Incidents in Topsical Song Contest

## Edition 1

* Despite confirming and announcing an National Selection, former Head of Delegation, Nele Sangria, suddenly resigned and   Sweden withdrew from the first edition.
* N.A.N.A. with the song "Isev Shen" (ისევ შენ) has been chosen as the official entry of   Georgia in the first edition. The entry competed in the contest, however it was later discovered that it violates the rules due to being a cover of a famous Georgian song originally performed by the opera singer Vano Sarajishvili (1879-1924), covered and remixed by many Georgian artists. The entry was not disqualified and it achieved 13th place in the Grand Final, with 160 points.
* Vera Brezhneva has been chosen internally to represent   Ukraine with the song "Rozovyj dym" (Розовый дым) in the first edition. However Vera Brezhneva has announced that she has withdrawn from the Topsical Song Contest after accusations that she visited Crimea illegally in 2015. The participating broadcaster Suspilne, is guided by the laws of Ukraine and cease the participation of a participant decided/announced, UA: PBC has the right to decide on the representative of Ukraine at the Contest. The broadcaster also stated that, they are very sorry that the representative of the artist acted irresponsibly.

## Edition 2

* Ireland withdrew from the second edition after the Head of Delegation's resignation following an arrest due to money laundering and betting of their National Selection. However, they returned in the end and participated in the second edition.
* Czechia confirmed its debut in the second edition of the contest, however, in the end the broadcaster decided to withdraw.   Croatia confirmed participation instead of Czechia's place.
* Denmark confirmed its debut in the second edition of the contest with the Danish-Swedish artist Alba August. However, in the end the artist refused to compete following internal conflicts with the official broadcaster. Topsical Song Contest management claimed that   Denmark revealed their artist before any official song submission from the broadcaster. A new artist and song had to be selected to represent the country, Milbo with the song "Millionær".
* The Bosnian-Serbian artist Seka Aleksić has been rumoured to represent   Switzerland in the second edition of the contest, following a hint given by the Swiss Head of Delegation through which media speculated that the Balkan diva would represent the country. However, it was later confirmed by the broadcaster that the artist refused to represent   Switzerland as she is not related to this country, and didn't even know where it is on map.

## Edition 3

* Snelle was announced as the official representative of   Netherlands for the third edition of the contest, with the song "Pizza Met Ananas", which was also officially revealed by the broadcaster. However, due to bad public reception, the entry was withdrawn and replaced. After various conflicts and disagreements within the broadcaster, the final entry for the third edition remained Snelle with "Pizza Met Ananas".
* Jordan has been a big 6 country for edition 3, but the broadcaster did not send any song on time. The country was, in the end, forced to withdraw, leaving a spot for   Norway in the big 6, being automatically qualified to the final.
* Despite confirming in time,   Albania,   Italy, and   Morocco broadcasters failed to send a song in time. Therefore, they were forced to withdraw from the edition. Moreover, the   Albania broadcaster withdrew as a form of protest for the denial of the entry they submitted in the contest. The entry "Prek" by Ledri Vula has been denied as the singer is Kosovar-Montenegrin, failing to fulfill the rule of connection to the country.
* The success of the entry from   Moldova led to lots of reactions by the overall audience. Perceived as just an instrumental song, without any vocalist, with #02 running order spot in the semifinal of the edition, the song has been successful and brought another top 15 for the country.
* The entry from   Belarus caused controversy among some of the other delegations, who pointed out that the song "Kakhay" by Polontayn has similar patterns to the song "Paro" by the French artist Nej'. However, the song was still allowed to compete.
* Two of the participating broadcasters,   Israel and   Romania, have been called out for strategic voting, as Topsical voting supervisors found inconsistent patterns of voting from the semifinal and the final and between the initial set of votes and the final set of votes from the two countries. However, the sets were still accepted, but the broadcasters have been sanctioned through a warning.

## Edition 4

* The entry of the host country,   Armenia, has been accepted by the Topsical supervisors. However, after deeper research and more considerations, it was found out that the organizers tried to bribe Topsical team by allowing a song that was breaking the rules of the contest. As a result, the entry "Donik" by Sirusho has been denied after a reconsideration of the council decision, as the song is a cover and a remake of a traditional Armenian song, fact which was revealed by the artist herself. A new entry is yet to be submitted by the Armenian broadcaster.
* Andorra hosted a national selection called *Una Cançó Per A Armènia*, in which 8 songs took part. It was later revealed by the Russian hackers that the Andorran broadcaster tried to rig their own national selection for a specific act, by changing the rates awarded by the jury members, specifically changing the result of the Russian juries.
* In the internal process of selecting their official entry,   Azerbaijan broadcaster declared as the winner the song "Ride or Die" by the popular singer Sevdaliza. However, it was discovered that the song did not win their internal selection process, the entry being rejected by Topsical council. In the end, the broadcaster submitted another entry, which won the internal selection process, "Surprise" by MAXTAGE & FLARUND.

## Edition 5

* Sweden confirmed their participation in the 5th edition due to the insults from the   Denmark broadcaster. However, later SVT confirmed that they would be withdrawing from the competition due to their entry being rejected, and accused one of the council members of being a narcissist, explaining that the member would criticise others but when the member gets criticised they would not be able to handle it.
* Denmark threatened to withdraw from the contest due to Sweden and Denmark's past war in the 1500s, however withdrawal did not happen and the broadcaster confirmed that Denmark would be travelling to   Russia.
* Andorra broadcaster faced the attack of Russian hackers and revealed a false entry as the official entry of the country in the competition. Presumably Tyla with the song "Water" was rumoured and falsely revealed as the official entry of Andorra, however the entry doesn't fulfill the rules of the competition. Andorran broadcaster revealed, in the end, the real entry of the country.