Mysterious Song Contest 23

Final dates
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Director
 Executive supervisor
 Host
 Interval act
 Number of entries
 Voting system
 Winning song

**Mysterious Song Contest** welcomes the world to  Russia for the 23rd Edition.

The Mysterious Song Contest #23 will be the 23rd edition of the annual Mysterious Song Contest. It will take place in the Olympic Indoor Arena, located in Moscow,  Russia, following the country's victory at the 22nd edition with Sergey Lazarev performing "7 Wonders". This will be the first time the city hosts the event.

The contest is scheduled to consist of 2 semi finals and finally the grand final, with unofficial dates for the semi finals being 15th August 2015 and the grand final being 20th August 2015. As of 11th August 2015, 32 countries have announced their participation in the contest.

## Location

Channel One  Russia, announced on 5th August 2015 that their first choice as host arena for the Contest was the Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow. However other cities and arenas were still able to apply. After  Russia's win in New York, those making a bid had approximately three days to submit their offer to Channel One.

The Olympic Indoor Arena in Moscow, which has a capacity of approximately 25,000 attendees, was announced as the host venue on 9th August 2015. This will be the Arena's first hosting of the contest.

## Presenters

On 10th August 2015, Channel One announced that Polina Gagarina and Dina Garipova will be the host/s of the 23rd contest. Alexey Vorobyov will host in the Green Room.

## Format

The competition will consist of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been rarely used in the contest. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final will qualify to the grand final where they will join the host nation  Russia.

EDIT:- Due to changes in Semi Final 2 it was lately decided that 11 from Semi Final 1 and 09 from Semi Final 2 with the highest scores would qualify to the grand final.

Each participating country had their own national jury/HoD. Each member of a respective nation's jury is required to rank every song, except that of their own country, to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1 point.

### Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 11 August 2015. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalist Russia. The countries were split into two pots which would either be semi final 1 or semi final 2. Then a random generator was used to allocate countries into the running order. The results were as follows:

It was decided that  Russia would vote in both semi final to make the results fair and even for all participants in the edition.

## Participants

The following countries have confirmed their participation into the contest.

Due to loss of contact between the MBU and the HoD with  Czech Republic and  Spain (Which showed interest to return), both countries were forced to pull out of the contest.

At a last minute arrival,  Japan regained interest into the contest showing interest and completing MBU requirements.

**Table key**

     *Participating Countries*
     *Withdrawing Countries*
     *TBA*
     *TBA*

## Returning Artists

We welcome back some artists who have previous joined us in MSC.

* Austria Anna F (Prev #22)
* Azerbaijan Lalah (Prev  Sweden #05)

## Semi Final 1

16 Countries are participating in this Semi Final with  Russia voting as the automatic qualifier of this edition. The top 11 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final

## Semi Final 2

14 Countries are participating in this Semi Final with  Russia voting as the automatic qualifier of this edition. The top 09 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final

### Voting Grids

This is how the votes were scored in each Semi Final.

     Voter was replaced
     Qualified

## Grand Final

21 Countries will create the grand final. 11 from Semi Final 1, 09 from Semi Final 2 and  Russia

The draw on  Russias position in the running order was done prior to the Semi Finals and  Russia was allocated 6th in the running order.

### Voting Grid

Here is how the world voted in the grand final.

     Voter was replaced