He was confirmed as the Czech representative for Eurovision 2021 in May. And now Benny Cristo is kicking off the new year with the news that his song for Rotterdam will be internally selected.
Benny Cristo’s Eurovision 2021 song will be internally selected
The announcement was made on the Czech delegation’s official Facebook page — Eurovision Song Contest Czech Republic. The statement begins by wishing fans a happy and better new year, before re-confirming that Benny will represent the country once more after he was denied the chance in 2020 due to the contest’s cancellation.
For the first time since 2017, the song will not be chosen by the public. “This year he will compete with a new song that will be selected internally. Which one? You’ll see…. 😉”
Apart from unveiling the new Czech team, including Head of Delegation Kryštof Šámal, the post is scant on detail. However, Šámal and his colleagues conducted a Q&A in the comments section, shedding more light on the process.
Zdravíme vás v novém roce a přejeme vám všem, aby byl přinejmenším o trochu lepší než ten uplynulý 🙏
Eurovision Song…
Posted by Eurovision Song Contest Czech Republic on Monday, January 4, 2021
Czech Republic’s Eurovision 2021 song selection process
The song will be released in February or March
Šámal reveals that they are considering a few songs. But he says “we have one strong favourite”. He adds, “final debates are happening”. The earliest we can expect to hear the entry is February. However, depending on “how smoothly all aspects of the preparations will go”, we may have to wait until March. It is possible that the track will not be released before the annual HoD meeting, which typically takes place in mid-March.
Why internal?
The new HoD explains: “We have many more obligations towards ESC and therefore need much more time and resources for proper preparation. It wasn’t an easy decision, but one which was needed, though. I hope you all understand and appreciate the selected song when published”.
In response to another fan, he adds: “The main thing is that many tasks will be placed on us above and beyond the ordinary ESC and thus increase rapidly the costs and time needed for preparation. For this reason, it is necessary to be clear about the compositions and to think about various strategies, staging, PR, all in peace. Due to the whole COVID situation, it is simply a must for us”.
Will Eurovision Song CZ return in 2022?
The Czech Republic has used the Eurovision Song CZ national selection to select its entry every year since 2018. The format is unique in that it takes place entirely online. Benny, of course, won the competition with “Kemama” in 2020. However, now that both he and his song will be internally selected, the contest is redundant for this year.
But the powers that be envisage that Eurovision Song CZ will return in the future. “We strongly believe it will! We love it, we are good at it and fans love it as well so there is no reason to abandon the national selection. We would love to keep supporting the Czech music scene and offer various musicians and producers (no matter their notoriety) the chance to use the Eurovision platform”.
What do you think of the Czechs’ decision to pick their song internally? Are you excited to hear what they select? Let us know below.
Though “Kemama” wouldn’t rank that high with me, I was also a fan and I agree it would probably do much better than the fandom was expecting. I’m glad that the Czech delegation is keeping their selection plans alive, because I believe if they follow this path, they will end up being highly rewarded eventually.
With Conan I was prepared for any kind of aftermath. I remember writing here that I could see it winning or crashing and burning in the semifinal. Unfortunately, it happeend what I feared, not what I wanted. Concerning “Kemama” I agree with everything you said about it, I just think it lacked a more ear-grabbing nature. Which wasn’t a problem for us that liked it and shouldn’t be a problem to any song, but for Eurovision you need an extra push. That could come from the stage performance, of course.
What appropriating culture/religion song are you talking about? I genuinely don’t know
Thanks for letting me know. Idk either 🙂
I am very curious about what song they’lol choose. Being a Czech person, I know that Benny is an incredible performer. I just hope that they give him a song that does him justice and let’s him showcase his talent.
His song for 2020 wasn’t good and I found it sad because Benny is sooo talented. He is one of the artists for which I’m the most waiting the song this year. And Czech Republic is one of the country I want to see winning during this new decade. It is good to see how your country put so much effort over the last years to succeed at Eurovision.
I think Kemama was one of the best songs from the ESC 2020 lineup.
100% agreed.
As someone from czech rep I deeply appreciate the usual format of the czech competition, because it gives no bonus points for being famous locally due to people all across th world being able to vote – therefore the best song is chosen, not the best artist, and that´s what matters in esc inho. But it makes sense making internal selection this year – czech national television never has enough money for esc and with all the extra costs of covid, I think they made a rational decision. I just hope that they will return to the usual format next… Read more »
I’m Czech too and I have to say that I think that they have enough money, they just spend it on other things because Eurovision is not very popular in here so it’s not worth it to spend a lot of money on Eurovision
I agree that it’s good to give the possibility to all the fans around the world to vote, but it didn’t prevent Benny’s win at the online voting, despite not being the favourite of the competition. However, I think they’re doing pretty good since 2018. Their NF in 2019 was just amazing.
I agree (though he was my 15th place, still a testament to the quality of his song in a very good quality year). He could easily have broken through outside the fandom, due to the popularity of similar acts like Burna Boy.
Kemama was one of two songs, the other being my fave Armenia, that was clearly too good for the ESC fandom in my opinion and clearly aimed at other fandoms (like fans of Little Mix and Ariana) and ordinary listeners outside the Euro land. It’s why Chains has struck me so much, and why I remain adamant that it would have surpassed Aram MP3’s best.
Whilst there could have been live difficulties, it could have been likely that not every part was sang perfectly, and the staging had to be executed in a way that took aspects from the video but did not undermine her interaction with the audience, I think the line “don’t deny my lips on fire” in the music video version of Chains is one of my fave vocal moments of the lost 2020 contest, because of how effective it is. But I otherwise agree with you.
Please, don’t choose a song that sounds as cheap as “Kemama”… ‘:-/
Kemama was not chaep, u maybe meant San Marino or Moldova ….kemama was different and good 🙂
I thought Moldova sounded anything but cheap. Great great song.
Hands off Moldova – Prison was sophisticated and classy.
I am young, so for me not at all sorry.