Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Eurovision Song CZ was the national selection process organised by ČT in order to select the Czech Republic's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The winner was announced on 29 January 2018.[3]

Six 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 8 January 2018 to 22 January 2018. Both international and Czech users were able to vote but only votes from users in the Czech Republic were counted.[3]

The international jury panel consisted of:[4]

Artists and composers were able to submit their proposals to the broadcaster between 26 September 2017 and 17 November 2017. 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.[5] The broadcaster received over 400 submissions at the closing of the deadline, of which 36 were by Czech songwriters.[3] ČT selected six entries from the submissions received and the selected finalists were presented to the public on 8 January 2018.[6][7]

The winner, "Lie to Me" performed by Mikolas Josef, was selected by a 50/50 combination of votes from the jury and the public, and was announced on 29 January 2018.[8]

The Czech Republic performed fifth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Belgium and preceding the entry from Lithuania. At the end of the show, they were announced as one of the ten countries to qualify for the grand final, making it only the second occasion that the Czech Republic have qualified for the final. 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 second half. It was later revealed that the Czech Republic placed third in the semi-final, receiving a total of 232 points: 134 points from the televoting and 98 points from the juries.[11]

The Czech Republic performed fourteenth in the grand final, following France and preceding Denmark. In spite of a back injury that largely prevented Josef from performing too many complicated dance moves, he performed an impressive front-flip to a warm response from the crowd. At the end of the night, the Czech Republic finished in sixth place with 281 points, with 66 points from the jury (15th place) and 215 points from the televote (4th place).[12] This is their highest finish in the contest and their first appearance in the top ten, 240 points better than their finish in 2016.

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 were released shortly after the grand final.

The following members comprised the Czech jury:[15]

• Ota Balage (jury chairperson) – musician, composer, conductor
• Jan P. Muchow – producer, composer
• Hana Biriczová – radio host
• Berenika Kohoutová – singer, actress, blogger
• Jiří Vidasov – musician, composer, producer, pianist, teacher

Detailed voting results from the Czech Republic (Semi-final 1)[13]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		O. Balage	J.P. Muchow	H. Biriczová	B. Kohoutová	J. Vidasov	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Azerbaijan	18	14	13	15	18	15		2	10
02	Iceland	3	10	8	9	11	7	4	18
03	Albania	5	7	5	5	5	6	5	8	3
04	Belgium	2	1	4	4	4	2	10	15
05	Czech Republic
06	Lithuania	12	4	12	8	6	8	3	14
07	Israel	4	2	1	2	3	1	12	1	12
08	Belarus	13	15	16	14	13	14		13
09	Estonia	14	9	15	10	10	12		6	5
10	Bulgaria	1	3	3	6	7	4	7	9	2
11	Macedonia	16	18	17	18	14	17		17
12	Croatia	11	11	11	12	15	13		16
13	Austria	8	12	7	11	8	10	1	5	6
14	Greece	15	16	14	17	16	16		12
15	Finland	10	13	6	13	12	11		10	1
16	Armenia	7	8	10	7	9	9	2	3	8
17	Switzerland	6	5	9	3	1	5	6	11
18	Ireland	9	6	2	1	2	3	8	7	4
19	Cyprus	17	17	18	16	17	18		4	7

Detailed voting results from the Czech Republic (Final)[14]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		O. Balage	J.P. Muchow	H. Biriczová	B. Kohoutová	J. Vidasov	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	14	22	22	21	23	22		1	12
02	Spain	18	13	23	16	12	16		24
03	Slovenia	3	3	4	4	5	4	7	23
04	Lithuania	11	8	12	9	8	10	1	16
05	Austria	4	9	9	6	4	6	5	12
06	Estonia	15	12	11	14	11	13		6	5
07	Norway	17	18	21	20	21	23		11
08	Portugal	16	7	13	17	18	14		25
09	United Kingdom	12	14	8	10	15	11		17
10	Serbia	19	24	20	19	14	20		15
11	Germany	13	15	15	7	13	12		8	3
12	Albania	1	10	7	5	3	5	6	14
13	France	22	16	16	18	16	18		19
14	Czech Republic
15	Denmark	21	23	17	23	19	24		4	7
16	Australia	20	17	18	22	20	21		22
17	Finland	8	5	3	15	10	8	3	21
18	Bulgaria	5	4	6	11	9	7	4	10	1
19	Moldova	25	25	25	24	25	25		5	6
20	Sweden	6	2	5	1	7	3	8	18
21	Hungary	10	11	14	8	6	9	2	13
22	Israel	2	1	1	3	1	1	12	2	10
23	Netherlands	9	21	24	12	22	15		20
24	Ireland	7	6	2	2	2	2	10	7	4
25	Cyprus	23	19	10	25	24	17		3	8
26	Italy	24	20	19	13	17	19		9	2