Switzerland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Time to Shine" written and performed by Mélanie René. The Swiss entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria was selected through the national final ESC 2015 – die Entscheidungsshow, 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 7 December 2014 at SRF Studio 5 in Zürich and involved five 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 31 January 2015 where a combination of jury voting and public voting ultimately selected "Time to Shine" performed by Mélanie René as the winner.

Switzerland was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 21 May 2015. Performing during the show in position 14, "Time to Shine" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Switzerland placed seventeenth (last) out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 4 points.

Background

Prior to the 2015 contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-five 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 four 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 twice out of the last four years. In 2014, Switzerland earned their highest result in the contest since 2005, qualifying to the final and placing 13th with the song "Hunter of Stars" performed by Sebalter.

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 2015 Eurovision Song Contest on 18 July 2014. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Swiss entry for the 2015 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

ESC 2015 – die Entscheidungsshow ESC 2015 – die Entscheidungsshow was the fifth edition of the Swiss national final format that selected Switzerland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. 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 31 January 2015 at the Bodensee Arena in Kreuzlingen, hosted by Sven Epiney and was televised on SRF 1, RSI La 2 with Italian commentary by Clarissa Tami and Paolo Meneguzzi, and RTS Deux with French commentary by Nicolas Tanner 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 Vienna.

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 29 September 2014 and 27 October 2014. 210 entries were submitted following the submission deadline, including an entry from 1999 French entrant Nayah. Internet users had between 3 and 17 December 2014 to vote for their favourite entries and their votes were combined with the votes from an expert jury. On 25 November 2014, the top nine entries for the "Expert Check" were announced. The RTS selection involved interested artists submitting their entries to the broadcaster between 9 September 2014 and 27 October 2014. At the close of the deadline, 26 entries were received. Ten of the entries were selected to perform live during a radio show on 23 November 2014 from the RTS Studio 15 in Lausanne, and a jury panel that consisted of Catherine Colombara, Laurent Pavia, Emile Felber and Nicolas Tanner selected the six candidates that proceeded to the "Expert Check". RSI opened a submission period between 16 July 2014 and 15 October 2014 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries. On 4 November 2014, a jury panel consisting of 2008 Swiss contest entrant Paolo Meneguzzi, Iris Moné and Simone Tomassini evaluated the 28 entry submissions received and selected the three candidates that proceeded to the "Expert Check".

Expert Check The "Expert Check" of the eighteen selected candidates was webcast from SRF Studio 5 in Zürich on 7 December 2014 and was hosted by Clarissa Tami. 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 choreographer Rafael Antonio (representative of SRF), vocal coach Freda Goodlet (representative of SRF), the director of strategic marketing at Universal Music Switzerland Moritz Faccin (representative of SRF), the director of Option Musique Catherine Colombara (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 Check7 December 2014Channel ArtistSongSongwriter(s)ResultSRF/RTR 1Bubble Beatz feat. Sandra Wild"Run" Christian Gschwend, Kay Rauber, Leander Bauer 2Simon Hafner"There Was a Yesterday" Simon Hafner 3San Dii"iMagination" Boris Tadić RTS 4Anach Cuan"Hurdy Gurdy Girls" Anach Cuan 5Célia"Letter to Myself" Célia Droz, Lise Cabble, Boe Larsen 6Alenko"Vu d'en haut" Alexandre Coppaloni, Christophe Calpini 7Licia Chery"Fly" Léticia AndrisAdvanced 8Mélanie René"Time to Shine" Mélanie René Advanced 9Shana Pearson"Kevlar Heart" Charlie Mason RSI 10The Vad Vuc"Cocktail e fantasmi" Daniele Cuffaro, Fabio Martino, Michele Carobbio 11Elias feat. Zero In On"Your Perfume" Elias Bertini, Mattia Stefanini, Camila Koller 12Deborah Bough"Take Me Back to 23" Deborah Bough AdvancedSRF/RTR 13Arbresha"Same Stars" Arbresha Latifaj 14Dahï"Destiny" Viktor Koston, Diana Speranza 15Timebelle"Singing About Love" Mihai Alexandru, Andrada Ioana Advanced 16Andy McSean"Hey Now" Andy Stadelmann Advanced 17Tiziana"Only Human" Jesse Singer, Nick Banns, Chris Soper, Will Knox, Shayna Zaid Advanced 18Thierry Condor"Open Heart Surgery" Urs Wiesendanger Final The final took place on 31 January 2015. 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 "Time to Shine" performed by Mélanie René as the winner. The jury consisted of Peter Ramón Baumann (Vice President of OGAE Switzerland), Lilly Behling (music editor for Die grössten Schweizer Talente), Dano Tamasy (music editor Radio SRF 3), Mark B. Lay (vocal coach), Grazia Covre (choreographer), Valérie Ogier (journalist/columnist), Nic Maeder (lead singer for Swiss band Gotthard), Sebalter (singer, Swiss Eurovision contestant in 2014), Simone Tomassini (singer) and Alice Bertogg (RTR television host; singer). In addition to the performances from the competing artists, Austrian Eurovision Song Contest 2014 winner Conchita Wurst performed "Rise Like a Phoenix" as the interval act. + Final31 January 2015 Artist Song Song Place 1 Deborah Bough "Take Me Back to 23" 7"Shake It Off" 6 2 Timebelle "Singing About Love" 8"Rude Boy" 2 3 Licia Chery "Fly" 9"All About That Bass" 3 4 Andy McSean "Hey Now" 10"Chasing Cars" 4 5 Mélanie René "Time to Shine" 11"Chandelier" 1 6 Tiziana "Only Human" 12"The Power of Love" 5

Promotion Mélanie René made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Time to Shine" as the Swiss Eurovision entry. On 17 April, René performed during the Eurovision PreParty Riga, which was organised by OGAE Latvia and held at the Palladium Concert Hall in Riga on 17 April. On 26 April, René performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French and Paddy O'Connell.

At Eurovision