Back in September, Czech Television (CT) confirmed that the Czech Republic would be part of Eurovision 2019 and opened submissions for their song selection. Now the broadcaster has announced that Czechia will again use a national final to select its act for Eurovision.

The Czech Republic will again use the national final Eurovision Song CZ — this year called ESCZ 2019. Like last year, the national selection will take place online.

Song submissions are currently open and will close this Wednesday, October 31. From there, the broadcaster will select around six acts to compete in the national final.

The competing acts will be revealed in early January 2019 and the videos will be made available in the official Eurovision app. Viewers — both in the Czech Republic and internationally — will be able to listen to and vote on the competing songs. At the same time, an international jury will also assess and vote on the songs.

Only votes cast from the Czech Republic will be counted as part of the televote, however fan votes made from outside Czechia will count as one jury member and will contribute to the overall jury tally.

The votes will be tallied up and the winning act will be announced at the end of January.

Czech Republic and Eurovision Song CZ

Since their 2015 comeback, the Czech Republic had internally selected their act for Eurovision. This was not an especially successful method, as Czechia qualified for the grand final only once, in 2016. Even then, Gabriela Gunčíková placed second to last and received nil points from the televote.

But everything changed when the CT switched to the Eurovision Song CZ format to choose their act for Lisbon. Six acts competed in Eurovision Song CZ, including model-turned-singer Mikolas Josef who entered his single “Lie to Me”. His song topped the televote and jury vote and ensured him a ticket to Lisbon.

At Eurovision 2018, “Lie to Me” was a hot favourite. Despite an injury in rehearsals threatening to put a dampener on things, Mikolas went on to deliver a scorching performance. The song placed sixth, giving the Czech Republic by far its best Eurovision result to date.

What do you think? Should the Czech Republic stick with its online selection format? Who would you like to see represent Czechia in Tel Aviv? Share your thoughts below!

Read more Czech Republic Eurovision news here

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dragoo
dragoo
5 years ago

Please, send again Mikolas with “Me gusta” for ESC 2019 !!!

Onetimeuser
Onetimeuser
5 years ago
Reply to  dragoo

Eh! No
I didn’t like last year’s song and not this one either.

Joe
Joe
5 years ago

I really want the Czech Republic to become the next Bulgaria or the Netherlands. I think they’ve upped their game these last few years and seeing them in the final again would be amazing. They’re such a big country, they’d be brilliant Eurovision hosts.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago

I hope they get more and more involved.

Azuro
Azuro
5 years ago

Poor wiwi can’t make up it’s mind on whether or not to use Czech Republic or Czechia ?

To me Czechia always sounds too much like Chechnya where as Czech Republic is unique

James
James
5 years ago
Reply to  Azuro

On the plus side, the -chia part of the English “Czechia” has a strong k-sound so it comes off on the ears as “Check-yah”.

EurovisionBenny_AUT
EurovisionBenny_AUT
5 years ago

Last year’s national selection for the Czech Republic was surprisingly good. I think that “Fly”, “High On Love” and “Never Forget” could have advanced to the Eurovision final as well. Makes me look forward to ESCZ! (Actually really nice pun there :D)

Mr. Vanilla Bean
Mr. Vanilla Bean
5 years ago

I like the title ESCZ. There’s your slogan for when the Czech Republic wins.

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago

I hope Czech people will get more interested in the competition since the audience is ABYSMAL (150k people watch it every year). They have a lot of potential, I love their music industry.

filipko54
filipko54
5 years ago

Sorry, but we are not Eastern Europeans, we are in Central Europe, it really offends me when someone says that we belong to Eastern Europe, we are not like Russia!
Anyway, our music is horrible, there are only few good song a year that would be good for Eurovision.

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  filipko54

Everyone in Italy consider the Czech Republic an Eastern European country… then when we visit we realize y’all are more advanced and Western than Italy. You should send Barbora Poláková with an artsy comedy song tbh.

James
James
5 years ago

Despite the fact it’s very well above Italy’s northern borders? That’s quite strange.

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  James

Anything that was under Communism is Eastern to us. Northern means another thing.

Jo.
Jo.
5 years ago

That’s the perception in most countries.

MyName
MyName
5 years ago

Mala dama and Lie To Me are really two great songs from Czech Rpublic. But they should broadcast their NF on TV

filipko54
filipko54
5 years ago
Reply to  MyName

It wouldn’t make sense, Eurovision doesn’t have good ratings in here and ratings of the national final would be even worse