It’s Martina Barta’s turn to represent the Czech Republic in Kyiv this year, but she wasn’t the first in line to be the nation’s Eurovision hopeful. Jan Potměšil, České televize, said this week that Dasha was the broadcaster’s original choice, however her team did not wish for her to represent the nation – instead pointing them in the direction of Martina. “Originally, we were interested in Dasha”, Jan said, “But Martin Kumžák did not allow her to represent us, and so instead he introduced us to Martina. Originally I questioned who she was, but this is something I am ashamed of. After seeing her performances on YouTube, I was absolutely thrilled. I called Martina and invited her along to Czech television studios to record a demo version of the track. We tried the song with about five singers, but Martina Barta charmed us all with both her personality and voice. After speaking with Angličan Kyler Niko, the writer, we came to the decision that she was right for us”.
Speaking about why Czech television were unaware of her and why she is not well known in the country, Martina said that “one of the reasons I’m not well known in the Czech Republic is because I went to study in Berlin and have lived there since 2011. Recently I was able to successfully complete my studies at the Institute of Jazz in the city, but despite now having left – I still spend a lot of time in Berlin and split myself between there and Prague”.
Martina hopes to repeat the success of Gabriele Gunčíkové who last year took the Czech Republic to their first ever Eurovision Song Contest final. On stage she will appear alone, but it’s clear that the performance will be far from straight forward. Janem Borsem, the Czech Republic’s head of delegation, said that “before she performs in her semi final, there will be two extremely challenging tests. Everything now depends on the competency of the Ukrainian team and whether they are able to realise our vision on stage.
[tw-accordion class=””] [tw-accordion-section title=”The Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest”] The Czech Republic debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007 with the band Kabát and the song “Malá dáma”, they finished last in the semi-final scoring just 1 point from Estonia. The country went on to participate for a further two years before withdrawing from the contest after the 2009 edition in Moscow where Gipsy.cz scored nul points. In 2016 the Czech Republic qualified for their first final, Gabriela Guncikova finished 25th in the final with the song “I Stand”.[/tw-accordion-section] [/tw-accordion]
Our HoD’s name is Jan Bors, not Janem Borsem. There’s such a thing as declination in the Czech language .