Switzerland: National ESC 2016 selection kicks off .

SRF

The public broadcaster SRF has announced how the Swiss entry for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest will be chosen. Starting from September 28th, candidates will be able to upload their potential songs on an online platform.

As the this year’s selcetion, SRF jointly with Rumantsch-language broadcaster RTR invites candidates to upload video clips of their potential entries on the official Swiss online platform from September 28th until October 26th. After are voting from an expert Jury and online users 10 best acts will proceed to the next 2nd phase of the selection.

RTS

RTS, the Swiss French speaking broadcaster has invited artists wishing to compete at the RTS internal Eurovision 2016 selection to send in their entries and applications. RTS will once again select its 6 acts for the 2nd phase of the 2016 Swiss Eurovision national selection via an internal selection. The RTS internal selection is expected to be held by December

The Expert Check

The ten selected candidates from SRF will be joined by six candidates representing Swiss-French broadcaster RTS and three more chosen by Swiss-Italian broadcaster RSI. So a total of 19 acts will perform live in front of an expert team who will choose the six best ones. The EXPERT CHECK Live Audition is scheduled to be held on 6 December in Zurich.

The Final

The six finalists will present their respective entries as well as one additional cover version in a live show, to be broadcast from the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen on February 13th, 2016. The 2016 Swiss Eurovision entry will be selected via 50/50 jury-televoting deliberation.

Melanie Rene won the 2015 Swiss Eurovision national final and represented the Helvetic nation at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna with her entry Time to shine. Despite an extraordinary performance she failed to qualify to the grand final.