The Czech Republic has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since making its debut in. After receiving nul points in the semi-final of the contest and a lack of interest from the Czech public, Czech broadcaster Česká televize decided to withdraw from future contests. ČT announced their return to the contest in, with an internal selection being used to select their fourth Eurovision entry. In, Gabriela Gunčíková became the first Czech entrant to reach the final, finishing 25th with the song "I Stand". After the country failed to qualify in 2017, Mikolas Josef became the second Czech entrant to reach the final and the first to reach the top ten, placing sixth in with the song "Lie to Me”. In 2019, Czech band Lake Malawi finished eleventh, achieving the country's second best result in the contest.
Early history
During the time of Czechoslovakia, Československá televize is known to have broadcast a number of editions of the Contest in Czechoslovakia during the 1960s and 1970s. Karel Gott, one of the most popular Czechoslovakian artist, represented Austria in the 1968 contest, held in London, United Kingdom. Furthermore, the Prague Theatre of Illuminated Drawings from the Czech capital performed as interval act in the 1984 contest, held in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. After the dissolution of the state in 1993 the Czech Republic's partner Slovakia immediately attempted to enter the Contest, entering the contest three times between 1994 and 1998, before withdrawing. Czech broadcaster Česká televize had originally planned to send an entry to the 2005 Contest, held in Kiev, Ukraine. However, this did not materialise for various reasons. ČT again looked at sending an entry to the 2006 Contest in Athens, Greece, but failed to do so after having doubts that the country would qualify for the final.
Participation
2007
In April 2006 ČT officially confirmed their presence at the 2007 Contest in Helsinki, Finland. ČT held a national final to select the first Czech entry. Eurosong 2007 featured 10 songs, with the public voting for the winner through SMS voting. However one song was withdrawn before the show began, leaving only 9 songs to compete. The winner was rock bandKabát with the song "Malá dáma". At the contest's semi-final on 10 May 2007 the Czech Republic performed 16th in the semi-final, however only received one point from the televoters around Europe.
2008
For the 2008 Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, ČT again held a national final to select the entry for the country. 10 acts again competed for the chance to represent the Czech Republic in Serbia, with the winner of Eurosong 2008 being Tereza Kerndlová with "Have Some Fun". At the second semi-final of Eurovision 2008 Kerndlová performed 8th in the running order, receiving 9 points for her performance, placing 18th of 19 entries, and failing once again to qualify the Czech Republic to the final.
2009
Despite placing in the bottom two twice, ČT confirmed that they would participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. ČT decided to hold an internal selection for the artist who would represent the country at the contest in Russia, with a public vote on the song they would sing. The broadcaster chose Romani band Gipsy.cz in January 2009 to compete in Moscow – the band had previously competed in the two previous national finals, coming both times in the top three. Two songs were presented to the Czech public to vote on: "Aven Romale" and "Do You Wanna". After voting had concluded after 14 days, the final winner was "Aven Romale", which featured lead singerRadoslav Banga dressing-up as a super-hero character, Super Gypsy. The group performed 2nd on the night of the first semi-final of the contest, held on 12 May 2009. However the group managed to receive nul points from the 20 countries voting in the semi-final, becoming the 16th entry to achieve this result since the current voting method was introduced in 1975.
Withdrawal
On 22 July 2009 ČT officially announced their withdrawal from the 2010 Contest, stating a lack of interest from the Czech public to the contest and poor viewing figures for the shows.
Return
Despite a July 2014 statement by ČT that the Czech Republic would not participate in Eurovision 2015, ČT announced on 19 November 2014 that the Czech Republic would in fact participate at Eurovision 2015 with a song to be chosen by an expert panel from a field of five specially commissioned nominees. The song however failed to qualify from the semi-final. However it did give the Czech Republic their best score and placed 13th with 33 points. On 31 August 2015, ČT announced that it would participate in the 2016 edition, in-which the Czech Republic qualified to the final for the first time in the contest's history. The placement in the final was 25 out of 26 countries. The televoting gave the Czech Republic zero points and the juries gave 41 points. The following year, Martina Barta was internally selected to perform "My Turn," and finished thirteenth in her semi-final.
2018
The Czech Republic returned to a national selection for the 2018 contest, deciding their contestant by a combined online vote and an international jury of former Eurovision competitors. The winner was "Lie to Me" by Mikolas Josef. He performed the song in the Ukrainian national selection show and at Eurovision pre-parties in Riga, London, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, and Madrid. At the first dress rehearsal for semi-final 1, Josef injured his back while performing a backflip. He was transferred to several hospitals and was temporarily unable to walk, but still promised to perform by the time of the first semi-final. The choreography was adjusted to accommodate his injury, and his performance earned the Czech Republic their second appearance in the grand final. At the grand final, Josef performed the original choreography, complete with a front-flip that did not result in injury. "Lie to Me" wound up placing fifteenth in the jury vote and fourth in the televote, resulting in a sixth place overall. This marked the Czech Republic's first-ever appearance in the top ten and first time receiving televote points in the final. Following the contest, Head of Delegation Jan Bors confirmed that the national selection model would be used in future contest appearances as a result of Josef's success.
2019
A a similar concept of the national final was used in 2019, deciding the entrant by a combination of an online voting of the Czech public and an international jury of former Eurovision competitors. Unlike the 2018 contest, the results of the international voting public were added as one individual jury member. Placing second in the Czech public vote and joint first in the jury vote, "Friend of a Friend" by Lake Malawi was announced as the winner to represent the Czech Republic in Tel Aviv. Lake Malawi managed to qualify, making it the third time the Czech Republic participated in a Eurovision final. They ended on eleventh place, which is the second best result of the country in Eurovision Song Contest.
2020
During the press announcement of the 2019 entry, provisional plans for a televised national final for the contest were revealed, and the final was to be held on 25 January 2020. However, in November 2019, ČT announced that the televised national final had been cancelled, and that an online selection would again be used.
