Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) held an internal selection to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1997. Since 1994, the broadcaster selected its entries for Eurovision internally due to the low publicity and high expenses on their national finals.^[1]

The internal selection took place on 19 February in Zurich,^[2][3] where nine songs were presented after presumably being shortlisted, with three songs in French and German, two in Italian, and one in Romansh.^[4] It is unknown how many total songs were submitted.

On the following day, it was first reported that the selected song was "Dentro di me," written and performed by Barbara Berta [de].^[2] Both songs in Italian are known and their results are listed in the chart below.

At the Eurovision Song Contest 1997, held at the Point Theatre in Dublin, the Swiss entry was the seventh entry of the night following Slovenia and preceding the Netherlands. The Swiss conductor at the contest was Pietro Damiani. At the close of voting, Switzerland had only received 5 points in total; finishing in twenty-second place out of twenty-five countries.^[5]

This year, a new "televoting" system was introduced, in which five countries had their viewers vote their favorite songs from their country rather than those countries using jurors. The countries that utilized the new televote system were Austria, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.^[6] The remaining participating broadcasters still assembled a jury panel with at least eleven members. All countries awarded 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their top ten songs.

Points awarded to Switzerland[7] Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points  Spain 2 points  Italy 1 point

Points awarded by Switzerland[7] Score Country 12 points  United Kingdom 10 points  Italy 8 points  Spain 7 points  Ireland 6 points  Turkey 5 points  Germany 4 points  Cyprus 3 points  France 2 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 point  Denmark