The Slovak national broadcaster, RTVS, has sadly confirmed that Slovakia will not return to the Eurovision Song Contest. RTVS’s Press Spokesperson, Eríka Rusnáková, told eurocontest.cz:
“as decided by RTVS, Slovakia will not participate in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest”
The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will be the sixth contest in a row without Slovak participation.
History of Slovakia in Eurovision
The central European country has quite a poor track record when it comes to Eurovision. Slovakia debuted in 1994 and have participated on only seven occasions. Their best result to date was 18th in 1996 with Marcel Palonder and the song “Kým nás máš”. Between 1998 and 2009, Slovakia did not participate however in 2009, they returned with Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková. They only managed to achieve 18th place in their semi final and thus failed to qualify for the final.
In 2010, one of the Slovakia’s biggest pop stars, Kristína, represented her country and despite being among the favourites, she also failed to qualify and came 16th. Despite this, she still remains a big name in Slovakia and her entry is among the most watched ever on the official Eurovision YouTube channel.
Slovakia participated on two more occasions, in 2011 and 2012 respectively, however on both occasions also failed to make the grand final. Max Jason Mai, Slovakia’s 2012 representative, came last in Baku, giving the country their worst ever result ever. In 2013, RTVS withdrew and has not returned to the contest since blaming financial difficulties.
Are you disappointed Slovakia are not returning? What was your favourite Slovak entry? Do you think they will ever return to Eurovision? Let us know in the comments below!
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