Czech+Republic

Gipsy.cz is a Romano Hip Hop band from Prague. Gipsy.cz has only been around for about three years, but in that short time they have become possibly the most famous musical group in Czech Republic. They have played at several well known clubs and have traveled to 15 countries.
 * Biography:**

In the performance video on the [|Eurovision website] there are 6 members playing in the band. The lead singer of Gipsy.cz is Radoslav Banga, a Romani singer, musician, and rapper who has been performing since he was only 13 years old. The band also includes Vojta Lavicka, a violinist and vocalist. The band's[| Myspace page] also lists Jan Surmaj as a guitar and accordion player and Petr Surmaj as a bass player. One of the reasons this band is great is because of their live performances. They are active on stage and they always manage to make their performances humorous and enjoyable. As shown in the video on the Eurovision website, they like to dress up and express their enthusiasm with humorous facial expressions and gestures towards each other.

Gipsy.cz's song entry, "Aven Romale" is composed by the singer and leader, Radoslav "Gipsy" Banga. This song describes the person, Gipsy, and compares himself to the gypsy people. "Aven Romale" is sung in both English and Czech, which is commonly referred to as Romani. Not surprisingly, this is the native language of the Gypsy people. Gipsy.cz's popularity has only been growing over the past few years, which makes them a fan favorite for the Czech Republic. The song is very strange and theatrical with Gipsy's superhero-like costume and animated personality. They have an interesting instrumental lineup consisting of two violins, acoustic and electric guitars, drums, and a piano. It is played at a frantic off-beat pace, which works well with the structural design of the group. There is more pop influences than hip hop (although those might go hand in hand today), but every once in a while, Radoslav has a brief and embarrassing rap routine before going back into the chorus. Additionally, the instruments are played with a local flavor, a style commonly known as gypsy. In total, it might be called a hip hop jig with a certain sense of sarcastic humor. media type="youtube" key="KHm5tG6IYwI" height="344" width="425"
 * Song Information:**

Due to poor performance in the last two Eurovision competitions it was rumored that the Czech Republic would not be competing in the 2009 competition, but they have now confirmed that they will enter the competition. The competitor for this year's competition was selected internally by Ceska Televize, the Czech broadcaster, rather than in the national competition, Eurosong, which was used to select the competitors for the last two years. The broadcaster eventually selected Gipsy.cz which had made it to the finals in both of the previous national competitions.
 * Narrative of the Entry:**

There were two songs that were selected to potentially be used in the competition, "Aven Romale" and "Do You Wanna." It was left up to a Czech audience to select which song would be used. The winning song, "Aven Romale," was revealed on March 21 at the Andel Music Awards.

The Czech Republic made its debut at the Eurovision Contest in 2007. The first two years competition for this country resulted in utter failure with a last place finish in 2007 (28th place) and another terrible, second to last place finish (18th place) in 2008. In 2007, the band that competed in the Eurovision concert for that year was a band called Kabat, and they played a song called “Mala Dama.” In 2008, the band that performed was called Tereza Kerndlova and they performed the song “Have Some Fun.” Although the Czech Republic clearly did not do well in past years, they still are actively competing in this world-renowned competition.
 * Country's Eurovision History:**

In 2007 Kabat debuted in the semi finals of the Eurovision contest. This took place at the Hartwell Arena on Thursday May 10th, 2007. There were 28 contestants this time around. In 2008, the band Tereza Kerndlova performed at the Belgrade Arena in Serbia on Thursday May 22, 2008. There were 19 performers in the second semi finals of this event and the only country that the Czech Republic beat was Hungary.

According to [|Wikipedia], the contestants initially tried to enter during 2005 but were unable to due to certain complications with two large events that same year. They also tried to re-enter in 2006, but were unable to then because one of their candidates had to enter during the semi-finals and was not certain if that would get them qualified for the finals. Nonetheless, even though the Czech Republic has done poorly in the past, they are new competitors to this competition and continue to show potential to be one of the top performers in this year's competition.

Unfortunately, Czech Republic has been dropped out of the second round of semi-finals. In the video below the performance they displayed was played out really well, and the audience responded positively to their performance. It is kind of surprising that Czech Republic did not make it to the Finals after that performance. The performance played at the semi-finals seemed a lot more lively than their first one. The only reason that they were not able to make it to the Finals is that if the judges were not particularly appealed to that type of music genre. It is a shame that they were not able to continue because the band did have great potential, and their style of playing seemed as though it would be popular among similar fields of genre. The only thing that seemed to drag their style down was the fact that most of their performances relied heavily on live energetic shows, and flashy costumes to amuse the audiences.
 * Semi-Finals:**

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