Who represents the Czech Republic and who is the favorite

As the Politico server also informs, the vote that matters most to Europeans is almost behind the door. Of course, he is not referring to the elections to the European Parliament, which according to the latest Eurobarometer survey are of interest to only about 60% of citizens, but to the popular Eurovision contest.

Therefore, Seznam Zprávy has prepared an overview of all the information that will be useful to you in the following days in questions and answers.

For several weeks now, the public has been calling for individual representatives to boycott this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. There are several reasons, but they all have a common denominator – Israel and the conflict related to it in the Middle East, which flared up in October last year after the attack by Hamas.

References to 7 October also appeared in the original version of Israeli contestant Eden Golan’s song titled October Rain (October rain). However, to maintain political neutrality, the organizers demanded that the song be edited. At least during the second semi-final night, the audience will hear the edited song Hurricane (Hurricane), in which a woman mourns the end of a love affair.

However, the singer’s very participation in the event causes resentment among some because of the alleged double standard that the organizers are supposed to apply. Russia, which has been at war with Ukraine for two years after invading it itself, was expelled from the competition in 2022. However, Israel can participate, despite being criticized for its actions in the Gaza Strip.

Interesting facts about Eurovision 2024

The freshest thorn in the side of some viewers is the weekend statement by the organizers that, due to the apolitical nature of the competition, visitors to this year’s competition will not be able to bring Palestinian flags or wave banners with slogans about the war between Israel and Hamas. Thus, only flags of participating countries and flags related to LGBT+ people should be present.

However, pro-Palestinian protests are planned in Malmö throughout “Eurovision week”.

The representative of the Czech Republic this year will be the singer Aiko, whose real name is Alena Shirmanova-Kostebelova. A native of Moscow, she grew up in the Czech Republic and studied in England, where she still lives. She began her career by participating in the popular Czech Slovak SuperStar competition, but in 2015 she failed to reach the semi-finals. This is what he will try to overcome this Thursday in Eurovision.

She has already released three albums, her debut was released in 2018 and bears the same name as the singer. Her second release was 2020’s Expiration Date. However, most of her top hits are on Fortune’s child, including the contest song Pedestal (Pedestal), which, in a highly competitive competition, was able to reach the Czech public the most in the national round of Eurovision and got the singer to Malmö.

In the song, the singer describes an argument with her ex-partner, during which she realized that she had to put her own interests before those of others and put herself on an imaginary pedestal, to which the title of the song refers. Musically, the composition focuses mainly on the guitar sound, which is reminiscent of the rock and pop-punk hits of the 2000s.

The singer was criticized by Eurovision fans around the world for the low quality of her live performances. Although, according to a number of fans, she has improved since the national round, according to the bookmakers, this did not increase the singer’s chances of advancing to the finals much. The betting odds aggregator Eurovision World gives Aiko only a 24% chance of placing in the promotion positions.

The most successful Czechs at Eurovision

Currently, the biggest favorite for the overall victory is Croatia, which is represented by a singer with the pseudonym Baby Lasagna with the song Rim Tim Tagi Dim.

In it, he talks about how he leaves his native village and goes to the big city. In the video clip, he shows the rural customs of his country, which he says goodbye to – from milking cows to dancing folk dances.

The second biggest favorite to win is Switzerland. Singer Nemo Mettler in his song The Code it combines elements of an opera that in places resemble Mozart’s The magic flute, rap and electronic music. The result of an unusual mix of genres is a catchy song whose total chance of winning is estimated by bookmakers at odds of 4.7.

The Italian Angelina Mango will then perform a song La noia (Boredom), which, by combining electronics with classical instruments, certainly does not intend to bore the listeners. And according to the odds, he is currently third in the odds to win.

Interview with Ukrainian Eurovision winners

In it, Angelina sings in her native language, which is rather a minority practice in the competition – most artists present their songs in English. However, in the last Italian victory in 2021, the Måneskin group also bet on Italian and it brought them success.

The Ukrainian winners from 2022, the Kalush Orchestra with the song Stefania, bet on their native language, and the same is true of Ukraine this year as well. But this time it is represented by a pair of singers Alyona Alyona & Jerry Heil with a song Teresa & Maria and even with this song, Ukraine is once again one of the favorites to win. As is often the case with Ukrainian representatives, the song has a strong folk motif, this year additionally enriched with elements of modern music and rap.

Eurovision is mainly attended by European countries, but there are also contestants from some countries outside of Europe. Each country then sends an artist to the music competition with an original song that represents that country. This year, a total of 37 countries are participating in Eurovision, but only 26 will make it to the finals.

Viewers can vote for their favorite songs via phone, SMS or the official Eurovision app. But each country also has a jury consisting of five music professionals who evaluate the songs from a professional point of view. The two groups of votes are then combined to determine the winner.

The latest Eurovision winners

If one of the songs is popular among the audience, it does not necessarily mean that it will win in the end. An example of this was also last year, when Finland with its composition Cha Cha Cha received the maximum possible number of points from 18 countries. However, the judges did not share the enthusiasm of the public so much, and the first place went to the Swede Loreen, who thus became the first ever two-time winner of the competition (previously she won in 2012).

It is also important to note that neither fans nor judges can vote for their country’s representatives.

The first semi-final will take place May 7th and will be attended by Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Australia, Azerbaijan, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Moldova, Portugal and Slovenia.

The second semi-final will take place two days later, on Thursday May 9and the Czech Republic, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Malta, Switzerland, Belgium, Estonia, Georgia, Israel, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway and San Marino will compete in it.

The final match will then start on Saturday May 11where the best 20 songs from both semi-finals, the song of last year’s winner Sweden and also those from the “Big 5” countries, i.e. France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain and Germany, will compete for the victory.

All rounds can be watched live from 21:00 on the ČT2 program.