Back in May, Luca Hänni took Switzerland to the Eurovision grand final and gave them a fourth-place finish. The Swiss revival seems to have inspired the songwriters of Europe. German-Swiss broadcaster SRF has now confirmed that 515 songs have been submitted to the broadcaster for their 2020 internal selection process.
The broadcaster confirmed the news yesterday on social media, saying that “the juries will soon start with the evaluations”.
??Thank you for 515 songs?
Today at 12:00 the submission period for songs in #Switzerland came to an end. The juries will soon start with the evaluations. ?#Eurovision #ESC2020 #srfESC #SRF #RTS #RSI #RTR #TeamSRGSSR @SRF @SRGSSR @Eurovision @RTSUnDeux @RSInews @RTRSRG pic.twitter.com/6vBotqQ0La— SRF ESC (@srfesc) September 16, 2019
The 515 entries is up on the 420 that were received last year. While the 2019 rules required that all entries needed to have a Swiss connection, this year there was no such restriction, meaning that singers and songwriters from any country could enter.
However the 515 total is down on the number of entries received for the last Swiss national final. In 2018, 670 songs were received.
Unlike in earlier years, where submitted songs were available to be listened to on a website, the entries for 2020 will not be publicly available.
The next stage
There’s a long process in narrowing the 515 song submissions down to just the one act that will travel to Rotterdam in May.
A 100-member audience panel and a 20-person international expert jury will rate both the song submissions and artists. The two panels will also make the final decision as to the lucky song that will make it to Eurovision. The audience panel and expert jury will have a 50/50 vote split.
While Switzerland’s Eurovision selection is run by German-Swiss broadcaster SRF, it is done in conjunction with the country’s three other regional broadcasters.
Last year, the Italian-Swiss broadcaster RSI ran an online survey to help select the acts it would submit to the audience panel and jury.
Interested members of the public could listen to snippets of the 13 potential songs and then rate them based on how much they like the song and if the song holds their interest. However, the Swiss ticket for Tel Aviv eventually went to another act, German Idol winner Luca Hänni. There is no indication whether RSI will use a similar method this year.
Switzerland’s internal selection success
In 2018, SRF confirmed that it had ditched the national final Die Grosse Entscheidungsshow and would switch to internal selection.
The show usually involved each of Switzerland’s national broadcasters selecting a number of acts who would compete in the national final. The process was largely open to the public, with online uploads of songs and the live-streamed Expert Check show. However, this process only led to two acts who made it to the Eurovision grand final.
In 2017, the national final was revamped. The selection process was closed to the public and an expert jury selected the six national finalists. However, this process was not successful for Switzerland, with both Timebelle and Zibbz staying in their semi-finals at Eurovision.
For 2019, the broadcaster switched to internal selection, using the audience panel and expert jury to select the act. Their pick — Luca Hänni with “She Got Me” — went on to place fourth at Eurovision 2019. This was Switzerland’s best Eurovision placing since 1993.
What do you think? Who would you like to see represent Switzerland at Eurovision 2020? Should Switzerland bring back their national final? Tell us your thoughts below!
[…] Back in September, the Swiss broadcaster confirmed that 515 songs had been submitted to the 2020 internal selection process. […]
I want Sebalter to carry the Swiss light. If we discount Luca (who was internally selected and greatly pushed by the Swiss delegation) and the Estonian import Vanilla Ninja, he was the only successful Swiss artist since 1993 (!!!). And his success was thanks to his own songwriting and thanks to televoting, no less. I think that speaks for itself.
So because Russia has internally selected every year since 2013 but had 4 top 5 results, by that logic does that mean Russia hasn’t had a successful entry since Buranovskiye Babushki? Or does that mean Bulgaria’s 4th and 2nd place doesn’t count because they were internally selected? Or maybe Helena’s victory for Greece doesn’t count because she was from Sweden
I don’t know what you think VB wrote, but maybe you should read his comment again.
Oh well, I’m used to people not being able to read.
It would be a real shame if a non-Swiss singer or group would go on to be selected. Why should anybody who doesn’t have a connection to a certain country represent it at an international music festival? This would be against the spirit of Eurovision if you ask me.
… exception goes to San Marino, but I think it’s fair as long as the song, which is the item of competition, is written by Swiss natives.
I agree. here in Sweden for example. I dont think swedish voters would send a act like Margaret for example.
Scilla Hess! Just sayin’ 😉
Maybe take a closer look at the 200 songs that are not by Laurell Barker. Just a suggestion.
She has a mixed record at best: One of her entries made it to the top 10, two were in the bottom in a field of 26. Numerous others stayed in their respective national selections although many were regarded as fan favorites (“Legends”, “All the Feels”, “I Wished I Loved You More”).