Last year seven acts made the final of Czech Republic’s national final. But this year just three acts will follow in their footsteps. Producers at Czech Television have confirmed that ESCZ 2023 will feature a trio of finalists.
The deadline for submissions is December 8.
Here are the full rules, as supplied by the broadcaster on its official Eurovision Instagram account.
Czech Republic: Three acts will make the ESCZ 2023 final
“The Czech Republic is looking for its representative at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023!”
“From 2 /11/2022 till 8/12/2022 it will be possible to apply for submitting the songs through the form at the official website.”
“The submission can be in form of a demo version, the final master is not necessary at this stage.”
“Submitted compositions may not be published or publicly presented in any form before September 1, 2022. If the submitted composition was published or publicly presented before this date, it will be automatically disqualified.”
“It is allowed to send more songs from one artist.”
“The lead singer, i.e. the main vocalist of the composition, must hold Czech citizenship – in the case of a duet, at least one of the main vocalists must meet this condition.”
“Note: Czech Television reserves the right to cancel the competition in the event that the Czech Republic cannot participate in ESC 2023 for any reason.”
“Three finalists will be selected for the national selection and will perform their songs live. The winner of the national selection will be decided by Czech and foreign fans (using voting in the official ESC application) and an expert jury. More information will be released over the next few days.”
Do you think it’s a good idea to have fewer songs in the final?
If they get the right three songs, I think this is about right. I feel that they haven’t managed to have a NF yet with more than three good songs so this might be the case of quality over quantity.
Now, as long as one of the three is Pam Rabbit, I’m happy. XD
Cutting down to only 3 songs feels like a product of not enough great songs received, but since deadline is a month away, I am surprised by that decision. Sure, it depends on the songs. I hope for not only three great songs, but three diverse great songs.
Then again, this might end-up like Greece 2018, and we might get this NF scrapped entirely and get an internal choice instead. In any case, good luck, Czechia!
I hope this means that they will pick the three songs very carefully! But I’m excited for ESCZ nevertheless 🙂
The singer needs to be Czech, but the songwriters don’t? This makes no sense to me. It’s a song contest, not a singer contest. How is there any national pride in being represented by factory team that are also representing four other countries?
Go ask Azerbribejan
Building bridges.
i hope among those 3 acts there’s someone great who rescues this country’s future at esc… their track record recently has been fine, do they need another mikolas josef to convince them to move the broadcast to their main channel and stay?
I feel like The Czech Broadcaster wanted to withdraw but last minute decided to join the party. I hope for a great result this year for them to keep them participating cause they have been my favorite for a few years now.
I agree – it really seems like they decided to stay in the competition only at the last moment and now they rush the process as much as possible. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in previsous years they wanted finished songs and now they’re ok with demos.
Not true. In all of the previous years, they said they accept demos and the submissions didn’t have to be finished.
I mean I’m not against having only 3 songs here, but the thing is that you would still have to remove some indeed great songs that would otherwise compete in ESCZ and potentially win.
That is exactly the crux here. 6 top notch songs submitted, very good live artists…and now pick only 3. Or actually PRE-pick 3….no, that is not good and will not contribute to the acceptance of the contest in Czech Rep.
Honestly idk what to say about this, I’m sure I’ll love at least one of the entries but I don’t think I understood the process this time :/
I am saddened by the decrease. And given the very tight deadline, i am not really sure, if there is a way for unfamiliar yet good musicians to apply. Let us hope for the best and for huge improvement in 2024.
As they say: it’s not the quantity that counts but the quality!
We can be surprised by the 3 future candidates, last year the Czech selection was excellent. I’m excited !
Hopefully, but it could easily be three bad songs. We’ll have to see later on.
Shame! Their national final had potential. We are domi was my winner last year.
3? Really?
And with the statement Ari mentioned I find this whole thing even more hilarious.
I’d choose 3 good ones over 28 Melodifestivalen semi final ones any time, if they find them. I guess it makes sense. If you already plan on possibly canceling the entire thing, it’s easier to cancel 3 instead of 7 or 10 or 28. 😛
I wish I could disagree on the Melfest thing and I’m sure many will but God has Melfest been a letdown recently. At least for me.
“Note: Czech Television reserves the right to cancel the competition in the event that the Czech Republic cannot participate in ESC 2023 for any reason.”
Kind of a hilarious statement. Like, if all the submissions are so bad that they don’t wanna go with any? Or if they do a Bulgaria and go broke? A lot of ambiguity in the live performances as well. Probably online voting and not a televised show? In any case, I’m glad that they insist on some Czech nationality. The Czech Republic is a country bursting with potential.
LMAO
The statement regarding the right to cancel was there last year as well
That is a legal disclaimer to avoid possible lawsuits. Legally, a contest like the ESCZ is codified the Czech Civil Code and to avoid any obligations and damages, you simply reserve the right to withdraw, to which the contestant agrees concludently. I am not sure, if the contestants sign a contract. But it would not be unusual.
I figured it was just a standard legal notice, but it still sounds hilarious to me