European Singing Competition 33

## European Singing Competition

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**European Singing Competition 33**, often referred to as ESC #33, is the thirty-third edition of European Singing Competition. The contest took place in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, following Bolshiee's victory in the 32nd edition. This is the second time that Luxembourg hosted the contest. The event was hosted by CHAILD and Désirée Nosbusch . The event was hosted in d'Coque the with a capacity of 8,300. The host broadcaster was RTL.

Fourty four countries participated in the thirty-third edition. The participating countries, except of the host Luxembourg, Sweden, Russia, Norway, Ukraine and Latvia competed in two semi-finals. The Czech Republic, Gibraltar, Hungary and the Netherlands got promoted after qualifying from the Pre-Qualification Round 10.

The winner was Denmark with the song "Soliloquy" by Marshall Cecil which scored 463 points, winning by a margin of 46 points in front of Monaco. The podium was completed by France, which finished on the third place. The host country Luxembourg ended 18th. The top 6 was rounded up by the United Kingdom and Norway and the United States. This marked the second victory of Denmark, the first one being achieved by Sada Vidoo in the 4th edition, marking the biggest gap between two victories of the same country, 19 editions. This edition saw Hungary qualify to the final for the first time since they hosted the 24th edition in Budapest. Liechtenstein, Cyprus, Croatia and San Marino got their worst results ever, getting last, 18th, last and 13th in the semifinal respectively. This was the first time that Ukraine and Norway got two consecutive top 10 results, while Serbia returned to the top 10 for the first time in 11 editions.

## Location

The contest took place for the second time in Luxembourg.

### Bidding phase and host city selection

**Key**:
     Host venue

## Returning Artists

Dutch representative Démira is returning after previously representing her homeland in the 11th edition, ending 14th in the semifinal with her song "Dragons". Lola Marsh were internally selected to represent Israel after previously winning the 12th edition of the contest with their song "Wishing Girl", they are the 3rd winners to ever return after Mariza Rizou and Coeur de Pirate. Raye is returning after winning the British selection, after previously representing the United Kingdom in the 9th edition with her song "Shh", ending 9th in the Grand Final. Wafia will be returning to represent her native country Australia, after previously competing for Syria in the 14th edition, where she failed to qualify ending 11th in the second semifinal with her song "Bodies". Dark Sarah will return for Finland after winning UMK, they previously represented the Nordic country in the 29th edition with the song "Dance With the Dragon" which ended 6th in the Grand Final. The Hardkiss will represent their country Ukraine after winning Vidbir with the song "Vce Bulo Tak", their first participation was in the 13th edition, where they ended 16th in the 1st semifinal with their song "Rain".

Dzivia will represent Belarus after previously ending 3rd in the Second Chance Contest 3 with their song "Voryva". E-Play will sing for Serbia after previously being selected to represent the country in the ESC Second Chance Contest 2 with their song "Sloboda", where they got 11th. milet will be representing her country of birth Canada after winning their national selection, she previously ended 4th for Australia in the ESC Second Chance Contest 3. Pavlina Voulgaraki was selected to represent Greece after winning Thessaloniki Festival (where she was awarded a spot directly) after winning the ESC Second Chance Contest 3 with her song "Kamia Psichi".

LARA won Yugovizija for Bosnia and Herzegovina with the song "Za Nas". She was internally selected to represent her homeland North Macedonia in the PQR for this edition, but failed to make it, ending 5th, just 1 point away from the qualification. Since PQR non-qualifiers aren't considered official entries of the edition, they can apply to represent other competing nations by entering their NFs. This was the first instance a PQR non-qualifier made it to the edition through this loophole, although Kosovo's Ardian Bujupi was the first who attempted it, ending 4th in the German selection.

## Participating countries

### **Semi-final Allocation Draw**

The thirty-eight semi-finalists were allocated into six pots, based on their geographical place and cultural similarities. Drawing from different pots helps in reducing the chance of so-called neighbour voting and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final and half of the semi-final was determined.

The six pots were the following:

* Egypt
* France
* Lebanon
* Malta
* Croatia
* Romania
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Estonia
* Finland
* Iceland
* United States
* Belarus
* Georgia
 Pot 5
 * Cyprus
* Greece
* Israel
* Italy
* San Marino
* Germany
* Hungary
* Liechtenstein
* Slovakia
* Portugal
* Spain
* The Netherlands
* United Kingdom
* Canada
* Monaco
* New Zealand

### **Semi-final 1**

Nineteen countries participated in the first semi-final. The ten highlighted ones qualified for the final. Every country in this semifinal voted alongside  Russia,  Sweden and  Ukraine.

### **Semi-final 2**

Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. The ten highlighted ones qualified for the final. Every country in this semifinal voted alongside  Latvia, the host  Luxembourg and  Norway.

### **Grand Final**

26 countries competed in the final. All 44 countries voted in the final.

## Voting

### Semifinal 1

##### 12 Points

Televoting
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the first semi-final:

##### 12 Points

Jury
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's jury in the first semi-final:

### Semifinal 2

##### 12 Points

Televoting
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the second semi-final:

##### 12 Points

Jury
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's jury in the second semi-final:

### Final

##### 12 Points

Televoting
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the grand final:

##### 12 Points

Jury
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's jury in the grand final:

### **Fan Voting**

This was the first edition where a fan voting occured, the top 5 of the final outcome was the following.

 Slovakia | Hrdza
 Monaco | Pace
 Greece | Pavlina Voulgaraki
 Norway | girl in red

### **Notes**

1. ↑ Contains two repeated phrases in Latin.
2. ↑ Contains two repeated phrases in Latin.