EuroMusic Song Contest 21

Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Broadcaster
 Opening act
 Interval act
 Entries
 Returning
 System
 Winner

The EuroMusic Song Contest 21 was the twenty-first edition of the EuroMusic Song Contest. The host country was Bulgaria, that won the previous edition, with the song *If love was a crime*. This was the first time that Bulgaria hosted this contest. This edition took place in the capital of Bulgaria: Sofia.

At the end of the grand final, it was clear that the UK won this edition. It was their second victory in the contest. Russia finnished at the second place, with just two points less. Germany ended at the third place.

## Location

Straight after the Bulgarian victory in the previous edition, BNT announced that they would host this edition. They said that they were in touch with some Bulgarian cities.

Some days later, the EBU announced that they prefer the Arena Armeec as venue, with a capacity of 17.000 people. A bit later, it was clear that the Bulgarian broadcaster was in contact this venue and the Kolodruma, in Plovdiv.

Later on, the Bulgarian broadcaster revealed the official logo, where Sofia was announced as host city.

## Format

### Number of participants

Since the seventh edition the EBU announced to put a maximum at the number of participants. In the seventh and eighth edition, eighteen countries were able to participate.

Because the introduction of the semi finals, there is no maximum of participating countries. However, since the seventeenth edition the EBU announced that they would put a new maximum of countries. This meant that 41 countries were able to sign for a participation. This means that each semi final would have 20 countries, plus the host nation (who qualify automatically). Until now, they never reached this limit.

### Running order

There are specific rules about how a country gets his running order.

The host country will have a random number. The rest of the countries will be split in to groups (first- and second half). This will happen fully random. Later on, a team will create a running order to make the show as interesting as possible.

### Song

Each country sends one song to the contest. There are no rules about the language of the song, but the song can't be longer than five minutes.

### Voting rules

After that all the participating countries have sang their song, each single country awards a set of points. The country who gets the most amount of points wins the contest. If two or more countries receive the same number of points, the country that received from the most countries points, will be ranked higher. If that is also the same, then the country who have the highest rank of a country, will be ranked higher.

## Semi final allocation draw

* Lithuania
* Moldova
* Romania
* Ukraine
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Georgia
* Russia
* Denmark
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Sweden
* United Kingdom
* Czech Republic
* France
* Germany
* Israel
* Greece
* Italy
* Malta
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Montenegro
* North Macedonia
* Serbia

## Returning artists

The contest featured eight representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same countries.

## Scoreboard

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

 3
 2
 1
 Portugal | San Marino

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

 3
 2
 1
 Lithuania | Georgia

### Grand Final

https://scorewiz.eu/scoreboard/view/333598/euromusic-song-contest-21--grand-final

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

## Other Countries

### Returning countries

* Armenia - Because of the territorial dispute about the Artsakh region between Armenia and previous host Azerbaijan, the Amenian broadcatser decided to skip the twentieth edition. They announced directly that they were returing the next edition.
* Italy - The Italian broadcaster announced to return to the contest.

### Withdrawing countries

* Estonia - ERR announced that Estonia wouldn't participate in the edition because of the dissapointing results in the previous editions.
* Netherlands - This country wasn't on the official list of participating countries, published by the EBU. Until now, they took part in every edition.
* Poland - The Polish broadcaster decided to withdraw from the contest, due to a lack of interest from the Polish public.