Altervision Song Contest 2

Final date
 Venue
 Interval act
 Entries
 Debuting
**Participation map**
* Countries that have confirmed their participation but have not announced their entry     Countries that have confirmed their participation and their entry, and qualified for the final     Countries that have confirmed their participation and their entry, but did not qualify to the final     Countries that participated in the past, but not in this edition
 System
 Null points

The **Altervision Song Contest 2** was the ssecond edition of the Altervision Song Contest. It took place in Tirana, Albania and was organised by Albanian broadecaster Radio Televizioni Shqiptar following the country's victory in Prague in the **previous edition** with the song "No Maybes" by Ilkay Sencan, Era Istrefi and Arash. It was the first time that Albania hosted the contest. This edition was the first, and until the 9th edition, it was the last edition to take place on the Balkan peninsula. As well, it was the second contest to take place in Europe and the second time a post-communist country organised the competition.

A record breaking 21 countries confirmed their participation with 8 countries making their debut and 3 withdrawing from the contest.

The contest consisted of one shows: a grand final which took place on 30th June 2020. The final was hosted by Dua Lipa. She was the first solo presenter of the contest.

The **2nd winner of the Altervision Song Contest** was **Sweden** with the song "Statements" performed by Loreen, gathering a total amount of **109** points in the final passing the runner-up by **15** points. The top 5 was rounded out by the Andorra, Albania, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Canada finished in last place, which would remain the country's worst result until their return in the seventh edition.

Unlike the previous edition, a televote was not implemented due to issues with it. Thus, this is currently the only edition where this is the case. Due to this, Loreen will remain the lowest scoring winner in the history of the contest. Sweden, Andorra, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Croatia, the United States, Portugal, Italy, Russia, Lithuania, Serbia, Kazakhstan and Latvia received their highest position as of this edition, though most would go on to get better results later on.

## Location

**Tirana** is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is the administrative, cultural, economic, and industrial center of Albania.

The population of the city proper at the 2015 census was 610,070 and the municipality of Tirana, created in 2015, has a total population of 800,986. It is the biggest metropolitan area in Albania, and the only one with a population of over 500.000. The city is host to many public institutions and public and private universities, and is the centre of the political, economic, and cultural life of the country.

Tirana was founded as a city in 1614. An almost unimportant centre until the beginning of the twentieth century, Tirana was proclaimed capital of Albania in 1920. City Planning and Construction activity of Italian neighbors during the years 1930-s until capitulation of Fascism in 1943, provided to the city an axis and a look in the centre, which preserves its configuration even at the present days. The City centre and the Old Bazaar were destroyed during the communist regime, new arteries were opened and the central square, Skanderbeg Square, was expanded.

### Bidding phase

Following the Albanian victory in Prague, it was confirmed by the ABU and RTSH that the country would stage the contest. Although there were doubts about finding a suitable venue for the edition, the host broadcaster remained optimistic and open to any ideas to organise the competition in the country.

RTSH started seeking for the host city and host venue of the second edition following the announcement. The broadcaster originally intended in selecting the venue through a bidding process, however they dropped the idea later due to lack of suitable sites across the country. The host venue of the contest was later revealed to be the Air Albania Stadium in Tirana. The stadium has a capacity of 22,500 and will feature a roof for the time of the contest.

## Participating countries

\* : denote that the country scored higher originally, but due to not voting, its votes have been lowered by 25%.

## Conflicts and issues

### Televoting

During the early stages of the semi final, there were several issues with the televoting which resulted in it being removed and thus the results were made out only of the votes from the professional juries.

## Other Countries

* Czech Republic: Czech broadcaster Česká Televize announced withdrew on 10 May due to financial issues and the poor result last edition.
* Germany: Germany withdrew on 11 May due to a change in HoD.
* Netherlands: Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS announced the country's withdrawal on 11 May due to the poor result in the previous edition. A return in the future has not been ruled out

## References and notes

1. ↑ The song contains one line in Arabic.
2. ↑ Hungary would have received the 18th place with 24 points, however, as the HoD failed to cast their votes, the country's final score was reduced by 25%.
3. ↑ Portugal would have received the 5th place with 79 points, however, as the HoD failed to cast their votes, the country's final score was reduced by 25%.
4. ↑ Romania would have received the 8th place with 63 points, however, as the HoD failed to cast their votes, the country's final score was reduced by 25%.
5. ↑ The votes include the deducted points

 First decade
 Active
 Host cities