We have a date and a place for the Swiss national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018! SRG SSR, the global national Swiss television company encompassing the different broadcasting companies in Switzerland have just released the rules for their Eurovision 2018 song hunt.

From September 1 to September 22, songwriters can submit their songs to the Swiss broadcaster and it has been announced that however non-Swiss composers and lyricists are allowed, prevalence will be given to Swiss residents when it comes to this. Foreign composers are however still cordially invited to submit entries.

After the deadline passes, a 20-person jury consisting of people from the music and media industry, Eurovision fans and television viewers (but with music and media people being the majority) will evaluate the songs. All language regions are to be represented in the jury.

There will be no Livecheck, like previous years, where the jury wanted to see the live performing skills of the applicants. The jury will probably select 6 songs, but the broadcaster said there may be more if they find that necessary. SRG SSR may also give wildcards to the final but there is no intention to do so (yet), for the time being.

As the songs are not particularly tied to artists, SRG SSR have the final say on who gets to perform the song. Similar as in Melodifestivalen in Sweden, the broadcaster might see a better fit for the song with someone else and it is the broadcaster who decides in the end.

When the final list of participants comes out is not known yet but the date and time for the final are! Sunday the 4th of February live from the TV studio in Zürich where the televoters and an international jury will have a 50% say in the outcome each!