Czech Republic in Eurovision
The Czech Republic made their Eurovision debut in 2007 and has since competed 10 times. They withdrew from the contest in 2010 but returned in 2015 and have competed in every year since.
Only three of their artists have ever made the Final and they are yet to win the contest. Their best ever result was 2018's 'Lie To Me' by Mikolas Josef, which finished in 6th place.
2022 Entry: We Are Domi - 'Lights Off'
Semi-Final: Czech Republic has been drawn in 18th in semi-final 2 and will close the show
My Eurovision Scoreboard fan ranking: 14th of 40 entries
Odds to win ranking: 33rd out of 40 entries
(Rankings as of 3 April 2022)
About the artists
We Are Domi is made up of Czech vocalist Dominika Hašková and Norwegians Casper Hatlestad on guitar and Benjamin Rekstad on keyboard. Dominika is the daughter of famous Czech ice hockey player Dominik Hašek, who played in the NHL and represented the Czech Republic at Olympic level.
The trio formed in 2016 while all were students at the Leeds College of Music in the United Kingdom. Originally Dominika asked the boys to join her for a music recital as part of her studies, but they decided to continue on after realising they were making some "pretty cool music together".
The group released the first of four singles in 2018 but Casper and Benjamin were both part of other bands at the time. It wasn't until COVID hit and the group were forced to share a house that they decided to focus all their energy on We Are Domi and considered entering the Czech national final for Eurovision. The group told The Euro Trip Eurovision Podcast:
"We did a split gig with Lake Malawi (2019 Czech Republic Eurovision representatives) and they talked about the whole experience and they were like 'you guys should definitely go for it...' and they talked about how much fun it was and I think since that day we were like 'yeah we wanna do it!'"
About the song
'Lights Off' was written by the group at a Czech songwriting camp in conjunction with Norwegian producer Einar Eriksen Kvaløy and English songwriter Abi F Jones. The trio did not attend the camp specifically to write a Eurovision song, it was more their way of connecting with the Czech music community after moving there from the United Kingdom after graduating.
In an interview with Aussievision the group revealed the song was created on the first day of the song writing camp. They wrote the skeleton of the song in three hours. The group wont reveal the actual meaning behind the song, as Domi mentions in the interview "I kind of like keeping that to myself", leaving it as a mystery. Though the group do share that the song is a call out for help to someone that is really close, but kind of far, and you try and pick yourself up from a difficult situation.
How they were chosen for Eurovision
Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) organised the national final 'Eurovision Song CZ 2022' which was held entirely online. Each of the seven artists recorded a live performance of their song which were available to view and vote for online. Following the combination of votes from a twelve-member international jury panel, an international public vote and a Czech public vote, 'Lights Off' by We Are Domi was announced live online as the winner on December 16, 2021.
Our interview with We Are Domi
Aussievision review and rank podcast episode
Apple
Spotify
Or wherever you get your podcast.
Czech Republic will compete in semi-final 2 on May 12 (European time) in Turin.