She ain’t lying on the floor. She’s slaying on a “Pedestal.” And soon Moscow-born, Brighton-based singer AIKO will drop her rock swerve at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö.
On Wednesday Czech Television revealed her win with an Instagram video reaction and the following press release. Here’s what they said.
AIKO wins ESCZ 2024 with “Pedestal” (PRESS RELEASE)
Following an overwhelming international vote, Aiko’s empowering, and self-love anthem, “Pedestal,” has been chosen to represent Czechia in the Eurovision 2024 competition. The culmination of a week-long voting process on ESCZ this Monday evening saw Aiko emerge as the clear winner, earning her the right to represent Czechia on the Eurovision stage.
Elly secured a silver medal after winning the Czech Vote, with the band Mydy claiming the third spot. Notably, Tom Sean and Lenny followed closely in the rankings.
The Czech team expresses its excitement about the result, given the remarkable engagement of the audience, evident in the casting of 98,000 votes.
Kryštof Šámal, Head of Delegation, shared his thoughts on the selection:
“This year, we witnessed an incredible and diverse cast of finalists, leading to a dynamic evolution in the race for victory. With a total of 98,000 votes received, each stage of the last week presented a different winner almost every two days. While some fans expressed dissatisfaction with the live performances, it’s essential to acknowledge the limited time and resources available for ESCZ. I believe people will be pleasantly surprised by the artists’ true capabilities with a bit more time for preparation. Moving forward, we are excited to start working with Aiko to deliver a brilliant performance, taking advantage of the substantial resources Eurovision provides and allowing for ample preparation time. I am confident that Czechia will be proud of the outcome.”
“Pedestal,” an anthem of empowerment and self-love, emphasizes the determination to prioritize independence. It highlights the importance of putting oneself first in the face of adversity and any toxic relationships.
Aiko, currently based in Brighton, is a visionary artist who delves into profound themes such as love, solitude, and self-understanding, using her music as a medium for introspection and connection.
Breaking barriers and making history, Aiko proudly stands as the first Czech artist to grace the iconic Times Square. Moreover, she has earned the distinction of being the first Czech female artist to contribute to the global Spotify Equal Campaign, emphasizing her commitment to inclusivity and equality.
ESCZ 2024 results: International and Czech votes
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Hey Wiwibloggs, a story has just come out in the past days from Czech media that Aiko MAY have performed Pedestal back in June, which means she could be disqualified from performing for the country at Eurovision! Can you please cover it? According to one Czech source: “The competition songs cannot be published until September 1, not even their excerpts. These rules are available on the Eurovision website. However, the singer Aiko was alleged to have committed a serious offense. She was supposed to play the song six months ago at the European Music Festival in Kop?ivnice, Moravia, on 23… Read more »
This would not be a problem, if the EBU rules would be applies. These include a huge discretion space and a festival in Koprivnice is hardly a competitive advantage. However, the ESCZ rules are lex specialis here, and as i wrote here already, these rules, presented with the call for submission state(d), that ANY presentation before 1st September 2023 means automatic DQ, without any discretion. Thus, Aiko was in breach of this rule and whilst we cannot prove any voting discrepancies, we sure can prove, that she had to know, what she has sung where and when….she thus willingly and… Read more »
I think I like the song. It is the kind of song I would skip but I have listened to It until the end and kind of enjoyed It. lyric wise It is a little bit on the simple side but i prefer that to a way too complex and tacky self empowerment nonsense.
For the folks who want to claim this contest was rigged I did some math for you. First, let’s compare the fan favorites MYDY to the winners of each voting block (International/Czech) – Elly (Czech vote winner) vs MYDY – Elly: 24,679 votes vs. MYDY: 6,443 votes – Ratio = 6:1 – Elly got 6 times more votes than what seems to be the fandom’s favorites. – Aiko (International vote winner) vs. MYDY – Aiko: 33,107 votes vs. MYDY: 7283 votes – Ratio = 4.5:1 – Aiko got 4.5x as many votes as MYDY got in the international… Read more »
Correction: The ratio between MYDY vs Elly is 4:1 not 6:1
When you compare that to the ratio between MYDY and Aiko 4.5:1 it’s really a wash overall.
I’m a Tom Sean fan and I still think the voting doesn’t make any sense. Too many other things are odd even if what you say is true: why didn’t ESCZ do a results show like they did in the previous two years? The International vote was almost 3/4 yet none of the top three made it to their predicted places by the fandom, who ARE the international vote. The votes must have been made up, from Aiko’s social media or from bots.
Your arguments are based solely on feelings and assumptions. Why didn’t they do live results like they did last year? Idk maybe save costs. Maybe some of the artists had conflicts of interest. The live results last year looked even cheaper than the live show. Maybe they didn’t feel the cost was worth it. There are a wide variety of reasons to explain why. Secondly, the ratio doesn’t imply that the contest was rigged. The ratio was the same last year. 70:30 but no one had a problem with it. They only have a problem this year because the fandom’s… Read more »
Sorry, but it makes absolutely no sense that a contestant receives approx. 1,5x the votes more than the SUM (!!!) of the remaining 6 contestants´ votes. And it would not make any sense, even if Aiko´s performance would have been ESC-Winner-ish, which it was not.
BTw Aiko has performed her song on 23.6.2023 in a public venue on a small scale Czech cityfest. The ESCZ rules presented with the call for submissions clearly stated, that ANY presentation before 1.9.2023 means automatic DQ. No discretion intended as in the EBU rules.
Aiko´s song ought to be DQed immediately.
Yours are as well. You assumed the broadcaster was innocent from the start. There are still things that dont make sense that we haven’t gotten an answer for.
The complaint is not that Czech results are fair and foreign ones are rigged. The point is that both results seem suspicious. If you compare the total vote counts to last year’s Czech national final and remove the outliers (both Aiko and Elly) you get a raise of about 120-130%. This seems plausible. However the total vote count was 6 times that of last years. And of those 500% “new” voters every single one went for either Aiko or Elly. This is just weird.
Seriously, try to compare the vote spread pattern to last year’s.
Very very weak entry. Bad music, bad vocals, dreadful hairstyle, very cheap lyrics – maybe the message is good but the lyrics are so direct, no metaphore, no melody, no rhythm and rhyme in them. It’s a perfect song for the dead last place in the semis like this years Romania
France 9/12
Czechia 3,5/12
Can I ask why you base your ranking out of 12 instead of the usual out of 10? Not judging, just curious.
I like the sing and the vibe, good luck and love from israel??
Blonde fringes are obviously in for ESC2024.
It’s modern, it’s edgy but a bit forgettable.
Meh!
There was only one piedestal worth it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLsqUMESc1s
Enjoy the studio cut but hearing the live version made my ears bleed.
female pop rock is a tough sell at eurovision
it has strong staging potential tho
Aiko was not my first choice but it’s a good and brave entry which probably will stand out and do very well!
Hm, not my favourite Czech entry ever… but it is weird how many of their entries mine the UK’s indie scene, in either in style or artist, whilst the BBC continues to ignore it…
Girl can’t sing…
Just listened to the studio version. And I’m about to sound a little ridiculous because this is literally the first song to come out, but when I compare it to results and entries from previous years, …I get a bit of a borderline qualification vibe from it. I don’t know. If the year’s a little weaker, I think it could make it in, but if it’s a more high quality and competitive year then I think it’ll be just shy of qualifying. That’s the impression I get at least.
It’s the second one though, you can compare it to France’s entry if you want
But okay they’re automatic qualifiers, fair enough 🙂
For me it´s no problem.
France 9/12
Czechia 5/12
France’s song is amazing and a jury winner. This? No.
Suddenly it all just made sense why AIKO got many votes and ended up winning. She was the first one listed on the app where you vote. If you click on the image of the artist, it automatically registers it as a vote and you can’t change it. It’s a user experience/user interface problem. Most people would just assume that clicking on the image of the artist would make the app play the song, but instead it just registers the vote (which, again, you can’t change). So AIKO got so many votes because it was the first song people wanted… Read more »
OMG and ESCZ for relying on stingy little Martin Osterdahl! What a find man!
Interesting, but I’m not sure it explains why Elly dominated the Czech votes.
I’m assuming Elly already has her fans in Czechia, so they just went on the app and immediately voted for her without listening to any of the other songs.
Elly dominated cause her record company in Czechia rigged the votes for her. The battle between Elly and Aiko was really just about how would rig the national final more.
as old boy i live smartphone free (i have internet around the clock and that is enough),so i can not see that app but it seems that there was a trap and a lot of appvoters stepped in. ok! but in my opinium the best song has benefit from this appmistake. many people say,that she can not song – also ok but remember poland 2023 or also cyprus 2023 – the magic of backingvocals can fix nearly everything. aikos song is for me not on the level from the great vesna one but it is a very modern song. if… Read more »
I’m pretty sure the artists were listed in alphabetical order. That isn’t nefarious in the slightest. Secondly, people who click on a “vote now” button and expect anything other than a click to be a vote lack common sense.
Let’s see how many other Olivia Rodrigo wannabes pop up in the national final season this year?
Billie Eilish wannabes, your time is up.
Olivia Rodrigo is a Taylor Swift wannabe herself, but not as if other artists wannabes aren’t a thing in ESC (not saying everyone does it, just saying that it happens once a year or every second year)
Olivia probably made this genre more salable in a broader sense, but I don’t really get Olivia-wannabe from Aiko specifically as an artist. They might share some influences, but Olivia is always filtered through a teen pop sound, and Olivia only *really* started mining this sound on GUTS, which only came out a month before Aiko’s album.
Now Nadia from Serbia last year, she was an Olivia wannabe…
Are you guys posting somewhere all the songs that are being qualified for this year? Like a quick list (since theres no link for Eurovision 2024 in the reviews section yet).
50/50 vote are much better and fair.
Glad my fav won. I’m not used to that. Specially when it comes to the Czech NF.
She needs to polished her live performance but the studio versión is the best song from this bunch.
I don’t get what Elly had. Tbh, I though Lenny was going to win the Czech voting.
Congratulations Aiko. Great energy. Fast tempo rock is a good start for 2024.
I have noted here that the song “Pedestal” has quite a short running time (2:20), so it is possible that the song might be added to. Any thoughts on that?
I swear, if it’s another out-of-the-blue dancebreak I’m gonna riot! Thought it was a terrible idea for Armenia this year and I’m really over it.
Well, Aiko has a “pole dancing” playlist on her Spotify, so maybe we’ll get a “pole-dancebreak.”
I kid; I hated Brunette’s dance break too.
I liked Armenia’s dance break. It worked for it but it already looks like Aiko wants to be the next Chanel in that outfit she was in!
Next year it was the same comedy with Gustaph and how he was welcomed by the eurofans, because of course when some eurofans didn’t get what they want they are unbearable, toxic, mean, capricious, because of their frustration you know, isn’t it childish. And we still wonder why the eurofans have this bad reputation…just look. And how many predicted and even worst wished Gustaph to not qualify….and at the end 7th place overall, and how many said the same s.it towards Vesna and results top 10 overall, so take that and just shut up, you’re ridiculous nothing else and you… Read more »
Even though I agree on the fact that Eurovision fans should calm down, I think the comparison with Gustaph is not great. The problem that fans had with Gustaph was his song and not how he performed it. I think nearly everybody agreed on the fact that he was a great performer. I knew from day one that it would save him and he would finished in the top 15 but anyway. Here with Aiko there is a biiiig problem. Her performance during the NF was a disaster. I know that the conditions weren’t great at all, the whole production… Read more »
You mean like Vesna were ridiculed for bad performances in both nf and pre-shows, when people proclaimed that there’s no way they would qualify? Only for Vesna to reach top 10?
It was either Vesna or Pam Rabbit that hear. No comparison to this year where there were plenty of other good choices!
Even though I agree Vesna’s performance was also bad during the NF, it was faaaaar from being THAT bad. Here I highly advice Aiko to work on her performance and vocals every single day until May. The songs remains good. Not wow but good.
The problem also was that the Belgian NF was great and there were so many good choices but again Gustaph was the last or second last song in people’s ranking and it was a bit weird for the time. People wanted Cherine!
Be the first to calm down your unhealthy toxicity then.
Toxic, biased and unbearable and he wants to give lesson, this belgian has no shame…
Wow, that’s a bad choice of screenshot for the main picture. She looks mental.
Aiko’s live performance was a disaster!
She can’t sing, dance, kick and take breaths and the same time. Also, her vocals were problematic. It is a big issue.
Yes, my favourite was MYDY because the singer can sing and have a nice performance.
But Aiko has serious problems to solve, because if someone judge the live performance will be really, really disappointed.
I don’t know how bad other songs will have to he for this to qualify. This sounds cheap and I think it will be cemented in a very bottom of it’s Semi.
Not people predicting NQ when it’s the first confirmed semifinal song we’ve heard so far
Went through the same thing with Gustaph who ended up finishing 7th in the final
Just let it play out y’all, no point in crying and complaining
Yes, I wanted MYDY to win like most people did, and I ranked Aiko 4th in my top, but I do believe she deserved to go to Eurovision, her energy was unmatched
Also, she has plenty of time to hone her skills and work on her performance
Not to mention that the song could get revamped later on
We will have to see, but the facts remain that this is a very odd result even when you look at the odds and the maths of it all – winning by 20,000 votes?! No way. And Tom Sean and MYDY gave the Czechs more to work with. Aiko WILL improve – but this will get lost unless the rest of the songs int be semi are ballads.
I don’t really care about the margin argument
This is Eurovision we’re talking about, fans have been historically known to hype up their favorite entries and then do nothing to actually help them win
Just because Aiko’s fanbase isn’t as loud as MYDY’s or Elly’s doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist at all
They got the job done, that’s all that matters to me, I’ll leave any existant or non-existant controversies and conspiracy theories to the professionals
No but the international vote was almost 3/4 meaning the fans on here had the majority say, so the predicted MYDY or Tom Sean win should have been easy to find but instead we jumped to most people’s fourth-sixth place.
Don’t complain when Aiko doesn’t qualify or barely qualifies and comes in the bottom five at Eurovision! Tom Sean was also a good choice!
I love Aiko’s song, and I just have to say that the way this fandom immediately bandwagons onto conspiracies over and over again – constantly throwing the toys out of the pram over nothing – is just completely toxic, divisive and damaging. I swear some of you haven’t SEEN grass recently, let alone touched it.
It’s funny how anyone pointing out on some potential irregularities is marked as “conspiracy theorist”
Because You Are Doing A Conspriacy . When You Dont Like This Results You Say Its Fake So What I Will To Say To You Is Get Ower It And Be Quiet
I would never say it’s rigged unless there are some things that support my point. Nothing can be done about this anymore since Aiko is already announced and they verified the votes, but if I think the voting seems rigged I will feel free to say so and comment it.
They didn’t though. I literally voted 20 times for Tom Sean using a private browsers on my phone and anyone could have using a VPN. The voting system was broken.
I understand defending all the other songs but this is genuinely the first time in three years that I am suspicious about a NF from Czechia. There were three other solid artists and performances they could have picked from and they picked this? Look at the clues, the statements ESCZ are dropping. Not all is what it seems!
Congratulation To Aiko You Were Simply The Best By Far . I Woted For Her A Lot Of Times So Im Happy That Ewery EuroGay Is Mad She Won And Not There Flop Choice
What a pity!!! ECSZ 2024 was super… there were at least three really nice songs and much better than ‘Pedestal’. Elly or Mydy would be perfect.
So let’s wait for this mix of T.A.T.U. and a weird version of Taylor Swift to improve till May 2024.
Don’t forget Tom Sean!
I’m hearing the song for the first time as I write this comment, and for now I’m not quite feeling it. Czechia has sent much better stuff these past years.
Damn, the Czech Republic had been sending really good stuff in the past few years. Such a shame that’s not the case this year. I don’t see how this is going to qualify unless the other songs in their semi are equally bad.
This couldn’t have been the best song, right? Anyway wish Aiko all the best…
Almost like the results were wrong!
I expected the results would be tighter. Aiko received more international votes than all the other contestants (together) – 59,44% of all international votes. Second to her was Elly with only 14,03%. Those are unbelievable numbers. I didn’t see her winning so smoothly.
The same goes for Elly in the results of Czech voting, but the Czech votes don’t matter much.
It would be interesting to see a county by country breakdown. I’m wondering how many of the international votes came from Russia.
It doesn’t make any sense when you consider that WE are the international votes so the comments should be more accurate here.
Ok good luck Aiko!
I don’t understand Thomas Robin score here and the overall ranking neither.
Me neither…. looks like an absurd this landslide difference
Hopefully Czech delegation will understand it after semi-final in May lol
Fistly the song is far from being bad, secondly you haven’t seen yet the final product. and to finish it’s the kind of song that is more televote pleaser than jury pleaser so she has all her chances to qualify if she brings a good staging and if she performs perfectly…. she has largely the time to improve the things that didn’t work so to talk about NQ it’s so abusive already and we don’t even know her competitions…, the eurofans loves to be mean only for the pleasure to be mean instead of welcoming warmly the artists, instead of… Read more »
i have mixed feeling with this i think but i think mostly positive?
aiko definitely had the best studio version song, though the live performance was rough…
that being said, the resources were limited for this show and she has plenty of time to improve
congrats aiko! i think this is a solid choice
Aiko didn’t have the best studio either. That was Tom.
What a terrible start to the Eurovision season.
The predictable average eurofans saying the same every single year, next.
And as soon as their countries or their favorite countries come into play, the discourse changes….as every year.
And look at what happened last year…Loreen won! It truely was a terrible year!
Enjoy your slop.
With a big pleasure ty. Bye.
Tbh 2023 didn’t really turn out as a strong year, so it’s not that every year becomes magically strong. When so many countries pick weaker songs it does affect the whole year.
And it will become magically strong when your country or your fav country will enter the game, come on, we know the thing now. Slimane and Aiko are certainly not weak as you dare to say.
ESCZ is fixed each and every year
Whatever. None of the songs will qualify.
Something’s a bit fishy here… -Faulty live vocals from most of the performers and bad audio -A voting system that claims 70% of the vote was from an ‘international audience’ and 30% from ordinary Czechs -Only 30% of the vote was from actual Czechs -The International vote swing suggests it was targeted at our audience, Wiwibloggs and all the websites that the ‘Eurovision extended fandom’ is involved with. If we were to read into that then the comments here and on other websites should tell us who the favourite was. The favourites according to Youtube, Wiwibloggs and all the other… Read more »
I think you should calm down, breath and go touch some grass. In all the years escz was used as a selection process, there was a week or two long voting period – most likely to get as much votes as possible. If they had selected Aiko internally then they would have just announced they selected her internally without wasting money on a (in your scenario) televised concert.
Each year the results of ESCZ don’t make sense.
They made sense last year…and the year before that! And look! Czechia got to the final in those years!
Sure sure
I was here last year and the year before that…something’s changed. The results weren’t even reported in their own little gathering this time! We’re meant to accept them…and move on…even though they make ZERO sense mathematically.
They want Aiko to be seen having the support of the world. They don’t want there to be backlash over a lazy song like we’re having now.
It’s true. Anyone with half-decent coding skills would know that they can connect to TOR, a private browser that also masks your IP address, and blocks cookies, to connect to the website and vote. Even 1 vote per minute would lead to 10,080 votes over seven days. It would likely take less time to do that, and that’s only for one device. Nobody would get caught. Nobody would know.
The National Final itself felt very small, but that’s to be expected and last year felt even smaller. However, the voting system this time around is one of the worst i’ve ever seen! The fact I, someone not trained to manipulate voting or coding or anything for that matter can vote via a private browser that many times shows something is up. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
Oh, and the results were released privately, unlike the previous two years where they had an actual gathering in a hall to show the breakdown of the results to stop people questioning them!
I think you should calm down really.
Ladies first.
There was no draw for the running order. They performed in alphabetical order. How come I was the only one to notice this?
I don’t know, Aiko was the favourite of the discord group I am in. The people there are calmer and don’t comment on hundreds of euroblogs, but still voted for Aiko (without publicly announcing it on wiwibloggs).
and regarding the change in the leader – maybe it was because first people to vote were the ones who watched the live show, but afterwards everyone listened to studio and liked Aiko the most (without hearing her bad live performance)
Czechia, see you in the final! Love from Israel! 🙂
In other words, you have a vote from me..
We both voted her because we saw the potential, and not because of the actual performance. We keep our fingers crossed for a significant improvement until May, as we saw many times it is possible (i.e. last year’s Poland’s Blanka, who had a terrible national final performance and nailed it on the stage in Liverpool, which surprisingly elevated her into the final).
Hodn? št?stí, ?esko!
Or you decided to eliminate Czechia from the final by sabotaging them by choosing this, the Czech people thought that this was garbage and now they get something they don’t want because of their stupud system, you did the Czechs so bad here.
I enjoyed both Blanka’s NF AND Eurovision performance. Many people didn’t but with Aiko I fail to see even Blanka levels of energy.
The fact you thought Blanka’s NF performance was good tells me all I really need to know. Her Eurovision performance really wasn’t even that good. The backing track carried her vocals.
y’all did her wrong with that header article photo lol
Haha I kinda like it. It matches the vibe of the song.
It’s from the video where she was told she’d won – this was her reaction.
No video with the results and winner reveal?
That was last year but this year feels a little fishy since they decided against that.
Out of all the songs, Pedestal is the only one I can see voting for in Malmo. I’m not surprised she won with 20k monthly listeners on Spotify and 10k Inst followers who want to see Aiko’s song in Malmo. If the voting was split 50/50 instead of 70/30, Aiko still would’ve won. If each vote was taken without any split adjustment, she still would’ve won.
I agree with you, some trolls simply cannot accept that the best song won.
I just can’t see people voting for it, even if we exclude the 70% international demographic found on Wiwibloggs or other sites…
Well, we can only be pleasantly surprised by the actual esc performance. Hopefully, it can’t get worse than the one in the NF. 😀
This really wouldn’t have been my pick, but congrats to Aiko! The performance needs a lot of work, but we said the same about Vesna last year and they finished top 10! With a potential revamp and improved vocals, this could still surprise people
The song may be good based on the studio version, but that live performance was absolutely dreadful! Unless she drastically improves her live vocals for Malmö, this is a NQ!
MYDY should’ve won imo!
It wasn’t even THAT good in the studio…just another April Lavagne knock off!
Listen, this was my 4th place in this final and I think that comparison is bad. Let women do punk music without being compared to Avril Lavigne
MYDY brought a unique marching band colourful electronic performance which would have been interesting in Malmo. On the other side, we had a dark pop dance song that wasn’t about love and had unique lyrics from Tom Sean. Czechia had a lot of good options this time but choose…a scantily clad woman?
Oh yes because the 2005-sounding Red Flag Parade was gonna win Eurovision haha! I’m so happy Mydy did not win, Czechia dodged a bullet
2005? Wot? What about Tom Sean with his modern dance bop with unique lyrics? What has Aiko got? Nothing!
“Sweet like Teriyaki” is definitely unique…
I partially like the studio cut.
Albania’s “Pedestal” was very different but better, Iris is a fab performer.
I couldn’t be more happy with this choice! Like I said before Aiko’s song really started to grow on me and I like the punkish kind of pop style too. It really is the best out of all the songs they had in ESCZ. Now.. the live performance is admittedly a mess. First of all her vocals and pronunciation. She sounded way too breathy and the screaming at the end needs to be taken back. Second of all the outfits. They were not great. It was like we were watching a punk burlesque, not fitting at all with the vibe… Read more »