Last week, news broke that one member of the Czech Republic Eurovision jury was not a Czech citizen, which could theoretically put the Czech Republic in breach of Eurovision jury rules. Now the Czech head of press has issued a statement clearing up the matter. He confirms that the EBU had already given permission to let the American-born, Czech-resident musician Tonya Graves be part of the Czech jury.
The EBU requires that all Eurovision jury members be citizens of the country they represent. After it was discovered that the American-born singer Tonya Graves was part of the Czech jury, speculation began swirling, with some wondering if her votes or the entire Czech jury’s votes might be disqualified.
The Czech Head of Press responds
However, Ahmad Halloun, the Czech Head of Press, quickly cleared up any speculation. In a strongly-worded statement on his Instagram account, he confirmed that the Czech delegation had already gained an exemption from the EBU a month prior. He wrote:
“I’m the need of addressing the polemic with the amazing Tonya Graves being a member of the Czech Republic professional jury for Eurovision 2021.
“Yes, she’s not a Czech citizen. Nevertheless, we wanted to have a set of prominent and diverse panel of music figures in our jury, showing how the Czech Republic team is taking Eurovision very seriously and working to change the image of the contest.
“She has an extensive and successful career in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She has been a permanent citizen of the Czech Republic for more than 20 years.
“We requested an exception for this rule for her to the EBU and this exception was granted on April 16th.
“The Czech Jury votes are valid and there are no changes in the results of this year’s Eurovision.
“We encourage all media to contact us before publishing alarming and false stories.”
Tonya Graves was born in New York State but moved to Prague in 1995. There she has worked as a jazz and pop singer and actress and is well established in the Czech entertainment industry.
Czech Republic at Eurovision
The Czech Republic has competed nine times at Eurovision, with mixed results. They first qualified for the grand final in 2016, when Gabriela Gunčíková competed with “I Stand”.
In 2018, the Czech Republic earned their best result when Mikolas Josef placed sixth in the grand final with his cheeky bop “Lie To Me”. The following year, indie pop group Lake Malawi finished 11th in the grand final with their song “Friend of a Friend”.
Most recently, Benny Cristo missed out on the grand final, after placing 15th with his song “Omaga”.
If we had same situation in some ex Soviet Union countries or Balkan countries ( who are not members in EU ) the result of their jury would not be valid.
The EU has nothing to do with it, and if there was an American living in that country for over a quarter of a century, with an exemption from the EBU allowing them on the jury… that would be fine.
Honestly, as a Czech guy, I have not even know that she doesn’t have Czech citizenship until now. She is famous here, speaks Czech language, and lives here. I guess the EBU rule was not supposed to restrict such people. It is good decision that exception was granted!
lol the whole Chechia and they couldn’t find a Czech citizen? I mean if San Marino and Malta can, i am sure they also can do it!!!
Perhaps Martina Navratilova was busy
It’s not that they couldn’t, it’s that they wanted Tonya. There was no good reason to keep her out.
Mr. Halloun has wonderfully slapped some faces.
Halloun was so annoying in Rotterdam, telling Susanne off for asking Benny many questions and keeping him busy while he had other interviews to do. He is so unprofessional.
I didn’t see the video, but that sounds like a professional thing to do actually.
lol what kind of non problem honestly. the ebu should be focusing on something else, like, for example, all the irregularities that took place in this year’s voting, especially the juries.
This was already a non-issue as the EBU granted the exemption for the Xzech jury a month before the contest.
Kirkorov left the chat
Lol, this is so ridiculous. Not even all government jobs require you to have the nation’s citizenship, why should it be stricter for the jurys of Eurovision Song Contest. She has lived in the Czech Republic for more than 25 years which should be more than enough to participate there. Also she brings great diversity and value, this is the most important thing.
But she could have been bribed by the US contestant?
I guess she must have some kind of a residence permit/residence card to live in Czech Republic. It means she does not have Czech nationality but she still lives there. And that should be totally fine. Not every foreigner has to apply for a country’s nationality to be able to live and work there.
You’re all missing the point. The reason this rule was likely instituted long ago was to prevent the appearance of bias. For example if British expats live in Spain and then award all their point to the UK as members of the jury – it would undermine credibility in the results. The idea of refugees or people outside of the participant countries was likely never considered whenever this rule was established. They could modify the rule to say that jury members can be local or not citizens of participating countries that year.
Off topic
Senhit posted a new video for Adrenalina #freekytriotoroderdam and at the end there is a not “I’ll be back” Yas!:)
Even if she’s not Czech citizen in law, she’s a Czech citizen in real life. Not everybody wants to waste their time to become a citizen formally.
“We encourage all media to contact us before publishing alarming and false stories.”
The media not publishing alarming and false stories, in this day and age? That’s preposterous. What was once known as yellow journalism is now just journalism.
I know. I was being facetious.
Gimme one name of modern magazine doing that as an example. Can’t remember single.
If she’s a genuine permanent resident of the Czech Republic without a major connection to an ESC participating country that should be fine. I think the rule is in place more to ensure that someone like Helena Paparizou wouldn’t automatically give 12 points to Sweden if she was on the Greek jury or vice versa.
However what I find odd is that someone who’s lived in Prague since 1995 is still not a Czech citizen.
Maybe she explicitly doesn’t want citizenship because it would make her lose her american citizenship?
If legal residency is the only possible path and dual citizenship is not a thing there, I can see why she chose to retain her citizenship.
how is this baltic – russian story relevant to anything about czech jury?
Helena Paparizou is Greco-Swedish if that’s what you mean.
That’s awful. Yeah the treatment of ethnic Russians in the Baltics isn’t great.
A citizenship is rarely given automatically. You can live in a country for ages an if you do not apply for the citizenship, eventhough you would be elligible, you simply do not become a citizen. If Tonya never applied for Czech citizenship, she thus never was able to become one. And permanent residence in a Central European EU-country suits her well, than let it be…