RSI, the Swiss Italian national broadcaster has announced that it will be holding its regional final for the 2016 Swiss national selection on Monday 9 November.
A special committee consisting of 3 jury members appointed by RSI will have the responsibility of evaluating all submitted entries and selecting 3 songs for the 2nd phase of the 2016 Swiss Eurovision national selection- the Live Audititon scheduled to be held in Zurich on 6 November. The RSI internal regional selection will be held on Monday 9 November, hereafter its 3 candidates will be announced.
At the live audition 10 candidates from SRF/RTR will meet 6 acts selected by RTS and 3 acts selected by RSI. All 19 acts will showcase their talent enfront of an expert jury. The expert jury will select 6 candidates for the next phase ( 3 from SRF/RTR, 2 from RTS and 1 from RSI).
The 2016 Swiss national final is scheduled to be held on Saturday 13 February at Kreuzlingen where a total of 6 acts ( 3 SRF/RTR , 2 RTS and 1 RSI) will battle for the golden ticket to Stockholm. The 2016 Swiss Eurovision entry will be determined via a 50/50 jury televoting deliberation.
In 2014 Switzerland opted for a national selection in order to select its Eurovision entry for Vienna. Melanie Rene represented Switzerland at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest with her entry Time to shine. Despite an extraordinary performance she failed to qualify to the grand final.
The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 10, 12 and 14 May at the Globe Ericsson Arena in Stockholm.
Switzerland is one of the founder countries of the Eurovision Song Contest and it is the country that hosted the very first edition of the competition in 1956. The Swiss have the won the event twice; in 1956 with Lys Assia and in 1988 with Celine Dion.
