Vesna were far and away the winners of their national final, ESCZ, with their song ‘My Sister’s Crown’. As Czechia‘s representatives, they will be hoping for similar success in Liverpool in May.
Read on to find out all you need to know about Vesna and their journey to Eurovision 2023!
Who Are Vesna?
Vesna formed in 2016 when frontwoman Patricie Fuxová, who had already enjoyed some success in Czechia as a pop singer and songwriter, decided to head in a new musical direction, wishing to create an all-female band that celebrated femininity and Slavic sisterhood. Besides Patricie, the current line-up of Vesna also consists of Bára Šůstková, Olesya Ochepovská, Markéta Vedralová, Tereza Čepková and Tanita Yankovová.
Although the band are often considered part of the folk music genre, this is something Patricie has refuted in an interview with Czech publication iDNES: “I don’t see what we do with Vesna as folklore, they are not folk songs. For me, these are songs that work with those archetypes.” Indeed, the band include elements of other genres in their music, such as hip-hop, which also features in ‘My Sister’s Crown’.
The band have released two studio albums: ‘Pátá bohynÄ›’ (in English: ‘The Fifth Goddess’) was released in 2018 and was launched through a fairytale-inspired concert which saw the band joined by the Prague Symphony Orchestra. It was nominated for the prestigious Czech music AndÄ›l Award for ‘Discovery of the Year’. Their 2020 follow-up ‘Anima’ centred around animal motifs and themes such as the relationship between men and women, and the female body.
The Road to Eurovision
Czechia have been using some form of a national selection since 2018, only taking a break from this in 2021 when they re-selected 2020’s Benny Cristo, who had not performed due to the cancellation of the contest as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, 2023 would see a marked change to ESCZ as it would be the first time in 15 years that Czechia used a live show to determine their Eurovision participant. The Czech delegation also did away with an international jury, as had been used in 2022. Instead, the winner would be decided entirely by televote, with 30% of the votes being given to Czech viewers and 70% to international fans.
Vesna performed fourth out of the five participants in ESCZ on 30th January 2023 and viewers were given one week to vote for their favourite act. Despite some concerns that there would be great discrepancies between the Czech and international votes, Vesna easily dominated both portions of the voting, receiving 3501 points from Czech viewers and 7083 points from international viewers. This gave them a 6368 point lead over second place act Pam Rabbit! You can watch their ESCZ performance below:
The song continues to centre around the band’s recurring themes of femininity and Slavic sisterhood, as well as gender equality, with members of the band telling ESC Bubble “you can have support from other people and [on the subject of] equality, it’s not just between women, but [everyone].” ‘My Sister’s Crown’ also features the most languages of any 2023 Eurovision entry, featuring a Ukrainian chorus and a rap section in Bulgarian from band member Tanita, as well as Czech and English. Speaking in the same interview with ESC Bubble, band members agreed that this could give them an advantage in the competition:
It’s very multi-national and Slavic-based […] and Vesna group is really all about Slavic themes and motifs so I think there is quite the advantage. It’s original!
Vesna, ESC Bubble
It has been confirmed that Zizoe Veselá, who worked on the costumes and choreography for the music video for ‘My Sister’s Crown’ and also choreographed ‘Lights Out’ by We Are Domi last year, will be in charge of the creative direction of the staging alongside band member Bára, who is usually responsible for the band’s visuals. This may give Vesna a further advantage, as many fans were struck by the aesthetics of the song’s music video and have commented positively on these. Matyáš Vorda and VÃt BÄ›lohradský, who served as the visual director and stage director last year respectively, will also be part of the Czech team this year.
Vesna will perform in the first semi-final on Tuesday 9th May in the thirteenth position, in between Azerbaijan‘s TuralTuranX with ‘Tell Me More’ and the Netherlands’ Mia Nicolai and Dion Cooper with their song ‘Burning Daylight’. With two slower-paced songs either side of them, could this present Vesna with another added advantage and allow them to qualify for the final on Saturday 13th May? Ultimately, we won’t know until Tuesday night but we certainly wish them the best of luck!
