# Free European Song Contest

The Free European Song Contest is an international song competition, organised by the German television network ProSieben and the production company Brainpool TV, with participants representing primarily European countries. The contest is similar in format to the long-running Eurovision Song Contest: each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television, then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner.
The overall winner of the contest is the entry that has received the most points after the scores from every country have been collected and totalled.

## History

As the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 could not take place due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Europe, German TV station ProSieben and German entertainer Stefan Raab decided to organise Free European Song Contest as an alternative. After the success of the first edition, ProSieben has decided to plan the event also for 2021.
The first contest was held in the city of Cologne, Germany, on 16 May 2020. Sixteen countries participated: each participating country submitted an entry. The contest was won by Nico Santos, representing Spain, with the song "Like I Love You".
A third edition was announced for 2022 during the show. However, on 25 June 2022, it was announced that the show would be suspended for a year and would return in 2023 for a third edition. The 2023 contest was cancelled in May of that year.

## Participation

| Year | Country making its début entry |
| 2020 | Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, The Moon, Turkey, United Kingdom |
| 2021 | Belgium, England, France, Greece, Scotland, Slovenia |
The following countries have all participated in the Eurovision Song Contest, or are eligible to compete by the standards of the Free European Song Contest, but have not had either public or private broadcasters indicate interest in participating (as of yet):
* Albania
* Andorra
* Armenia
* Australia
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Estonia
* Finland
* Georgia
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Moldova
* Monaco
* Montenegro
* Morocco
* North Macedonia
* Norway
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Sweden
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
** Northern Ireland
** Wales

## Competition history

| Edition | Date of final | Year | Host broadcaster(s) | Host city | Countries | Winner(s) | Performer | Song | Points | Margin | Runner up | 3rd place | Ref. |
| 1st | 16 May | 2020 | ProSieben | Cologne | 16 | Spain | Nico Santos | "Like I Love You" | 104 | 16 | Netherlands | The Moon | |
| 2nd | 15 May | 2021 | ProSieben | Cologne | 16 | Ireland | Rea Garvey | "The One" | 116 | 22 | Netherlands | Belgium | |

### Medal table

The table below shows the top-three placings from each contest, along with the years that a country won the contest.
| Country | | | | Total | Years won |
| Ireland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2021 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2020 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | — |
| Belgium | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | — |
| The Moon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | — |

## Presenters

| Year | Presenter(s) |
| 2020 | Steven Gätjen and Conchita Wurst |
| 2021 | Steven Gätjen and Conchita Wurst |