The Czech Republic recently announced they’re making their national selection, ESCZ, a live program for the first time in 15 years. And now we have more information as they’ve revealed the five artists vying to represent the nation in Liverpool. They are: Maella, Marketa Irglova, Pam Rabbit, Rodan and Vesna.
ESCZ 2023
Originally, ČT had announced that three acts would be in contention for the new format of the national final, the first time in 15 years that they’ll televise a selection show. However, a change of plans happened last minute, according to the head of the Czech delegation, Kryštof Šámal.
“The level of the songs and artists and also, the essence of ESCZ to share the talent and diversity in our music scene made it not only very hard but also impossible to select 3 finalists. Therefore, we are happy to reveal the 5 finalists that will compete to represent us in Liverpool”.
The delegation, as well as a panel of executives and music experts, came together and selected the following 5 finalists vying to represent the Czech Republic:
MAELLA
The daughter of a local jazz musician, Maella moved to London at the age of 20, which led her to develop a dark alt-pop sound to much acclaim. Her previous singles have been played on BBC Introducing in London, became an ambassador for Spotify Equals CZ&SK, and her image was featured in Times Square.
MARKÉTA IRGLOVÁ
Markéta Irglová is a well-known international name. This Academy Award-winning musician now lives in Iceland, where just last year competed in Söngvakeppnin trying to represent Iceland. Now turning her sights to the Czech selection, she’s vying to represent her birth nation in the contest.
PAM RABBIT
Pam Rabbit is a known face in ESCZ, having competed in both the 2019 and 2020 editions, her quality, edgy pop hits becoming popular with fans. She also directs music videos and was one of Mikolas Josef’s backing vocalists in Eurovision in 2018.
RODAN
This 20-year-old contemporary pop and indie folk artist became a national revelation in 2021, with his first single ‘Gone’ rising to the top of the charts, and his debut album Glasses Off achieving widespread critical acclaim.
VESNA
Vesna is a female band led by singer-songwriter Patricie Fuxova, with the band’s roots extending to Slovakia and Russia. Combining folk and pop, they have created the signature sound that got them several national awards and got them to open to big acts.
VOTING SYSTEM
ESCZ 2023 will take place on January 30 at 21:00 CET. The winner will be selected fully by public vote. with the weight breakdown being 70% international audience and 30% Czech national votes. The voting will once again go through Eurovision channels, lasting a week, and ending on Monday the 6th of February.
What do you think? Are you excited about the artists that the Czech Republic is offering us? Let us know in the comments below!
VESNA’s song is out and…it’s amazing! It has so many potential and it can be huge hit!
Crazy to me that Czech audience will only be 30% of the vote
Last year it was just 25%. 50% was international juries and another 25% was international televote.
I wanted Victor Sheen/Giudi/Aneta Langerova/ Lenny/Olga Lounova/Xindl X/Monika Bagarova/Pavel Callta/Dan Barta/Slza/Dorian/Adam Mišík/ 🙁
Thanks for dislikes but they are huge in Czech Rep 😉 and i would love to see them – same like Ben in 2020/2021
Adam Misik will be the presenter of the national final, won’t he lmao? at least something
No idea
I agree with Aneta – she would at least sing in Czech.
Yessss!!
the czech audience will only represent 30% of the vote ??? that’s kinda weird to me since it’s their candidate but ok i guess…
Sounds like a Russian referendum.
OT, but since midnight 7 semi 2 songs from MGP are online in their full form too – Elsie Bay, Jone, Sandra Lyng, Ella, Alejandro Fuentes, Bjorn Olav Edvardsen, Swing ‘It.
Also, few of the new PIN songs have been released too, including snippets from pre-contest favs Gabrielius Vagelis and Beatrich.
The first heat of PIN will air this Saturday. I wonder how many songs are gonna qualify for heat because there will 15 songs per heat. My guess would be 7-8, but we’ll have to find out on Saturday. 9 songs are already out (The latest is Joseph Junes vacuum which I haven’t listened to yet).
I heard all nine. Most of them are at least fine, but 2-3 of these new ones are expected QF fodder. My favorite so far is surprisingly Donata’s Dreamer, penned by Persson sisters. Neither the performer or the writers have a record of always bringing hard-hitting material, but credit where credit’s due, this is a strong ballad, and should be in PIN finals. Now I’m really interested in Gabrielius Vagelis (the snippet is too short) and Gebrasy!
Dreamer is not one of my top favorites, but I will give credit that it sounds a lot better than Donata’s last effort, the way I am in 2021. That was a truly awful song.
Joseph June’s entry is a glorious meme.
Since we are talking about Baltic countries, the two wildcards for have been selected for the final of Estonia’s Eesti Laul. They are Elysa and Mia. I wasn’t surprised that Elysa would be one of the wildcards, but I wasn’t expecting Mia. Well, there are now two songs in Estonian in the final.
“Well, there are now two songs in Estonian in the final.” True. There’s that. But if Estonian is to be heard in Liverpool, let it be Tuju. 😉
just so everybody know, it won’t be on TV, just on iVysílaní (Czech Televisions online platform) and youtube, they wrote it on official Czech Eurovision page
30 January – although noone said the songs can’t be released prior to that. My guess is that Maella and Vesna will go with the songs they released recently, but I really hope Vesna will go with the Czech version not the English one.
Marketa Irglova! The girl from the lovely ” Once” who won Oscar for the gem of a song Falling Slowly? Which still is one of the best songs to have won Oscar by the way..
I am all for it. Hope she wins, she has the talent..
She’s had Eurovision past as well – she tried to represent Iceland last year; hopefully she’ll do better this year!
They said big singers submitted the songs 🙁 I am dissapointed
big singers does not mean a good song! we’ve seen “big” names with mediocre songs at eurovision before.
But Its make me exciting actually – Same like i saw Bonnie, Cascada, Hooverphonic …
What more do you expect? It should be via the official Eurovision app as in all ESCZ editions before. 🙂
An impressive line-up. Marketa Irglova is such a talented woman (and I am very happy to see a successful artist like her eager to go to ESC), and Pam Rabbit had some bops too. I also like Maella’s song which has been shared down in the link by Tom, if that’s her song. I don’t know what The Czech voters think about international voters having 70% of votes, but I assume that’s the broadcaster’s failsafe if the audiences just go for the biggest local name regardless of the song. But as it is so, we absolutely have to be alert… Read more »
Markéta’s talent impresses me, not her Oscar. Although performers like her really make me miss the live instruments.
I always remember Markéta and Glen’s Oscar speech moment. They were played off just as Markéta was about to speak and give her acceptance speech. A little while later, the host Jon Stewart stalled the show and brought her back on stage and let her have the microphone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx8yLvb0gZM
70% international audience vote, you say?
If that is Maella song I am in it 100% love it: Maella – Tudu Tudu Tu (Official Video) – YouTube
Basic song
I have a strong feeling this will be a really good selection, lookimg forward to it in a couple of weeks.
I’m really excited about this selection. I just hope that some people in Czechia can support the selection.
On Youtube apparently Pam Rabbit’s song would be “Zobrazeno” and Maella’s song would be “Tudu Tudu Tu”!
Really good level for now but I hope Pam Rabbit won’t win because I think Maella is better, I’m also waiting for Vesna (folk!!)
I hope the Czech Republic will choose well and a good song !
Pam Rabbit will most definitely send a new song “Ghosting.” She posted a short snippet of it on her Instagram and Tiktok a couple of days ago.
I’m exciting !!
Vesna have a big potential also Whisker !
Mr Leeb says ty for the tribute 😉
Both Pam and Maella will compete with different songs (as they wrote on their instagrams). Rodan as well.
Ah okay so much for me! ^^
But Maella is already very promising
Marketa Irglova is a brilliant vocalist! She was so good in Once with Glen Hansard too. The movie about a Dublin busker and immigrant worker from Czech Republic set in Dublin.
With the right song, she could give Czech Republic one of their biggest results.
Her song in Iceland was awful 🙁 in 2022
Pam Rabbit are going to be exiting. I liked the past entries her
The vote breakdown will be 70% international and 30% Czech. I wonder how the Czech people feel about that?
It is weird when you consider this a NATIONAL final
It is weird but at the same time eurovision had like 30 thousand Czech viewers last year. I can imagine they want to give the fandom more power when you can expect a very low amount of votes from czech people themselves.
I think that’s right because in the Eurovision you can’t vote for your own country. So this is the signal that Czech delegation wants to have a success.
After they picked this boring duo last year it’s better not lol.
We don’t need another belgium drama
That song slayed
It broke my heart …
At first look Pam Rabbit and Rodan are the names that sound the best to me. But I have to say reading the descriptions doesn’t get me as excited as I was with last year line-up.
So we will hear the songs for the 1st time January 30? I thought we would get the winner this day and the songs before. It’s not a final in fact it’s a show to present all the acts and after the online voting begins. It ends February 6 but when we will know the winner?
After Gustaph from backing vocalist to Esc star maybe it will be the same thing for Pam Rabbit and maybe it will become the trend of the year and I’d love the idea but let’s hear the songs before.
Apparently the winner will be announced on February 6 too at the end of the voting, it’s cool.
Siiiiick I loved Pam’s 2019 and 2020 songs for ESCZ. Here’s to hoping third time’s the charm!
Overatted – she needs to mobilized Armenians in Czech to win
I’m glad they decided to put 5 instead of just 3. I only know Markéta Irglová (saw her live last summer) and Pam Rabbit (and only from her Eurovision attempts), and maybe heard about Vesna before, but I’m not sure. I wonder if we’ll finally get some good song in Czech.
Having a literal OSCAR WINNER represent us would be really iconic
Markéta probably really talented, but winning an Oscar isn’t really something to be proud of nowadays.
Why not?
Ooh, I don’t know about that foreign to national vote ratio. Like, I get that the Czech public won’t be able to influence the results when it gets to Eurovision and the broadcaster wants something with mass appeal, but it feels bad that the people are getting shortchanged on who represents them in the first place.
My first thought was that the Broadcaster figures the Czech people won’t be terribly interested me thinks.
Considering how czech public voted in the past (aka winner is the one with the biggest fanbase) I think this is for the best.
If and when they unjustly don’t do well, they can blame the foreigners? The BBC here might do the same!
If MAELLA sends Tudu Tudu Tu they would easily have a top 10 placement.