Czech Republic: Benny Cristo the country's hopeful at Eurovision 2021

Czech Republic: Benny Cristo the country's hopeful at Eurovision 2021
Wednesday, 13 May 2020

  • Czech Republic has confirmed that it will be sticking with its Eurovision 2020 representative as Benny Cristo will be the country's hopeful for Eurovision 2021.

    Czech Republic is joining the list of countries that will continue with the same act in Eurovision 2021 aftert this year's unprecedent cancellation. Benny Cristo will defend the Czech colors in Rotterdam at next year's edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. 

    After the Eurovision 2020 cancellation and EBU’s decision not to allow this year’s entries to compete in the 2021 edition, the countries are progressively unveiling their intentions and plans regarding next year's contest and whether they will stick with their ESC 2020 hopefuls or select new ones. 

    Once the Eurovision song contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic the question that arouse was what will happen with this year’s unlucky contestants that didn’t eventually were deprived the right to complete their Eurovision 2020 journey in Rotterdam. The EBU through a clear statement outruled the ESC 2020 songs ,by not allowing the  ESC 2020 entries to compete in 2021. Therefore the broadcasters were left to decide whether they will return with the same acts or not.

    Within this framework the Czech TV manager Lucie Kapounová explains:

    Benny won this year's National selection, but unfortunately did not have the opportunity to appear on the big stage of Eurovision, so we decided to address him as a representative for next year. However, we would like to let fans and viewers talk about which song would represent next year, because according to the rules it cannot be "Kemama". We will keep the public informed in a timely and continuous manner.

    Benny Cristo himself stated:

    I am very happy that Czech television has given me the opportunity to show what I have, even next year. I can promise all the fans and viewers that I will fully use the time I have because of the global events. You have something to look forward to.

     

    A FEW WORDS ABOUT CRISTO

    Ben Cristovao , Portuguese Ben da Silva Cristóvão (born  June 8, 1987 in Pilsen ) aka Benny Cristo,  is a Czech singer , songwriter , actor , athlete and songwriter. His mother comes from the Czech Republic, biological father from Angola . His younger sister is stand-up comedian Bianca Cristovao.

    In 2009 he was a finalist of the Czech Slovak Superstar talent contest , where he finished 7th. But few know that he originally wanted to dance there.His experience in this competition motivated him to further focus on his singing career. In 2010, he released his debut album Definitely Different , the most successful singles being Give Me Some More and Put It On Me . A year later ( 2011 ) released the second album Benny Cristo . The album contains a song with Monika Bagárová I want and hit Cheers . For example, he performed before the American electro-pop group Far East Movement and Cuban-American rapper Pitbull .

    In 2013 , Ben Cristovao and his video Bombs (directed by Tomáš Kasal) were nominated for the video clip of the year in the Czech Nightingale survey . This year, in addition to the single Bomby released the song Body and Stop . Ben Cristovao also (along with other musicians such as David Koller, Dan Barta, Michael Kocab, Vojta Dyk) participated in the project of Nikagda civic activity forgotten , which called for the 2013 elections and warned against the return of communists and inclinations to Russia.

    In 2013 he released his third album Made In Czechoslovakia . The album contains a total of 16 songs, including Bomby , Sweet Chilli , Instagram , Molly (feat. Ego) and Body (feat. Supa) . In 2015, Ben Cristovao performed in the sold-out Forum Karlín.

    In 2016 he was awarded the Czech Nightingale award in the Most Streamed Czech Song category. He did not receive the award personally and said that he did not want to be in the same room with the band Ortel, which is known for its xenophobic lyrics. This year he recorded the cover of David Koller's Nothing is Permanent . The song was released along with other songs by artists like Katarzia , Kato , Mucha , Vladimir 518 ) on David Koller's recording David Koller & Friends .

    In 2017 he released his latest album Poslední . This album did not come out on a classic CD, but fans could download it using a QR code on a T-shirt with special graphics. The main motif of the whole graphic was the painting Seagull in the sea, which was painted directly by Cristovao. The album comes from the song Program , for which it was made by Tomáš Kasal. In September 2017 Ben Cristovao performed a concert in Prague's Yellow Spa for 4000 people. The recording of several songs from this concert came out in video form via VR glasses.

    In 2018 Ben Cristovao performed at the Angel Music Awards with the song Legs , the guest was Jiří Korn . This year, together with Maria Čírová (produced by The Glowsticks ), he prepared the central song Padam for the Czech-Slovak dance film Backstage by Andrea Sedláčková . In the film, Ben Cristovao also plays the role of the jury of the dance competition. It also features Ivana Chýlková , Roman Luknár and Kryštof Hádek . In 2018, Ben Cristovao became a juror of the Czech Slovak Superstar talent contest .

     

     

    THE EUROVISION STORY SO FAR

    Czech Republic appeared for the first time in the Contest in 2007 with  Kabat. A a row of disappointing results the country withdrew in 2010 and didn’t return until 2016. In 2016 its returned was followed by a grand final qualification for the first time . The best result came for the country in 2018 with  Mikolas Josef who achieved a 6th placing in the Lisbon with his song και  Lie to me.

    Last year, Lake Malawi represented the country and finished 11th in the final . This was the country’s third qualification to the final . The outstanding element was the gap between the jury voting that placed the group 8th with 150 points while the public vote placed the Czech at the 24th place.

    This year Benny Cristo was selected to represent the country with his song "Kemama" but as this year's contest was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic his Eurovision 2020 journey remained incomplete.