Switzerland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 with the song "Hunter of Stars" written and performed by Sebalter, which is the artistic name of singer Sebastiano Paù-Lessi. The Swiss entry for the 2014 contest in Copenhagen, Denmark was selected through the national final Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2014, organised by the Swiss German speaking broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) in collaboration with the other broadcasters part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). Artists that were interested in entering the Swiss national final had the opportunity to apply to one of three open selections with defined submission periods organised by SRF together with the Swiss-Romansh broadcaster Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha (RTR), the Swiss-French broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and/or the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). A total of 18 entries were selected to advance to an "Expert Check" round; nine entries were selected from the SRF/RTR selection, six entries were selected from the RTS selection and three entries were selected from the RSI selection. The "Expert Check" was held on 30 November 2013 and involved three/four experts evaluating the live performances of the 18 entries and selecting six entries to advance to the televised national final—three artists and songs from the SRF/RTR candidates, two from the RTS candidates and one from the RSI candidates. The six finalists performed during the national final on 1 February 2014 where a combination of jury voting and public voting ultimately selected "Hunter of Stars" performed by Sebalter as the winner.

Switzerland was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 8 May 2014. Performing during the show in position 12, "Hunter of Stars" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 12 May. It was later revealed that Switzerland placed fourth out of the 15 participating countries in the semi-final with 92 points. In the final, Switzerland performed in position 19 and placed thirteenth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 64 points.

Background

Prior to the 2014 contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-four times since its first entry in 1956. Switzerland is noted for having won the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Refrain" performed by Lys Assia. Their second and, to this point, most recent victory was achieved in 1988 when Canadian singer Céline Dion won the contest with the song "Ne partez pas sans moi". Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Switzerland had managed to participate in the final three 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, the nation 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 once out of the last three years. In 2013, Takasa and their song "You and Me" failed to qualify Switzerland to the final placing 13th in their semi-final.

The Swiss national broadcaster, Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR), broadcasts the event within Switzerland and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. SRG SSR confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest on 17 July 2013. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Swiss entry for the 2014 contest would be selected through a national final. Switzerland has selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections in the past. Between 2005 and 2010, the Swiss entry was internally selected for the competition. Since 2011, the broadcaster has opted to organize a national final in order to select their entry.

Before Eurovision

Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2014

Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2014 was the fourth edition of the Swiss national final format that selected Switzerland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2014. The national final was a collaboration between four broadcasters in Switzerland: the Swiss-German broadcaster Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF), the Swiss-French broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI) and the Swiss-Romansh broadcaster Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha (RTR). The show took place on 1 February 2014 at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney and was televised on SRF 1, RSI La 2 with Italian commentary by Sandy Altermatt and Ale Bertoglio, and RTS Deux with French commentary by Valérie Ogier and Jean-Marc Richard. The competition was also streamed online at the respective official website of each Swiss broadcaster as well as at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.

Selection process 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 included SRF/RTR, RTS and RSI each conducting varying selections in order to determine the candidates they submitted for the second stage of the competition. SRF/RTR submitted nine candidates, RTS submitted six candidates and RSI submitted three candidates. The second stage was the Expert Check live audition, where the 18 selected candidates performed the songs that qualified from their respective broadcaster selections. A jury panel selected three artists and songs to qualify from the SRF/RTR selection, two from the RTS selection and one from the RSI selection. The six artists and songs proceed to the third stage, the televised national final, where the winning artist and song was selected to represent Switzerland in Copenhagen.

The SRF/RTR selection involved an online internet voting platform where interested artists could submit their songs and have them listed for public listening. The platform accepted entries between 30 September 2013 and 28 October 2013. 159 entries were submitted following the submission deadline, including entries from 2006 Cypriot entrant Annet Artani and 2011 Croatian entrant Daria Kinzer. Internet users had between 4 and 18 November 2013 to vote for their favourite entries and their votes were combined with the votes from an expert jury. On 22 November 2013, the top nine entries for the "Expert Check" were announced. The RTS selection involved interested artists submitting their entries to the broadcaster between 30 September 2013 and 28 October 2013. At the close of the deadline, 34 entries were received. The entries were evaluated from 4 to 18 November 2013 by the votes from internet users (50%) and the votes of an expert jury (50%), and the top six entries that proceeded to the "Expert Check" were announced on 21 November 2013. RSI opened a submission period between 21 July 2013 and 28 October 2013 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries. Originally, a seven-song regional final, including a wildcard entry from the winner of the singing competition Fattore Voce 2013 Agata Pelloni, would have been broadcast via radio on RSI Rete Tre from Lugano. However, the broadcaster opted to suspend the selection and extend the submission deadline to 28 October 2013. On 13 November 2013, a jury panel consisting of 2008 Swiss contest entrant Paolo Meneguzzi, Ramona Cerutti and Igor Negrini evaluated the 23 entry submissions received and selected the three candidates that proceeded to the "Expert Check".

Expert Check The "Expert Check" of the nineteen selected candidates was webcast from SRF studios in Zürich on 30 November 2013 and was hosted by Sven Epiney. The candidates performed their songs in front of an expert panel which assessed the performers on criteria such as live performance skills, voice quality and stage presence. The expert panel consisted of two permanent judges and representatives of the four Swiss broadcasters that only judged the candidates from their respective selections. The permanent judges were choreographer Rafael Antonio and vocal coach Freda Goodlett, while the broadcaster representatives were the director of strategic marketing at Universal Music Switzerland Moritz Faccin (representative of SRF/RTR), the director of Option Musique Catherine Colombara (representative of RTS), RTS entertainment production manager Emile Felber (representative of RTS) and musician Nicola Locarnini (representative of RSI). Three artists and songs qualified from the SRF/RTR selection, two from the RTS selection and one from the RSI selection. +Expert Check30 November 2013Channel ArtistSongSongwriter(s)ResultSRF/RTR 1Yasmina Hunzinger"I Still Believe"Marin Subasic, Sven Welter Advanced 23 for All"Together Forever"Domenico Livrano, Ricardo Sanz, Lars van Everdingen, Rick Laine Advanced 3Swissters"Celebration"Eve Kay, Carole Kay RTS 4Lola Sparkes"Baby Can't You See"A-S Dubey, Chris Bovet 5Christian Tschanz"Au paradis"Christian Tschanz Advanced 6Tanita"Another Day Alone"Alex Tsikouras 7Natacha and Stéphanie"Une terre sans vous"Alizé Oswald, Xavier MichelAdvanced 8Paula Marengo"J'ai envie de toi"Paula Marengo, Juan Carlos Lax 9Joel Murner"In My Life"Joel MurnerEliminatedRSI 10Jasmine"Higher Love"Jasmin Pearl, Arizona Stoneheart 11Sebalter"Hunter of Stars"Sebastiano Paù-Lessi Advanced 12Valentino Alfano"103 parole"Valentino Alfano SRF/RTR 13Gosia"I'm Not Afraid"Andrei K. Leon, Andres Fresko, Artur Kamiński, Małgorzata Andrzejewicz, Chris Stowe 14Nino Colonna"La luce del cuore"Nino Colonna Advanced 15Arxplendida"Mercurii diei"Pascal Föhr 16Hot Connection"Music From the Sixties"Roland Stucki 17One Day Remains"Alpha"Claudio Rodriguez, Matthias Hillebrand-Gonzalez, Pedro Rodrigues, Samuel Berger 18Martin Kirchberger"Yourope"Martin Kirchberger Final The final took place on 1 February 2014. The show consisted of two parts: in the first part the six candidate songs in contention to represent Switzerland were performed and in the second part each artist performed a cover version of a song of their choice. The combination of televoting (50%) and the votes of an expert jury (50%) selected "Hunter of Stars" performed by Sebalter as the winner. The jury consisted of Luisa Rossi (actress), Igor Negrini (lead singer for Swiss band The Flag), Stefan Büsser (presenter), Catherine Colombara (director of Option Musique), Thierry Romanens (singer-songwriter), Pele Loriano (musician), Tamara Steffen (music editor Radio SRF 3), Tanja Dankner (vocal coach), René Spescha (production manager RTR) and Dominik Flaschka (director). In addition to the performances from the competing artists, Danish Eurovision Song Contest 2013 winner Emmelie de Forest performed "Only Teardrops" as the interval act. + Final1 February 2014 Artist Song Song Place 1 Christian Tschanz "Au paradis" 7"Aux Champs-Élysées" 4 2 3 for All "Together Forever" 8"All For Love" 3 3 Nino Colonna "La luce del cuore" 9"L'Italiano" 5 4 Yasmina Hunzinger "I Still Believe" 10"Heavy on My Heart" 2 5 Natacha and Stéphanie "Une terre sans vous" 11"Papaoutai" 6 6 Sebalter "Hunter of Stars" 12"Wake Me Up" 1

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