PANAM Song Contest

*For the most recent contest, see IX PANAM Song Contest. For the upcoming contest, see X PANAM Song Contest.*

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The **Pan-American Song Contest** (Spanish: *Festival Pan-Americano de la Canción,* Portuguese: *Festival Pan-Americano da Canção*), better known as **PANAM Song Contest**, is an online fan-made song contest based on the platform of Discord, organized by the PANAM Song Committee, and held among the different countries and territories of the Americas, and beyond. The contest, founded in 2019 by its Executive Supervisor, Csavil#5040, is based on the Eurovision Song Contest, and it is considered as the biggest on its platform.

In the contest, different delegations of different countries and territories of the continent participate, each with a Delegation led by a Head of Delegation (HoD). Each delegation is responsible of the representation of their respective country in the competition, including the choice of the artist and song to compete, the organization of national selections, the organization of a specific contest, among others. Each delegation will also be able to vote for its artists and songs of preference through the Jury Vote and Televote, during any of the different stages of the contest.

So far, a total of 7 different countries and dependencies have won the competition and therefore hosted the contest. Canada, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bermuda and Argentina have all been winners and have hosted the contest. However, there are two special cases: Costa Rica, which hosted the first edition since the organization granted it the rights to host, and Antigua and Barbuda, which hosted the ninth edition after Andorra obtained the victory in the eight edition and its delegation granted the rights to host the next edition to the island, since the contest rules do not allow guest countries to host it. Chile has won the contest two times, while the rest of winners only one time.

The highest scoring winner, so far, is the Chilean singer Karla Grunewaldt, who won the ninth edition with the song "*Desatar*", which obtained a total of 603 points.

## Participation

*Further information: List of countries in the PANAM Song Contest.*

The countries and territories participating in the contest are those that have an active delegation that is part of the PANAM Song Committee Delegation Group. Those that can count with a delegation in the contest are all the 34 independent nations of the American continent, all the inhabited dependencies with an established music industry, and the nations invited by the Committee, which are outside the American continent, such as Andorra, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, Spain and The Philippines.

A maximum of 55 delegations may participate in an edition of the contest. Of these, only 46 will be able to enter the Semi-finals stage and 26 to the Grand Final stage. There will also be 6 guaranteed places in the Grand Final for those delegations that manage to reach the top six in the Final of a previous edition.

Delegations must have an active HoD to participate and must confirm their participation in a contest in the established time.

Fifty-five countries and dependencies have participated at least once in the contest. These are listed here alongside the edition in which they made their début:

## Format

The format of the contest has has had small changes over the years, however it has remained relatively similar. Active delegations, which represent the different countries and dependencies of the Americas (and invited nations) in the contest, submit songs to participate in the different stages of the contest. A "country" or "dependency" as a participant is represented by a delegation associated to the PANAM Song Committee. The contest is hosted by one of the participant countries and is broadcast online, being in most cases via Discord and YouTube, but there are exceptions.

### Stages

An edition of the contest will consist of the following stages:

* The **Pre-Qualification** stage (PQR). This stage will only happen when the number of delegations participating in an edition is greater than 46. The 10 delegations that have obtained the last places in the semi-finals of the previous edition will participate. Participation is mandatory.
* The **Semi-Finals** stage. All delegations that are not Automatic Qualifiers and that have classified from the PQR stage will participate in it. Two semi-finals will be held, and to divide which semi-final each delegation participates in, an Allocation Draw will be held, where the delegations are divided into a certain number of pots according to the historical features of the participants.
* The **Grand Final** stage. The 26 delegations that have qualified from both Semi-finals will participate in it. Among all these, the winning song of a contest edition will be chosen.

The delegations may also make National Selections to choose their songs. These are organized by the HoD of a delegation and their songs must be chosen together by all the members of the delegation. Any member of the contest may vote in it and their songs must follow the rules established in this rulebook subsequently. They must also take place in the deadline set by the Committee. The songs that participate in a National Selection must be approved by the Committee before their release.

### Songs and performers

The songs (lyrics and instrumental), which are submitted by the different delegations, must not have been publicly released before 1 January 2010. The song must be approved by the Committee prior to its announcement. The maximum duration of each song is four minutes and 59 seconds and every song must have lyrics. The lyrics may not contain inappropriate language, as well as commercial content or political or religious positions.

The song performers must have been born, live permanently, have close roots or be nationalized in the respective country or territory of a delegation. Certain territories may borrow songs from their countries every three editions, but there are exceptions.

A song selected by a delegation may not be performed by more than 6 people and the minimum age to participate is 16 years.

### Voting

The vote in the PANAM Song Contest follows the voting system of the Eurovision Song Contest, where a set of 1-8, 10 and 12 points is awarded to each country, either by means of a jury vote, which is the joint vote of a delegation, or a televote, which is the free vote of each person. In each of the three stages of the contest the vote exists, and can be classified according to each stage of the contest.

In the Pre-Qualification stage there will be only the jury vote. Each of the participating delegations will grant a joint vote of the members of the delegation to each of the other participants. Members of other delegations that do not participate in this stage may not vote.

In the Semi-finals there are both a jury vote and a televote. As there are two Semi-finals, the delegations may exercise their jury vote for only the other delegations that participate in their same semi-final. People who are in a delegation may also exercise their televote, but they can only vote for the delegations in the Semi-final in which their delegation is located. People who are not within a delegation may exercise their televote in any of the semi-finals.

In the Grand Final there will also be both the jury vote and televoting. Each delegation, which has classified or not, may exercise their vote of the jury by only the delegations that participate in the Final. People who are in a delegation may also exercise their televote, as well as people who are not in a delegation.

All the delegations participating in a stage of the contest must exercise the vote of the jury, and no person or delegation may vote for itself in any of the stages of the contest.

## Results and Hosting

*Further information: List of host cities in the PANAM Song Contest.*

The delegation that obtains the majority of combined votes in the Grand Final will be crowned the winner of the contest and will be granted various benefits, such as choosing the venue of the next contest, choosing the slogan and artwork design of the next contest, choosing their position in the running order of the Grand Final of the following contest, choose the person (or people) who will host the next contest, between others.

### **Slogans**

Since the first Contest, slogans have been introduced in the show. The slogan is decided by the host delegation and is then used to develop a visual design for the contest.

## Winners

*Main article: List of winners in the PANAM Song Contest.*

Nine songs have won the PANAM Song Contest as of the ninth edition, representing eight countries and dependencies. Chile holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest two times in total, followed by the rest of winners which have won the contest once each.

Brazil holds the record for the number of second place finishes, having come runner-up in the contest two times in the fourth and ninth editions. Aruba, meanwhile, has come last more than any other country, featuring at the bottom of the scoreboard on two occasions: the eight and ninth editions.

 See also

* FAPAN
* FAPAN Second Chance Contest

## External links

* Discord server
* YouTube channel
* Instagram
* Twitter
* Facebook