Switzerland was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Unbreakable" written by Gabriel Broggini and Ivan Broggini. The song was performed by the duo Sinplus. The Swiss entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan was selected through the national final Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2012, organised by the Swiss German speaking broadcaster Schweizer Fernsehen (SF) and radio station DRS 3 in collaboration with the other broadcasters part of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR). SF, DRS 3, the Swiss-French broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI) each conducted varying selections and a total of fourteen entries were selected to advance to the televised national final—six artists and songs from the SF selection, three from the DRS 3 selection, three from the RTS selection and two from the RSI selection. The fourteen finalists performed during the national final on 10 December 2011 where public voting ultimately selected "Unbreakable" performed by Sinplus as the winner.
Switzerland was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 22 May 2012. Performing during the show in position 7, "Unbreakable" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Switzerland placed eleventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 45 points.
Background
Prior to the 2012 contest, Switzerland had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-two 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 three 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. After opting to organize a national final in 2011, Switzerland has managed to qualify to the final but placed last with the song "In Love for a While" performed by Anna Rossinelli.
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 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 May 2011. Along with their participation confirmation, the broadcaster also announced that the Swiss entry for the 2012 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. In 2011, the broadcaster has opted to organize a national final in order to select their entry.
Before Eurovision
Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2012
Die grosse Entscheidungs Show 2012 was the second edition of the Swiss national final format that selected Switzerland's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The national final was a collaboration between three broadcasters in Switzerland: the Swiss-German broadcaster Schweizer Fernsehen (SF) and radio station DRS 3, the radio station from SF DRS 3, the Swiss-French broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and the Swiss-Italian broadcaster Radiotelevisione svizzera (RSI). The show took place on 10 December 2011 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 broadcast via radio on DRS 3 and streamed online at SF's official website sf.tv.
Selection process The selection process took place in two stages before the finalists for the live show and ultimately the winner are selected. The first stage of the competition included SF, DRS 3, RTS and RSI each conducting varying selections in order to determine the candidates they submitted for the second stage of the competition. SF submitted six candidates, DRS 3 and RTS each submitted three candidates and RSI submitted two candidates. The fourteen artists and songs proceed to the second stage, the televised national final, where the winning artist and song was selected to represent Switzerland in Baku.
The SF 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 1 September 2011 and 30 September 2011. 221 entries were submitted following the submission deadline, including entries from Swiss 1956 Eurovision winner as well as 1957 and 1958 entrant Lys Assia and 2007 Danish entrant DQ. Internet users had between 16 and 30 October 2011 to vote for their favourite entries and their votes were combined with the votes from an expert jury. On 11 November 2011, the top six entries and SF candidates for the national final were announced. The DRS 3 selection involved an internal selection from the entries submitted for the SF selection. The three DRS 3 candidates for the national final were announced on 13 October 2011. "Lost" performed by Sara McLoud was originally selected as one of the candidates, however the song was later disqualified as it was published in an acoustic version prior to the 1 September 2011 deadline, making it ineligible for the Eurovision Song Contest. "Black Symphony" performed by Atomic Angels was selected as the replacement entry. The RTS selection involved interested artists submitting their entries to the broadcaster between 1 September 2011 and 30 September 2011. At the close of the deadline, 27 entries were received. The entries were evaluated from 5 to 25 October 2011 by the votes from internet users, and the top ten entries were again evaluated from 25 October to 3 November 2011 by internet users (50%) and the votes of a jury panel that consisted of Catherine Colombara, Emile Felber, Jean-Marc Richard and Yann Zitouni (50%). The top three entries and RTS candidates for the national final were announced on 4 November 2011. RSI opened a submission period on 22 August 2011 for interested artists and composers to submit their entries. On 10 October 2011, a jury panel consisting of Mauro Ravarelli, Gianluca Verga and Nicola Albertoni evaluated the 22 entry submissions received and selected five songs for a regional final. An additional two entries were selected by internet voting held between 10 and 18 October 2011 among the remaining 17 entries to proceed to the selection. The regional final, hosted by Clarissa Tami and Fabrizio Casati, took place on 8 November 2011 from the Temus Music Bar in Agno and was broadcast on RSI La 2 as well as via radio on RSI Rete Tre. Public televoting selected two entries as the RSI candidates for the national final.
+RTS selection4 November 2011 Artist Song Online Vote Result Votes Rank ADN 2.0 "Dark Light"9928 Katherine St-Laurent "Wrong to Let You Go"3,8493 Advanced Marie-Élaine and Étienne "Demande-moi"4,5272 Romanz "For You (I'll Build Rome in One Day)"5,5161 Sinplus "Unbreakable" 1,9406 Sosofluo "Quand je ferme les yeux"2,5455 Advanced The Kompozit "Le faim du monde"2,7104 Valentine de Rham "It Doesn't Have to Rain Today"71610 Vartoch' et les Aliens "Boum sur saturne"1,2467 Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra "L'autre"7589 Advanced
+RSI selection8 November 2011 Artist Song Result 1 Vittoria Hyde "It's Your Love" 2 Gianluca Solci "Giro intorno" 3 Rossella "Here I Am" 4 Laetitia "The Big Picture" 5 Sinplus "Unbreakable" Advanced 6 Chiara Dubey "Anima nuova" Advanced 7 Scilla Hess "Masquerade"
+ Competing entries Artist Song Songwriter(s) Channel Atomic Angels "Black Symphony" Ben Mühlethaler, Tom Jensen, Dawn Joseph, Atomic AngelsDRS 3 Chiara Dubey "Anima nuova" Filippo Leoni, Chiara DubeyRSI Emel "She" Christian Riesen, Emel Aykanat, Kareem Roustom, Rolf StauffacherSF Guillermo Sorya "Baby Baby Baby" Guillermo SoryaDRS 3 I Quattro "Fragile" Evelyn FischerSF Ivo "Peace & Freedom" Ivo Sidler, Kevin SalemKatherine St-Laurent"Wrong to Let You Go"Katherine St-Laurent, Benoît BabinRTSLys Assia"C'était ma vie"Jean-Paul Cara, Ralph SiegelSF Macy "Shining" Cyril Mauderli, David Hofmann, Frank Niklaus, Jim Bows, Thomas Maritz Patric Scott feat. Fabienne Louves "Real Love" Patric Scott, Martin de VriesDRS 3 Raphael Jeger "The Song in My Head" Raphael JegerSF Sinplus "Unbreakable" Gabriel Broggini, Ivan BrogginiRSI Sosofluo "Quand je ferme les yeux" Sophie RochatRTS Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra "L'autre" Sébastien Wolfensberger
Final The final took place on 10 December 2011. Two-minute abridged versions of the fourteen candidate songs in contention to represent Switzerland were performed and televoting solely selected "Unbreakable" performed by Sinplus as the winner. An expert panel consisting of Nik Hartmann (presenter), Carlos Leal (actor and rapper) and Stämpf (musician) also provided commentary and feedback to the entries. In addition to the performances from the competing entries, Swiss Eurovision Song Contest 2011 entrant Anna Rossinelli performed her song "Joker" as the interval act. +Final10 December 2011 Artist Song Televote Place 1 Patric Scott feat. Fabienne Louves "Real Love" 9.81% 6 2 Emel "She" 1.30% 11 3 Chiara Dubey "Anima nuova" 13.82% 3 4 Guillermo Sorya "Baby Baby Baby" 1.19% 12 5 Macy "Shining" 3.49% 9 6 Sosofluo "Quand je ferme les yeux" 1.08% 14 7 Atomic Angels "Black Symphony" 2.36% 10 8 Ivo "Peace & Freedom" 16.02% 2 9 Ze Flying Zézettes Orchestra "L'autre" 1.17% 13 10 Raphael Jeger "The Song in My Head" 5.96% 7 11 I Quattro "Fragile" 10.56% 4 12 Sinplus "Unbreakable" 17.87% 1 13 Lys Assia "C'était ma vie" 5.46% 8 14 Katherine St-Laurent "Wrong to Let You Go" 9.91% 5
Promotion Sinplus made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Unbreakable" as the Swiss Eurovision entry. The band performed "Unbreakable" during the semi-final of the Maltese Eurovision national final on 3 February, the final of the Belarusian Eurovision national final Eurofest 2012 on 14 February, the Ukrainian Eurovision national final on 18 February (a pre-recorded performance filmed on 17 February was aired during the show), and the final of the Latvian Eurovision national final Eirodziesma 2012 on 18 February. On 21 April, Sinplus performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Ruth Jacott and Cornald Maas.
At Eurovision