Five songs have made it through to the final round of the Swiss selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
A total of 420 songs were received by German language broadcaster SRF, with RTS and RSI opting to add wildcard entries into the selection process. All of the songs were listened to by a combination of public jury and international expert jury. These songs have now been whittled down to just five.
Selection update: The audience and expert juries have selected ✅ the Top 5 songs, which are now being tested by music producers with various artists ????. Then a next jury evaluation follows. The entry for #Switzerland will be announced in March. #ESC2019 #srfESC @SRF @Eurovision pic.twitter.com/4dao6PaFDT
— SRF ESC (@srfesc) November 16, 2018
These songs will be tested by music producers and various artists, who will then face the jury for further evaluation. The final entry for the contest will be revealed in March.
This is the first time since 2010 that Switzerland have opted to internally select their Eurovision entry. At the 2018 contest, the country was represented by Zibbz with their song “Stones”. They failed to qualify to the final, placing 13th in their respective semi-final.
Source: SRF
Switzerland hosted the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 a contest that they won. Lys Assia won the first contest with the song “Refrain”, it wasn’t until 1988 that Switzerland would win the contest again. At the contest in Dublin, it was Celine Dion with “Ne partez pas sans moi” who beat the United Kingdom to victory by just 1 point. In recent years Switzerland has finished last five times since 2004. In the past four years, Switzerland has failed to reach the final.
