The Czech Republic is organising a national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time in a decade and today the six finalists were revealed.

More than four hundred songs by various producers, performers and bands from all over the world were submitted for the national selection. You can read more about the process here.

The finalists

Eddie Stoilow - We Rule This World

Pavel Callta - Never Forget

DOCTOR VICTOR - Stand Up

Mikolas Josef - Lie To Me

Eva Burešová - Fly

Debbi - High On Love

Eddie Stoilow

Even as a little boy, Jan Žampa, the frontman of the Eddie Stoilow band, was interested in music. His father, who played and sang with Miky Volek, Schelinger, and other Czech Big Beat greats, spent evenings teaching him to play guitar. He went to music school, but got expelled for doing everything purely by ear and not by reading notation, which was not allowed. Jan set out on his own at 16 and played his first concert in Malta, where he was attending boarding school between 1991 and 1998. After his return from Malta he was a guest beatboxer in the band Ian Sen, where he immediately took the place of their lead singer, after filling in for her with his excellent voice in flawless English. He never parted company with that band and has been its frontman for over fifteen years.

In that time, apart from minor member changes, the band also changed its name to Eddie Stoilow, which, according to the actor Bob Klepl, is supposedly Armenian for ‘Cosmonaut’. Apart from his role in Eddie Stoilow, Jan Žampa also composes film music, writes music for many other musicians and is often invited to sing the Czech national anthem at numerous major events. For more info about the band visit their website

Pavel Callta

Pavel’s family is musical to the core; his mum was a great singer, and it seems every member of the family plays some instrument or other. Pavel started out on the piano, but soon moved on to the trumpet and then the guitar which he is now inexorably linked. After a stint in competitive swimming, which he did for many years, he returned to making music in 2008 as a member of the Prague ska-reggae band Unity. He then went on to be the frontman of the melodic pop-rock band Sweeper.

In 2011 Pavel reached the semi-finals in Czecho-Slovakia’s Got Talent, which was followed by his debut Christmas single In The Stars which received more than a million views on YouTube. The launch of his début album was marred by a family tragedy; the death of his father. The album was a released a year later, under the name Moments. This year, Pavel will be launching his second album, Touches. For more info about Pavel visit his website.

DOCTOR VICTOR

The three-member rock band DOCTOR VICTOR has been together since 2012 and are known for their unmistakable sound and especially the show they put on with their frontman Victor, full of unbridled power. The band is inspired by blues-rock, mostly from the turn of 1960s and 70s. Victor dreamt of starting a band even as a boy, playing his guitar every day and everywhere he possibly could. As a kid, he used to mimick his prime idol – Angus Young, the founder and guitarist of the world-famous group AC/DC.

Victor is a graduate of the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory and also holds a prestigious scholarship at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Recently Victor was the warm-up act for AC/DC at their Prague concert as part of the Rock or Bust Tour, beating other Czech bands. Victor is a complete teetotaller, abstaining from drugs, smoking and alcohol, too. His only high is his music. For more information check out the band's website.

Mikolas Josef

Mikolas Josef is a composer, producer, singer, multi-instrumentalist and director of music videos and grew up in Prague and Znojmo. He now lives mainly in Vienna. He comes from a musical family and has been playing the guitar since he was five. Mikolas graduated from The English College in Prague, and although his study grades were good enough for him to go on to prestigious UK Colleges, he opted not to keep studying, but to get on with his musical career.

Aged 17, Mikolas won a gold medal with distinction for acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Just before embarking on his musical career, he spent a year working as an international model, for major global fashion brands. After a year of travelling he invested his savings in his creative work, which in 2015 resulted in his first single and video-clip Hands Bloody. His single Believe held the top slot of the most prestigious Czech hit parade, the Evropa 2 music chart, for three weeks. For more information visit his website.

Eva Burešová

Eva was introduced to music by her parents, who are both musicians. From eight years old, she studied opera singing with Sylvie Pivovarčíková and at 14 won two main junior operatic roles, in the Opera ‘Carousel’ at the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre. A year later, she moved to Prague, where she embarked on her studies at the Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory, majoring in Musicals.

In 2011, Eva became better known to viewers through Czecho-Slovakia’s Got Talent, where she reached the finals. Since then, Eva has been unmissable in many major Czech musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar (as Mary Magdalene), Dracula (as Adriana/Sandra, Lorraine), Cyrano (as Roxanne) and many others. In addition to her roles in musicals, she appears in several television series. This year marks the launch of Eva’s first solo album. For more information about Eva visit her Facebook page.

Debbi

Debbi, real name Deborah Kahl, is a singer of German extraction. Aged 10, she moved from Dortmund to Prague. Aged 17, the singer first appeared in the first series of Czecho-Slovak Superstar, where she performed as Debbi Kahlová. She lost in the semi-finals, but had already caught the attention of producer Martin Ledvina and soon began putting together her first album.

Debbi had her first major hit in 2011 with the song Touch The Sun which became the most played song of that year on the Czech airwaves. She also won the prestigious Angel Award before scoring another hit with La La. She has released several albums, the most recent, Break, in 2017. For more information about Debbi visit her website.