Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015


Czech Republic participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Hope Never Dies", written by Václav Noid Bárta and Tereza Šoralová. The song was performed by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta. The Czech broadcaster Česká televize announced in November 2014 that it would be returning the Eurovision Song Contest after a five-year absence. The Czech entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria was selected via an internal selection. The broadcaster invited composer Ondřej Soukup to head the creation and search for the Czech Republic's entry. In January 2015, a five-member jury panel listened to the candidate songs and selected "Hope Never Dies" performed by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta to represent the Czech Republic. The entry was later presented to the public in March 2015. In the second of the Eurovision semi-finals, Czech Republic failed to qualify to the final, placing thirteenth out of the 17 participating countries with 33 points.

Background

Prior to the 2015 Contest, Czech Republic had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest three times since its first entry in 2007. The nation competed in the contest on three consecutive occasions between 2007 and 2009 without qualifying to the final: in 2007 Kabát performing "Malá dáma" placed 28th in the semi-final achieving only one point, in 2008 Tereza Kerndlová performing "Have Some Fun" placed 18th in her semi-final scoring nine points and in 2009 Gipsy.cz performing the song "Aven Romale" placed 18th in their semi-final failing to score any points. The Czech broadcaster ČT withdrew from the contest between 2010 and 2014 citing reasons such as low viewing figures and poor results for their absence.
Initially, Česká televize confirmed that they had no intentions of participating at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, however, on 19 November 2014, the European Broadcasting Union announced that Czech Republic would be returning to the contest in 2015 with the broadcaster confirming that their entry would be chosen via an internal selection.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

Czech Republic's entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest was selected via an internal selection by the Czech broadcaster Česká televize. The song "Hope Never Dies" performed by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta was announced as the selected entry on 31 January 2015. In addition to being one of the selected performers, the song was also composed by Václav Noid Bárta, while lyrics were written by Tereza Šoralová. In November 2014, ČT had announced that the Czech entry would be selected by an expert jury from five compositions that would be commissioned from well-known composers. In early January 2015, the broadcaster revealed that composer Ondřej Soukup had been invited to create potential entries while also taking into consideration compositions written by Soukup's collaborators and other songwriters. Ultimately, Ondřej Soukup was the producer of the selected entry. The expert jury that selected the entry consisted of Honza Dědek, Martin Červinka, Jitka Benešová, Michal Hrůza and Michael Kocáb. The jurors reportedly were not made aware of the composer of the songs in contention until after the selection for the 2015 Eurovision entrant for the Czech Republic had been made. Michael Kocáb stated: "The songs we were choosing from were quite on par with each other in my opinion. However, the winning song 'Hope Never Dies' was a candidate of mine too. It sports a peculiar and nice chorus, along with some nice and surprising modulation. And when I heard it, I figured that this song can really impress if done well."
"Hope Never Dies" was presented to the public online on 10 March 2015. The official video for the song was released shortly afterwards on 15 March.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 26 January 2015, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Czech Republic was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 21 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2015 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Czech Republic was set to perform in position 8, following the entry from Portugal and before the entry from Israel.
In the Czech Republic, the semi-finals were broadcast on ČT art and the final was broadcast on ČT1 with commentary by Aleš Háma. The Czech spokesperson, who announced the Czech votes during the final, was Daniela Písařovicová.

Semi-final

Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta took part in technical rehearsals on 13 and 16 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 20 and 21 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.
The stage show featured Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta dressed in black outfits performing the song. The background LED screens displayed rotating mirrors that, as the song progressed, transitioned from images of dark starry skies to a sunrise with volcanic eruptions. A feature of the performance included Marta Jandová taking her high heel shoes off and throwing them behind her. In regards to this move, Marta Jandová stated: "The idea comes from my past, when I was touring with my band Die Happy. I promised our fans that I would wear a dress and high heels. And after a few songs on the first concert my feet were hurting so much that I just took my shoes and threw them behind the stage. Then I kept on doing this and it became somehow my sign—that when I sing on high heels, I throw them away. I don't do it very often but we decided to do it at Eurovision because in the middle of our song there is a breakthrough, and there is no more place for high heels."
At the end of the show, Czech Republic failed to qualify to the final and was not announced among the top ten nations. It was later revealed that Czech Republic placed thirteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 33 points.

Voting

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant 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 could 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 were released shortly after the grand final.
Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Czech Republic had placed tenth with the public televote and twelfth with the jury vote in the second semi-final. In the public vote, Czech Republic scored 51 points, while with the jury vote, Czech Republic scored 34 points.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Czech Republic and awarded by Czech Republic in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Czech Republic

Points awarded by Czech Republic

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Czech jury: