National broadcaster Česka Televize (ČT) has revealed the results of the online voting during a live press conference: Lake Malawi is representing the Czech Republic at Eurovision 2019 with the song Friend of a friend!

Ladies and gentlemen, the votes are in! We now know who will follow in the footsteps of Mikolas Josef and his successful Eurovision 2018 entry Lie to me: representing the Czech Republic in Tel Aviv at Eurovision 2019 is:

Lake Malawi and the song Friend of a friend!

Who are Lake Malawi?

Lake Malawi is a indie pop band hailing from the Czech city of Třinec. The group consists of vocalist and guitarist Albert Černý, Jeroným Šubrt on bass and keyboards, and Antonín Hrabal on drums. The band was founded in 2013 and has released the extended play We are making love again (2015) and the album Surrounded by light (2017).

Now, Lake Malawi will bring their funky tune Friend of a friend to Eurovision 2019 stage in Tel Aviv!

The votes

The format Eurovision Song CZ was used to determine the Czech Republic’s Eurovision 2019 participant. 8 artists were shortlisted and the public had the opportunity to vote for their favourite entry, using the official Eurovision App, by 21 January.

Besides the voters from the Czech Republic themselves, alongside the international voters, a special Eurovision jury comprised out of 10 former Eurovision participants cast their vote. The international jurors and the “Douze Points” they gave were:

Austria: Cesár Sampson – Barbora Mochowa/True colors

Denmark: Rasmussen – Barbora Mochowa/True colors

Estonia: Elina Nechayeva – Lake Malawi/Friend of a friend

France: Alma – Barbora Mochowa/True colors

Hungary: AWS – Andrea Holá/Give me a hint

Iceland: Ari Ólafsson – Lake Malawi/Friend of a friend

Ireland: Ryan O’Shaughnessy – Lake Malawi/Friend of a friend

Malta: Ira Losco – Lake Malawi/Friend of a friend

Norway: JOWST – Lake Malawi/Friend of a friend

Switzerland: ZiBBZ – Barbora Mochowa/True colors

And the winner is…

The combined international jury votes plus the public voting have thus concluded that Lake Malawi and their song Friend of a friend is the winner of Eurovision Song CZ 2019!