Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Eurovision Song CZ was the national selection process organised by ČT in order to select Czech Republic's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The winner was announced on 28 January 2019.

Eight entries competed in the national selection where the winner was determined by the combination of votes from a ten-member international jury panel and a public vote. The international jury panel consisted of ten former Eurovision entrants while the public were able to vote via the official Eurovision Song Contest app from 7 January 2019 to 21 January 2019. Both international and Czech users were able to vote and votes from international users had a weighting equal to the votes of one jury member.

The international jury panel consisted of:

Artists and composers were able to submit their proposals to the broadcaster between 31 August 2018 and 31 October 2018. Songwriters of any nationality were able to submit songs, however artists were required to have Czech citizenship and at least one of the lead vocalists were required to have Czech citizenship for groups of a maximum of six.[3] The broadcaster received 300 submissions at the closing of the deadline, of which 60 were by Czech songwriters. ČT selected eight entries from the submissions received and the selected finalists were presented to the public on 7 January 2019.[4]

The winner, "Friend of a Friend" performed by Lake Malawi, was selected by a 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and the public, and was announced on 28 January 2019.

Detailed International Jury Votes
Song	AUT	DEN	CHE	MAL	EST	HUN	FRA	ISL	NOR	IRL	INTL	Total
"Give Me a Hint"	2	4	2	10	3	12	8	2	3	4	3	53
"True Colors"	12	12	12	8	10	6	12	6	8	10	12	108
"Poslední slova tobě"	3	3	3	6	6	2	4	4	6	6	2	45
"Space Sushi"	10	1	1	4	4	3	10	3	2	3	8	49
"On My Knees"	6	6	8	1	8	4	3	1	1	1	1	40
"Friend of a Friend"	8	10	6	12	12	8	6	12	12	12	10	108
"Easy to Believe"	1	2	10	3	1	10	1	8	10	2	6	54
"Don’t Know Why"	4	8	4	2	2	1	2	10	4	8	4	49

Lake Malawi made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Friend of a Friend" as the Czech Eurovision entry. On 6 April, the group performed at the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam to over 4500 spectators.[5] On 14 April, Lake Malawi performed during the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris venue in London, hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.[6] They will also perform "Friend of a Friend" at the Eurovision Pre-Party Madrid on 20 April, and at the Moscow Eurovision Party on 26 April. They also performed during the Ukrainian Eurovision national final.[7]

The Czech Republic performed sixth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Slovenia and preceding the entry from Hungary. At the end of the show, they were announced as one of the ten countries to qualify for the grand final, making it the country's third qualification overall and second in a row. Subsequently, at the semi-final winners' press conference, the qualifying contestants all drew to see which half of the final they would compete in. The Czech Republic was drawn to compete in the first half. It was later revealed that Czech Republic placed second in the semi-final, receiving a total of 242 points: 86 points from the televoting and 157 points from the juries.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[10]

The following five members comprised the Czech jury:[10]

• Jitka Zelenková – Chairperson – singer
• Iva Boková – journalist, show host
• Šimon Holý – film director, musician, show host
• Ondřej Cikán – radio show host, media consultant
• Aneta Kharitonova (Anett X) – singer

Split voting results from Czech Republic (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Boková	Š. Holý	J. Zelenková	O. Cikán	Anett X	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	6	4	3	12	2	2	10	10	1
02	Montenegro	12	16	4	13	13	15		15
03	Finland	4	14	9	11	11	12		16
04	Poland	7	2	11	4	8	4	7	4	7
05	Slovenia	1	1	16	1	1	1	12	6	5
06	Czech Republic
07	Hungary	14	3	13	6	5	7	4	9	2
08	Belarus	9	11	5	2	3	3	8	8	3
09	Serbia	3	15	10	3	7	5	6	7	4
10	Belgium	11	10	2	15	6	8	3	12
11	Georgia	2	9	15	10	14	10	1	13
12	Australia	10	7	6	14	12	13		2	10
13	Iceland	13	5	7	8	16	11		5	6
14	Estonia	5	13	14	9	9	14		3	8
15	Portugal	16	8	1	16	10	9	2	14
16	Greece	8	6	12	5	4	6	5	11
17	San Marino	15	12	8	7	15	16		1	12

Split voting results from Czech Republic (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		I. Boková	Š. Holý	J. Zelenková	O. Cikán	Anett X	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	7	12	10	11	4	8	3	21
02	Albania	18	21	20	16	19	20		22
03	Czech Republic
04	Germany	14	14	11	17	16	16		23
05	Russia	22	25	23	24	17	22		1	12
06	Denmark	11	16	19	6	15	13		11
07	San Marino	25	18	24	25	25	25		18
08	North Macedonia	2	10	1	8	6	4	7	12
09	Sweden	1	2	2	4	3	1	12	16
10	Slovenia	3	3	6	2	2	2	10	14
11	Cyprus	13	5	18	15	9	12		20
12	Netherlands	8	4	3	3	7	5	6	7	4
13	Greece	19	15	16	23	14	19		24
14	Israel	23	23	22	19	18	21		8	3
15	Norway	24	22	21	22	22	23		2	10
16	United Kingdom	10	13	7	9	11	11		25
17	Iceland	4	7	14	5	24	7	4	5	6
18	Estonia	12	20	4	7	13	10	1	10	1
19	Belarus	21	19	15	13	10	17		19
20	Azerbaijan	5	9	8	1	8	6	5	4	7
21	France	17	8	5	14	5	9	2	17
22	Italy	6	1	9	10	1	3	8	9	2
23	Serbia	16	17	17	12	21	18		13
24	Switzerland	9	11	12	18	12	14		6	5
25	Australia	15	6	13	21	20	15		3	8
26	Spain	20	24	25	20	23	24		15