Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020
Czech Republic originally planned participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song Kemama performed by Benny Cristo. Czech broadcaster Česká televize organised a national final in order to select the Czech entry for the 2020 contest in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
Prior to the 2020 Contest, the Czech Republic had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its first entry in. The nation competed in the contest on three consecutive occasions between 2007 and 2009 without qualifying to the final: in 2007 Kabát performing "Malá dáma" placed 28th in the semi-final achieving only one point, in 2008 Tereza Kerndlová performing "Have Some Fun" placed 18th in her semi-final scoring nine points, in 2009 Gipsy.cz performing the song "Aven Romale" placed 18th in their semi-final failing to score any points. The Czech broadcaster withdrew from the contest between 2010 and 2014 citing reasons such as low viewing figures and poor results for their absence. In 2015, the Czech Republic returned to the contest and once again failed to qualify to the final with the song "Hope Never Dies" performed by Marta Jandová and Václav Noid Bárta, placing 13th in their semi-final with 33 points. In 2016, the Czech Republic was represented by Gabriela Gunčíková and the song "I Stand". The country qualified for the final and placed 25th out of 26 entries. This marked the first qualification to the final for the Czech Republic since they debuted in the contest in 2007. In 2018, the Czech Republic was represented by Mikolas Josef with the song "Lie to Me". The song finished in sixth place with 281 points, achieving their highest finish in the contest and their first appearance in the top ten. In 2019, the Czech Republic was represented by Lake Malawi with the song "Friend of a Friend". The song placed on eleventh place with 157 points, achieving their second best result in the contest.Before Eurovision
''Eurovision Song CZ''
Eurovision Song CZ was the national selection process organised by ČT to select the Czech Republic's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The winner was revealed on 3 February 2020.Format
The winner was determined from among seven competing entries by the combination of votes from a public vote and a ten-member international jury panel. For the public vote, users were able to vote for the winner from 20 January 2020 to 2 February 2020 via the official Eurovision Song Contest app. Both international and Czech users were able to vote. International votes had the same weight as the international jurors. The international jury panel consisted of ten former Eurovision entrants.- Stig Rästa – represented in 2015 and wrote the 2016 and 2019 Estonian entries
- Zalagasper – represented in 2019
- KEiiNO – represented in 2019
- Kristian Kostov – represented in 2017
- Isaiah Firebrace – represented in 2017
- Sebastian Rejman – represented in 2019
- Miki Núñez – represented in 2019
- Kasia Moś – represented in 2017
- Michela Pace – represented in 2019
- Katerine Duska – represented in 2019
Competing entries
| Artist | Song | Songwriter |
| Barbora Mochowa | "White & Black Holes" | Barbora Mochowa, Viliam Béreš, Tereza Frantová |
| Benny Cristo | "Kemama" | Osama Verse-Atile, Ben Cristóvão, Charles Sarpong, Rudy Ray |
| Elis Mraz feat. Čis T | "Wanna Be Like" | Elis Mraz, Čis T |
| Karelll | "At Least We've Tried" | Karelll |
| Olga Lounová | "Dark Water" | Olga Lounová, Aleena Gibson, Trevor Muzzy, Ashley Dudokovich |
| Pam Rabbit | "Get Up" | Boris Carloff, Pamela Koky |
| We All Poop | "All the Blood " | Šimon Martínek, Michal Jiráň, Jakub Božek |
Final
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Czech Republic was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.In the Eurovision Song Celebration youtube broadcast in place of the heats, it was revealed that the song would have performed 6th, between San Marino and Serbia