My Sister's Crown

"My Sister's Crown" is a song by Czech folk band Vesna, released on 30 January 2023. It represented Czech Republic in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 after winning ESCZ 2023. The song finished in the top ten in the grand final with a score of 129 points. After the contest it reached the charts in Finland, Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden and UK.

Background
In an interview with Eurovision fansite ESC Bubble, two members of the band reported that band lead singer and songwriter Patricie Kaňok Fuxová wanted to share about a story of sisterhood and as a protest against gender inequality, saying that "you can have support from other people and [on the subject of] equality, it's not just between women, but [everyone]."

"The song is about all people who are experiencing some kind of unfreedom, as oppression from society, trends, technology, and it's such a symbol for these people to put on a crown and feel strong enough," said Bára Šutková, the band's violinist, to Radio Prague. During Vesna's performance at Eurovision, a Violence at Home Signal for Help was shown on the screen.

There are 4 languages in the song: English, Czech, Bulgarian and Ukrainian. In an interview with Radio Prague, the band said the reasoning to include four languages was to reflect the diversity of the band members as well as the current year's ESC dedication to previous year's winner, Ukraine. The song and the music clip was banned in Russia and Belarus for these reasons.

ESCZ 2023
ESCZ 2023 was the national final organized by ČT in order to select the Czech entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. Five entries participated in the competition which took place on 30 January 2023 at the Kavčí Hory television centre in Prague, with the winner being selected via public voting and announced on 7 February 2023, with voting taking place in between. The voting consisted of 70% international audiences and 30% Czech audiences.

In the voting, "My Sister's Crown" earned 3,501 votes from the Czech vote and 7,083 votes from the international vote, earning a total of 10,584 votes, winning by a margin of 6,367 votes. With the victory, the song was selected as the Czech representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Czech Republic was placed into the first semi-final, held on 9 May 2023, and performed in the second half of the show.