It’s been only a few hours since Switzerland ended the song submission process for their national selection “Die ESC 2018 – Entscheidungsshow”. The Swiss broadcaster association, SRG SSR reports that it has received 670 applications and that marks the biggest number of submissions over the last few years. The country has chosen to use this selection method for the 8th continuous time since its launch in 2011. 

The Swiss Head of Delegation Reto Peritz stated:

We are very happy to see that the interest in the music producers for the Eurovision Song Contest in Switzerland is so great and thank you for all contributions.

What’s happening next?

Initially, an independent jury of 20 members will determine the 6 songs that will compete in the national final show, which is going to take place on Sunday, 4 February 2018 and will air live on TV. The jury will consist of music experts, as well as Eurovision fans and television viewers. The 20 members will have made their mind up by October or November and afterwards the broadcaster will contact only the selected authors.

The 6 selected songs will be sung by several voices in order the best interpretation to be found. When it comes to the final show, the outcome will be determined via televoting and an international jury voting system, each having a 50% stake. In case of a two-candidate tie, the viewers’ opinion will prevail.

SRG SSR will be releasing the jurors’ names after the final show on 4 February.

The broadcasting corporation has published in English a file with all the rules and regulations regarding Switzerland’s national selection. The file is also available in all 4 official languages of the country.

Switzerland at Eurovision

The central European country has been one of the founding members of the EBU and is the country that hosted the first Eurovision ever in 1956. Switzerland had the honour to win the contest’s 1st edition with Lys Assia and Refrain. 32 years later, the Swiss people enjoyed their second victory in 1988, which was achieved by the world famous Céline Dion singing Ne partez pas sans moi.

However, the country has had relatively poor results over the last two decades. Switzerland has missed 9 finals since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004 and has reached the Top 10 only once, in 2005.

In 2017, the three-member band Timebelle represented Switzerland with a pop-genre song Apollo. The band came 12th in the second semi-final, thus didn’t qualify to the final.

How can Switzerland overcome its poor results in 2018?