Among the last countries to reveal their act for Tel Aviv there is Switzerland. The landlocked alpine country has kept a big surprise for Eurofans this year: Swiss star Luca Hänni was internally selected to fly the Swiss flag in Tel Aviv with the song She got me!

After a troubled recent past, Swiss-German broadcaster SRG decided to review the selection process in its entirety. First, they cancelled the televised show called Die Entscheidungsshow, then they announced an internal selection for the forthcoming 2019 Eurovision.

A renewed selection process

But not everything was so “internal”. Swiss-Italian broadcaster RSI still organised a public regional selection to pick three wildcards for the national selection. Then, SRG announced that 5 songs had been shortlisted by the two jury panels (international expert jury and public jury).

Some details about the selection of the songs were later revealed by a member of the international expert panel Typh Barrow. The same panel also included former Eurovision performers Ruth Lorenzo (Spain, 2014), Ovi (Romania, 2010 and 2014) and Tinkara Kovac (Slovenia, 2014).

The decision

Finally, after weeks of rumours and speculations, the decision was finally published today: former winner of Deutschland sucht den Superstar Luca Hänni will fly to Tel Aviv with the song She got me! His official music video has now premiered through the official Eurovision YouTube channel!

About Luca Hänni

Luca Hänni was born in 1994 in Bern, the Swiss capital. He reached international popularity at the age of 18, when he triumphed in the ninth edition of Deutschland sucht den Superstar (DSDS), a popular talent show in Germany. The victory granted him immediate success in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. His first album, My name is Luca, went Gold in Switzerland and Austria, and ranked second in the German charts.

Luca has published four albums in his young career. His latest singles Powder (2017) and Signs (2018) combined almost 2 millions views on YouTube.

Luca Hänni in Eurovision

Luca is not new to Eurovision. Eurofans remember him as Swiss spokeperson in 2017, as he announced the 12 Swiss jury points to Portugal.

He was also member of the Swiss expert jury for the 2016 Eurovision in Stockholm, Sweden.

Switzerland in Eurovision

Founding member of the Eurovision Song Contest, Switzerland won the very first edition back in 1956 (Lugano, Switzerland) with Lys Assia‘s Refrain. They won a second time in 1988 with the iconic Ne partez pas sans moi of Céline Dion. In recent years, Switzerland has a rather poor record, having qualified only twice in the past decade.

Switzerland’s act in Tel Aviv next May will be their 59th participation in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Luca Hänni will perform in the first half of the second semi final on 16 May.

Will this act bring Switzerland back to the Grand Final in Israel? Leave a comment below!