Song for the Origin

**Song for the Origin** is a song competition organised by Czech public broadcaster Česká televize (ČT). It is exclusively used as the selection method of the Czech Republic for The Origin Song Contest. Despite the fact the festival has been launched only recently, it has already produced two placings inside the top 10 for the Czech Republic, including a 4th and a 7th place, as well as one finish just outside of the top 10 at 11th place.

## Background

After a return in the fifth edition and a twelfth place finish, the Czech broadcaster ČT decided to organise a national selection with the intention to further improve the country's results in the contest and maintain the 100% qualification streak to the finals.

## Format

The format of the competition is usually consistent, with slight adjustments depending on the interest in the show as well as on other factors.

## Selection of contestants

### Song selection

After the results of the previous TOSC final are announced, the song submission period opens. The submission period's length varies, but usually lasts around one month. The submission process is overseen by the Head of Delegation (HoD), whose task is to reduce the number of songs. The HoD's choices are then sent to the OBU reference group to ensure that the entries are not in breach with the contest's rules. If an entry is found to break a rule, it is disqualified and a substitute song may be chosen.

### Artists

Due to the specific selection format and the desire of the delegation different artists to take part in the selection, it is a rare occurrence for a singer to participate more than once. However, some of the more notable examples of returning artists include previous winner Viah and Vesna as well as Tereza Mašková, who took part in Song for the Origin 02 having hosted the previous edition.

### Languages

Since there are no restrictions regarding the language of the entries, the songs can be performed in any language. As of the third edition six languages have appeared on the Song for the Origin stage, with English being the most popular one with 19 appearances. The first bilingual song in the history of the festival was Leto s Monikou's "Dobrú noc" in the third edition, containing lyrics in Slovak and German.

 10
 Turkish

## Hosting

Every edition so far the event has been hosted in the O2 Arena in Prague with capacity of 18,000 people.

## Voting

To ensure that the chosen entry will be received well at the contest, a number of international juries are invited to vote alongside the nation's televote, with the juries and the televote having equal weighing in the final result. The jury panel is selected prior to the song announcement based on a number of different criteria. In the first edition, the juries voted by awarding 12, 8, 5, 3 and 2 points, while in the second it was changed to 12, 8, 6, 4, 3 and 2 points following the increase of the number of songs to 6.

After the jury voting, the public voting is revealed by the hosts. In the first edition, it was announced in ascending order; however, since the second edition the results were annouunced in the order of the jury ranking. In the first two editions, the televoting points were given to each entry based on its percentage of the total vote. For example, if an entry received 10% of the public vote under the voting system in the second edition, it would be equivalent to 10% of 280 points, meaning it would receive 28 points.

For the third edition, the Czech broadcaster announced that there will be major changes in the voting, some of which are increasing the amount of international juries in the jury panel, introducing a more consistent voting system as well as changes in how the televoting results are calculated.

On 16th February 2020, it was revealed that from now on the juries will award 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 points to their seven favourite acts. Almost a month later, on 13th March, it was announced that the Czech Republic will be now divided in voting regions, with each giving 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 points to the seven songs with the most votes. The last voting spot is designated for the Czech diaspora around the world. The amount of regions will be determined every edition, depending on the amount of juries so that both sets of votes have equal influence on the final result.

## Winners

Here is a list of all winners of Song for the Origin and their results at The Origin Song Contest.

## References

1. ↑ One of the songs listed as performed in Czech was actually performed in the South Moravian dialect of the Czech language; however, it is not considered to be a separate language