The 3 broadcasters in Switzerland (SRF, RTS and RSI) revealed today the full line up for the audition stage to take place in Zürich on the 9th of December. 3 songs from RTS, 2 from RTS and 1 from RSI will be selected for the final selection show on 13th of February.

As previously reported Switzerland has one of the more complicated selection formats you will find. There are three state broadcasters SRF, RTS and RSI which represents the three different communities of Switzerland. RTS and RSI selected internally the songs that will go to the second phase of the Swiss selection, however SRF held an online competition through a special platform they used on their website. That competition ended last week and today SRF announced the 10 songs that will represent them in the second phase. The other two broadcasters announced their candidates too.

The 19 candidates that will represent each broadcaster involved in the Swiss national selection for Eurovision 2016 are:

Representing SRF

Erica Arnold – Ich bin ich

Vincent Gross – Half A Smile

Samuel Tobias Klauser – Asking Me Why

Maika – The Reason

Platzhirsch – Holz vor dr Hütta

Rykka – The Last Of Our Kind

Stanley Miller – Feel The Love

Patric Scott – No Boundaries (feat. Abdullah Alhussainy)

Sunanda – Ooops!?!

Evelyn Zangger – Have A Little Faith In Me

Representing RTS

Bella C – Another World

Gina & Glasow – Left With An Idiot

Kaceo – Disque d’or

Loic Schumacher – Génération demain

Stephanie Palazzo – Perché mi guardi cosi?

Stephanie Sandoz – Flashback

Representing RSI

Nathalie Cadlini – Share Love

Elias – Elephant

Theo – Because Of You

The audition stage will be broadcast live from SRF on the 6th of December at 13:00 CET. An expert jury will decide the 6 acts that will fight for the right to fly the Swiss flag in the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, May next year.

Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest

Switzerland has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 56 times since making its debut at the first contest in 1956, missing only four contests, in 1995, 1999, 2001 and 2003. Switzerland hosted the first contest in 1956, and won it themselves with Lys Assia. Switzerland won the contest again in 1988 with Celine Dion.

All Swiss absences happened due to poor results in previous contests that relegated Switzerland from the contest. Switzerland has four official languages, French, German, Italian, and Romansh. For decades, the song requirements stated that the song had to be performed in a national language, which gave Switzerland more options as they could perform in any of the four languages. Out of their 55 appearances in the Contest, Switzerland has sent 52 songs, 24 of which were in French, 12 in German, nine in Italian, nine in English, and one in Romansh. Both of Switzerland’s winning songs have been sung in French.

This year at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Mélanie René with her song Time to Shine received only 4 points ending 17th out of 17 songs in the 2nd semi-final and failed to qualify to the Grand Final.

Below you can watch Mélanie René performing her song Time to Shine in the 2nd semi-final at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest: