Czeching Out! (aka an excuse for a dreadful pun headline…..)

Ah, summer. Don’t you just love it? Long days, short nights, family outings to the seaside, Pimms on the terrace (Eh? In whose world exactly? – Ed) and that time of year when we traditionally take a break from Eurovision Blog since there is usually bog all to report.

However we were shaken out of our seasonal stupor today with the shock news that the Czech Republic will not be returning to the Eurovision fold next year! Yup, after just three attempts at Eurovision glory, during which they amassed a grand total of, er, ten points (let’s see, that’s about 3.333333333333 points per contest), national broadcaster Czech Television has confirmed they won’t be back in 2010, citing a lack of public interest in the contest.

Thinking about it, you can’t really blame ‘em to be honest. They scored only one point – courtesy of the Estonians – for their debut effort in 2007, a less than impressive nine points for Tereza Kerndlova’s bouncy Have Some Fun in 2008, and this year their gipsy rap number Aven Romale (or as it’s known around Eurovision Blog’s way, a ‘misunderstood classic’) became the first semi-final  song for five years not to score any points at all. And given the energetic, quirky performance they put on, it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. By contrast, the Slovakians appear to rather like the fact they’re back in Eurovision and will be present and correct in Oslo next year (let’s just hope that they can come up with a better song next time).

So – is it true that the Czechs really have little interest in all things Eurovision or have they in fact done a spectacular flounce (a la Austria and Monaco) after failing to do well? We’ll probably never know, but it would be nice to think the door has been left open for a possible return at some point in the future. After all, Lithuania had a pretty inauspicious, nul-point flavoured debut and look at them now. Just look at ‘em! Er……