  • Robin Bengtsson ( Sweden 2017)
  • Sanja Vucic (Serbia 2016)
  • SunStroke Project (Moldova 2010, 2017)

Speaking on Facebook, a Czech official explained that Mikolas won the jury vote with 68 points. The jury points for the other artists will not be revealed until January 29, when the televote (which is now closed) is also revealed along with the total scores.

We know from the rules that jurors awarded first place eight points, second place six points, and then the remaining songs four, three, two and one points each. Given that Mikolas averaged nearly 7 points per juror, he seems to have done very well indeed.

The 22-year-old star recently sat down with wiwibloggs for his first English-language interview. Among other things, he discussed the songwriting process behind his hit, his saucy lyrics, what it was like working with THAT camel in his music video and the fact he was offered Martina Barta’s Eurovision 2017 song “My Turn”.

“I’m really happy that the nationals are going on,” he said. “The last time the nationals went on was in 2008. You can feel the vibe. You can feel that people think differently about Eurovision now here in the country because there is a lot of competition going on. You can switch the radio on and hear people talking about it. It pushes the standard higher and motivates people to do better.”

He’s the runaway favourite in our poll and has enjoyed a wave of support on social media. But he doesn’t want to think of this as a matter of winners and losers.

“I’m trying not to look at Eurovision as a competition, because honestly I think it’s more about people and nations getting together and trying to push each other further…I’m trying to really take it easy on the competition. I’m just here to have fun and see what happens.”

“Most of the people I know from the nationals are my friends. We’re just there hanging out. We’re not trying to take it seriously or go against each other somehow. This is music. You cannot be so competitive about it or it ruins it.”

His song was a long time coming.

“I remember having the first demo version last year on October the 8th. I remember sending it to some friends of mine. It’s been a year that I had it in my pocket and I just waited to release it. Honestly, I enjoyed working on ‘Lie to Me’ the most so far. You never know what’s going to end up on the radio, but I know I enjoyed every second that I worked on it. It was good to finally do something dance-y and really positive.”

Are you excited that he won the jury vote? Do you think he’ll do as well in the televote? Let us know down below!

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brunowskii
brunowskii
6 years ago

I’ve just ‘died’ to know that there was a song like FLY in this NF….

Please lie to me that there was another winner…

di
di
6 years ago

A camel? really? ridiculous. It’s only a matter of time until ESC acts start bringing zebras and cows on stage. They do this to distract people from the bad quality of the song. Mark my words.

dygh
dygh
6 years ago

I watched the video and when the camel came up I thought he said “camel little closer”

i’m dead camels are bae

Sabrina
Sabrina
6 years ago

I like it, but I would like to see a proper live performance before casting my vote for it. French semifinals showed us what happened to Louka and June the Girl, for example.

Bei
Bei
6 years ago

Lie to me is the only great choice for Czech Republic this year. Others are good but this is *FANTASTIC*

Jake
Jake
6 years ago

I find this whole process weird because I have not heard any of these songs live.
How can people be voting on songs without knowing if the artists can pull this off?!!??
I think LIE TO ME is definitely the best song, I just hope he’s more Nadav Golden Boy performer than Eduard Romanyuta I Want Your Love.
If it’s not a hot mess on stage, I think it’ll be an easy qualifier

West
West
6 years ago
Reply to  Jake

Mikolas already performed it on stage live and he was good – he even performed acoustic version and it sounded great.

Noil
Noil
6 years ago
Reply to  West

He only performed it in acoustic, not LIVE.

Vojta Rá?ek
Vojta Rá?ek
6 years ago
Reply to  Noil

He performed it live at Czech Blog Awards (czech version of Streamy Awards) and it was ok. Unplugged version of Eva Burešová’s song “Fly” on the other hand was AMAZING!!????

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
6 years ago

So they don’t actually perform the songs live in a national final in the traditional sense? Or am I missing something?

Nikos
Nikos
6 years ago

I disagree with the idea that the jury will murder this song. Yes, the jury tends to favor ballads (especially sung well), but “Lie to Me” is NOT your generic pop-dance track that usually gets hurt by the juries. Look at last year, JOWST from Norway did very well with the juries. Love it or hate it (I love it lol), “Lie to Me” is not generic in the least and so I can see the juries being neutral or even friendly to it. As someone else mentioned below, the betting odds are interesting. Czechia has never been in the… Read more »

Jo
Jo
6 years ago
Reply to  Nikos

Yes. Grab the Moment is probably the best example for this song.

Alex
Alex
6 years ago

Great song. Czech Republic would absolutely make the final with this

sam
sam
6 years ago

the betting odds seem to disagree with all of you mikolas haters

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  sam

Didn’t they predict Francesco Gabbani’s resounding victory as well as comfortable top ten finishe for Armenia and Azerbaijan last year? Sit, henny!

Flynn
Flynn
6 years ago

I don’t understand why people are excited by this, in terms of getting a result for Czech Republic he’s not their best choice. The older jurys at Eurovision won’t appreciate this and Czech Republic is by far one of the worst countries for televoting points no matter what they enter, they need something that has wider appeal like Eva or Pavel’s songs to get jury points and then hope they get enough televote points just to push them through

Pablo
Pablo
6 years ago
Reply to  Flynn

Or, they can vy for that Zoe appeal. Austria was never a televote friendly country historically, but Zoe in 2016 made a 180 and had people from all around on her side.

This would be a nice change of pace for Czechia, as well as being nice to have a self-written song for a change

Milan S.
Milan S.
6 years ago
Reply to  Flynn

If people cared of sending a good song more than they cared about the result, we would have a much better contest!

Noil
Noil
6 years ago
Reply to  Milan S.

That’s the issue though. This is not a good song.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Flynn

The problem is, they tried too hard to imitate radio-friendly music from America, which is exactly the opposite from what does well at the Eurovision. Whatever they’re sending will have a hard time qualifying this year.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

Tragic.

Matt
Matt
6 years ago

He has the televote in the bag, it was the jury that could’ve been less enthusiastic, I know the jury and the system will be different at Eurovision, and the competition will obvs be stronger but this does bode well for him.

Héctor
Héctor
6 years ago

Wrong choice…

Pablo
Pablo
6 years ago

yeeeeeees!

This is what Czech Republic needs!

Pavel
Pavel
6 years ago
Reply to  Pablo

Another Eduard Romanyuta type of flop

Maros
Maros
6 years ago
Reply to  Pavel

Eduard had a cheesy oldschool song “Lie to Me” instead is a modern song that has a good rhythm.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Maros

Eduard’s song was 4 years dated in 2015, this is 4 years dated in 2018. Same thing.

Noil
Noil
6 years ago
Reply to  Maros

modern? his song is dated.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Pavel

I am drowning in tea. Another panned cringefest incoming.

Janro
Janro
6 years ago
Reply to  Pavel

Eduard Romanyuta was very close to qualifying though and Lie to Me is better than I want your Love. This song should get Czech Republic to the Final.

Jérémy
Jérémy
6 years ago

What a strange way to announce the results :
– give the information of jury votes 6 days before the final announcement.

Why don’t give all information the same time ?
What is the advantage to do it this way ?

This appears messy to me.

regards
Jérémy

West
West
6 years ago
Reply to  Jérémy

But voting is already closed – yesterday was the last day anyone could vote.

Jérémy
Jérémy
6 years ago
Reply to  West

yes, it’s what I understood and thus, the reason I don’t understand the benefit of saying Mikolas won Jury vote….

If he won also Televote, why not say it now,
if he loose finally by a different televote choice, this is just rude to give hope to Mikolas or his support public….

Mark
Mark
6 years ago

68 points. Judging from the point scoring discussed in the article it would appear the Mikolas missed out of 100% of possible votes by just 12 points.

Enchanted Lobster
Enchanted Lobster
6 years ago

Charming singer, terrible song.

Fingers crossed for Pavel Callta.

Tsol
Tsol
6 years ago

Jason Derulo -Talk dirty to me , copy ~ paste

Adam
Adam
6 years ago
Reply to  Tsol

Omg, please stop writing things like “this is a copy of Jason Derulo”. it is not true! Lie to me is original, cool songs.. 😉

Pavel
Pavel
6 years ago
Reply to  Adam

Feels like a copy though.

Milan S.
Milan S.
6 years ago
Reply to  Pavel

Less of a copy than most things I’ve heard in the last few years. Rather fresh, actually.

Noil
Noil
6 years ago
Reply to  Milan S.

If that’s fresh to you you then i dont wanna know what’s on your playlist.

Kris
Kris
6 years ago

This means that another participant must have gotten close to 60 points too.
Or Two of them got 50+ points
But it’s nearly implausible for me to think that He won’t win the televote.None of the other songs up for selection charted in Czech Republic I think.

Mark
Mark
6 years ago
Reply to  Kris

At the least, Mikolas got 8 points from four jurors and 6 points from the other six. But we know that it’s never that clear. So I predict that least three jurors didn’t rank Mikolas in their top 2.

Colin
Colin
6 years ago

Congratulations for unofficial reveal of the Czech entrant on ESC 2018. Let’s be honest, if the juries picked him, what are the chances of televote going the other way?* It will be a divisive, but definitely noted song! While the song has really spicy and controversial lyrics, Mikolas sounds like a nice chap judging by his comments. So, yeah, all the best to him and usually underrated Czech Republic. * It is a small possibility of Mikolas pulling a ”Tatiana”, though. (Called after Ukrainian 2017 finalist Tatiana who was thought to be a public vote favorite, only to win jury… Read more »

Kris
Kris
6 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Tayanna you mean

Colin
Colin
6 years ago
Reply to  Kris

Yeah, sorry. I mean Tayanna.

Polyna
Polyna
6 years ago
Reply to  Colin

And jury probably only voted for Tayanna because they didn’t want to ruin her chances as a public favourite… or at least as a person who seemed to be. Only later it transpired that it was Mélovin who was the public favourite all along.

NickC
NickC
6 years ago
Reply to  Colin

This whole process is useless. Everyone knows who will win, and yet the announcement is delayed more and more.

Josh
Josh
6 years ago

YES! I voted for him on the Eurovision app, though will it count? I’m from UK not Czech Republic

Scher
Scher
6 years ago
Reply to  Josh

It wont count, only votes from Czech Republic count…

West
West
6 years ago
Reply to  Josh

No, only Czech votes count.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
6 years ago

It would be the best choice for Czech Republic, as it’s almost certain, that Mikolas would bring the best result ever(Which isn’t difficult since place 25 in the final isn’t a real challenge unless you’re Germany lol.). I can tell you, if Lie to me goes to Eurovision, I’ll happily vote for my neighbours, greetings from Germany and congratulations for your great song <3 ^^

Maros
Maros
6 years ago

Yeess!! I just hope the public voted for him and we get to see him at Eurovision 2018!