Over a year on since taking their position as Director General of RTVS, Ľuboš Machaj has gone on to discuss about Slovakia’s future at Eurovision.
Reiterating reports of a potential return in 2025
Speaking to Aktuality.sk about their time so far being the Director General for the broadcaster, Ľuboš Machaj was asked about Eurovision, and if they will be participation, but reiterated our previous report, that the country will not be participating, citing finances, and that if there are no issues in 2024, the country will enter the contest in 2025.
Not yet. We are to discuss it in the next few days. We are indeed one of the few countries that does not broadcast Eurovision. Finances are very demanding and so is the preparation. In 2024, we will declare that in another year – if everything goes without problems – we will enter Eurovision. We received relatively good offers for an entry. It wasn’t something that would put us off, but it wasn’t small money either.
On the same interview, Ľuboš Machaj talked about the country’s Eurovision selection, citing that the contest is a pan-European affair and that the country should be represented.
We also have to decide in what form we will select the Slovak participant. In 2011, Miro Šmajda represented us, saying that he came on television with the proposal that he would cover the costs because he had sponsors behind him. Eurovision is a pan-European affair and Slovakia should also be represented in it.
We have previously reported Slovakia’s aim to return to the competition, where a change in subsidizing the broadcasters budget went into effect on July 2023. Only time will tell if whether or not Slovakia will indeed return to the competition in 2025.
Slovakia’s Eurovision journey
Slovakia debuted at Eurovision in 1994, and achieved their best result two years later with Marcel Palonder’s “Kym nas mas”, which placed eighteenth.
After taking an extended break from the contest in the 2000s, Slovakia returned in 2009 to less success, failing to qualify for the final for four consecutive years before withdrawing again. Their final entry in 2012 was Max Jason Mai’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes”, which finished last in its semi-final. One of their best-remembered entries from this era is Kristina Pelakova’s “Horehronie”, which finished 16th in its semi-final in 2010 and is a regular fixture on the year-end ESC 250 chart.
Would you like to see Slovakia return in 2025? Do you think the funding changes will successfully send Slovakia back to Eurovision? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok as we start looking at Eurovision 2024!
News Source: Aktuality
Photo Credit: EBU
