Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

Prior to the 2017 contest, the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Switzerland fifty-seven times since its first entry in 1956.^[1] It won that first edition of the contest with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. Its second victory was achieved in 1988 with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi" performed by Canadian singer Céline Dion. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, it had managed to participate in the final four times up to this point. In 2005, the internal selection of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja, performing the song "Cool Vibes", qualified Switzerland to the final where they placed 8th. Due to their successful result in 2005, Switzerland was pre-qualified to compete directly in the final in 2006. Between 2007 and 2010, they failed to qualify to the final after a string of internal selections. Since opting to organize a national final from 2011 onwards, Switzerland has managed to qualify to the final twice out of the last six years. In 2016, "The Last of Our Kind" performed by Rykka earned one of the lowest results for Switzerland of all time, placing last in their semi-final earning only 2 points.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, SRG SSR organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2017 contest on 18 May 2016.^[2] On 15 June 2016, SRG SSR also announced that its entry for the 2017 contest would be selected through a national final.^[3][4] The broadcaster has selected its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections in the past. Between 2005 and 2010, the entry was internally selected for the competition. Since 2011, it has opted to organize a national final in order to select its entry.

ESC 2017 – die Entscheidungsshow was the seventh edition of the Swiss national final format organised by SRG SSR to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The show took place on 5 February 2017 at the SRF Studio 1 in Zürich, hosted by Sven Epiney and was televised on SRF zwei, RSI La 2 with Italian commentary by Clarissa Tami and Nicola Locarnini, and RTS Deux with French commentary by Nicolas Tanner and Jean-Marc Richard. The competition was also streamed online at the respective official website of each Swiss broadcaster.^[5][6][7]

The selection process took place in three stages before the finalists for the live show and ultimately the winner are selected. The first stage of the competition involved an online platform where all interested artists could submit their songs without having them listed for public listening. This saw the end to the individual broadcasters each conducting varying selections in order to determine the candidates for the competition. The second stage was a Live Check (formerly titled Expert Check) audition where shortlisted candidates performed the songs and a jury panel selected six artists and songs to proceed to the third stage, the televised national final, where the winning artist and song was selected to represent Switzerland in Kyiv. The jury panel involved in the selection were required to have the following member quotas representing the different language regions in Switzerland: 68% German/Romansh, 23% French and 9% Italian.^[3]

SRG SSR opened a submission period between 26 September 2016 and 24 October 2016 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries via an online platform. A new regulation underscored that the entries must have a link to Switzerland, meaning that at least one person (the performer, composer, or lyricist) were required to have a Swiss passport or be a resident in Switzerland.^[8] 160 entries were submitted following the submission deadline.^[9] A 19-member jury panel evaluated the received submissions between 31 October 2016 and 14 November 2016 and selected 21 candidates that proceeded to the "Live Check". The jury consisted of:^[10]

The "Live Check" took place on 4 December 2016 where the 21 selected candidates performed their songs in front of the jury panel which assessed the performers on criteria such as live performance skills, voice quality and stage presence. The six artists and songs that qualified for the national final were announced on 5 December 2016.^[11]

The final took place on 5 February 2017. The six candidate songs in contention to represent Switzerland were performed and televoting solely selected "Apollo" performed by Timebelle as the winner. The singer Ginta presented for the first time on a Swiss television channel, an outstanding performance in Augmented Reality ^[12] In addition to the performances from the competing entries, Sebalter, who represented Switzerland in 2014, performed his song "Weeping Willow" as the interval act.^[13]

Timebelle made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Apollo" as the Swiss Eurovision entry. Between 3 and 6 April, Timebelle took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where they performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue.^[14][15] On 8 April, Timebelle performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.^[16] On 15 April, Timebelle performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.^[17]