Czechia 2025: Adonxs with ‘Kiss Kiss Goodbye’

After a couple of months of teasing and anticipation Czechia dropped their entry for Basel last week:

After checking out Adonxs when he was announced I was very impressed and saw a lot of potential, guy is a talent and has a great vocal. The acoustic version debuted at Malta's national final reinforced that view that something might be cooking, although I was also cautious with the more energetic shift very much teased, which is of course my issue here.

However this final version is a bit of a letdown and Czechia have become a victim of trying to do too much here and I get it. This is one following the Nemo model of trying to throw as much into a song as possible: drama, emotion, energy, athleticism etc but sometimes less is more. In throwing everything at this, Kiss Kiss Goodbye has been left middle of the road and also incohesive.

The idea and execution of the dancebreak here is frankly so ridiculous it verges on parody with even the production for that segment feeling way cheaper than the rest of the song. I feel bad to go on and on about it, particularly with everyone almost universally agreeing with that and I imagine those involved are regretting it now. It's been said enough and is obvious to everyone so I'll move on, until the next opportunity to post a meme comes along.

There is however the possibility myself and others are overthinking this based on having seen a more sensible version and built up expectations. Maybe this works well enough to a first time viewer, and Eurojury - whilst obviously jury based, could maybe give some clues. It's also doing alright on Escscoreboard.

The task either way is to try and sell this live. Adonxs as mentioned is a good performer, and Czechia find themselves in the second half of the open semi 2. They have a decent qualification record these days and even last year were not far off at all. Staging is still not something I completely trust them with but a lot of that is budget limitations and there's often a solid blueprint.

This feels like it should be through but could get dragged into the mix if the diaspora countries there are able to score with neutrals. Could end up anywhere from 7th-13th.

If it does get through I picture moderate to good jury support, also held back by the structure and production on this. There's a chance they are far less critical than us on all that however and again I'll be very interested to see what Eurojury says on this one - I find it a hard one to predict for now, there's always something that does unexpectedly well there and maybe it is this. All in all, it's a jury 9th-15th if it can qualify.

What I am most confident with is a low televote in the final if it does get there. Qualifying through would typically be a sign it's gone down well with the public but this will get absolutely lost in the final, particularly with an early draw/next to a televoting magnet.

Personal Rating: 13/20

Staging Potential: 12/20

Televote Potential: 8/20

Jury Potential: 13/20

Track Record: 10/20

Total Rating: 56/100

Early Prediction: Semi Two 9th-12th, 14th-19th if in the final.