South Tarawa 2102

**Oceanivision South Tarawa 2102** is set to be the 31st annual edition held in South Tarawa (Bairiki), Kiribati following Kiribati's victory in Deloraine the previous year. This was the second time Kiribati won the contest, becoming the fourth country to win twice, 7 years after The Marshall Islands. Victoria and the Solomon Islands are still the only two countries to win more than twice. With Kiribati winning, the chance for a country to win **again** is the most likely that it has ever been, so will the 19 previous winning countries be able to achieve a 2nd, 3rd, or 6th victory?

Sixteen cities, in company with Kiribati's capital, were in contention to host this year, with the bid deadline and the start of the confirmation period still being 01 October 2101. Kiribati set a new precedent in terms of choosing a host city as they were quite swift in the decision, while also having the common 16 + capital city bids. The 16 cities were shortlisted to just 6 in a matter of days since 01 October, with the capital, South Tarawa, being floated down to the shortlist as well; the 6 cities were Aiwa, Koinawa, Manoku, Onouea, Tabwakea, and Tanimainiku. After a lengthy decision process**,** 2 cities were narrowed down for a final shortlist of Onouea and South Tarawa. South Tarawa was ultimately chosen as 2102's host city; this was the city's second time hosting the contest and the third to host more than one edition, after Melbourne, Victoria and Mount Hagen, New Guinea. Kiribati set a new precedent in terms of choosing a host city as they were quite swift in the decision, while also having the common 16 + capital city bids.

29 countries participated this year, 27 of which participated the previous year. Brunei and New Zealand returned to the contest after a year's absence, with both of their returns being unknown at the beginning of the confirmation period. Sri Lanka withdrew from the contest citing \_\_\_ as their reason for withdrawal. Micronesia has continued to not participate; the country's last participation was in Perth 2099.

Japan achieved its 1st victory, the **twenty-first** country to do so, with the song "Motta Gumy". The country gathered 92 points from the song, beating second place's New Kanangri by only a single point. Speaking of New Kanangri, the country achieved a fourth runner-up position, tying Queensland's record set all the way back in 2084; this was also the country's most recent top-10 since 2095. Indonesia achieved its first 3rd place, after participating for 28 years since 2075. Khalimarī placed one position higher than last year with a second 4th place. Fiji became the third country to achieve three 5th places, the others being New Kanangri and Kiribati; this was also the country's most recent top-10 since the year they hosted, 2097. The host country Kiribati missed out on the top 5 by only one placement, getting a second 6th place. Other notable top-10 placings include; Tonga and South Mesa making it back after last placing in 2099; and Pacifica Islands finally reaching 10th place after 7 years since 2094 without a single top-10 placing, only The Philippines have waited longer than them.

## Participants

The following countries have confirmed their participation for 2102 as of 01 November 2101:

* Brunei - Keluar dari ruanganku!
* Celebes - Crumbling Cacao
* Fiji - Tre Ganger Bakt Naan
* Indonesia - Biola atau Kenari
* Japan - Motta Gumy
* Khalimarī - Crying for My Garden
* Kiribati - My Onouea
* Malaysia - Fractured Hearts
* The Maldives - Hausaufgaben iessen Mamm - Sunporpoise
* The Marshall Islands - Maltese Sunset
* New Guinea\* - Weekdagen in de Regen
* New Kanangri - Maître Chanteur
* New Zealand - take me to snurch - Kyjackal
* Northern Desert - Viens, un câlin
* Pacifica Islands\* - A Vase of Problems
* Palau - Our Nuggets
* The Philippines - Cyclones hit hard
* Polynesia - Mačje Ogrebotine
* Queensland - Un Sac de Cibles
* Siam - Jeg så det sammen
* Singapore - Heartache Heartattack
* Solomon Islands - Bird Foot - Ninjalamby
* South Mesa - I do not need a man
* Tasmanija - Estatisk Frykt
* Timor\* - Turunkan Air Tua
* Tonga - Grape!
* Tuvalu - simp.tv - Buddyboyb
* Vanuatu - Chatting with a Starfish
* Victoria\* - Olives

Undecided: N/A

#### Languages

* A Vase of Problems is the first song in Oceanivision to contain lyrics in Portuguese
* My Onouea is the first song in Oceanivision to contain lyrics in Hawaiian
* simp.tv is the first entry from Tuvalu in which the title is in English

### Allocation Draw

Each country randomly draws a number, that number being their performing placement. The host draws their placement first, then the automatic qualifiers draw their placements, finally, every other country draws theirs.

### Grand Final

All countries voted. The final took place on \_ August 2102. \*indicates an automatic qualifier

### Official Rankings

1. **Japan**
2. New Kanangri
3. Indonesia
4. Khalimarī
5. Fiji
6. Kiribati
7. Tonga
8. South Mesa
9. Victoria\* (Tie-9th)
10. Pacifica Islands\* (Tie-9th)
11. Malaysia
12. Timor\*
13. Tasmanija
14. Polynesia
15. New Zealand (Tie-15th)
16. Celebes (Tie-15th)
17. Queensland
18. Siam (Tie-18th)
19. Brunei (Tie-18th)
20. Northern Desert
21. The Marshall Islands
22. Solomon Islands
23. Singapore
24. The Philippines
25. Vanuatu
26. Palau
27. Tuvalu
28. New Guinea\*
29. The Maldives

## Withdrawing/Uncertain

* Bangladesh - *BL-RTV/BL-Comm* confirmed on **01 December 2101** that Bangladesh will not debut in 2102.
* Bengal - *BNRT* confirmed on **01 November 2101** that Bengal will not debut in 2102.
* Bengal/Kashmir - *BNKM-BU* is a joint broadcaster between 2 or more countries, so it cannot participate unless it belongs to only one country. *BNKM-BU* joining as a member allows Kashmir to broadcast the contest, but if Kashmir wants to participate, they must apply with their own separate broadcaster.
* East African Islands - *RTV-EAI* confirmed on **01 October 2101** that East African Islands will not debut in 2102.
* Guam Republic - Guam Republic and *GARRC* are not eligible to debut until **2103** due to the 2-Year Independence Rule.
* Manchuria - *MUiRCT* applied for an OBU membership on **02 February 2101**, which was accepted on **02 March 2101** making them eligible to debut in **2104** if they so wish.
* Micronesia - *RTMC* confirmed on **01 October 2101** that Micronesia will not participate in 2102.
* Sri Lanka - *LankaCT* confirmed on **25 January 2102** that Sri Lanka will not participate for the first time in 2102.

## Other Countries

These countries aren't part of the OBU but are still in association with them. All new broadcasting countries and countries that stopped broadcasting will be added here, with the others on a separate page. 11 countries started broadcasting Oceanivision for the first time!

* Burundi started broadcasting the event
* Hampshire started broadcasting the event
* Iceland started broadcasting the event
* Irkutsk started broadcasting the event
* Maine started broadcasting the event
* Massachusetts started broadcasting the event
* North Macedon started broadcasting the event
* Nova Scotia started broadcasting the event
* Ono started broadcasting the event
* Quebeć started broadcasting the event
* Rwanda started broadcasting the event

## Trivia

* This year's contest was held on **12 September 2023**
* Micronesia now holds the record of non-participations with 7 as of 2102
	+ This also caused the country to tie with New Zealand for the longest streak of non-participations with 3 in a row
* 2102 continued to use a **new** physical draw to determine the placements in the Grand Final on TBD August/September 2023
	+ This bag system will hopefully be fairer and reduce top-of-the-stack bias
	+ Modifications will be made to optimize equality amongst the draws
* 2102 continued to use computer-based randomization for voting, although country names would not be added, instead just a simple "Every Country" took each country's place
	+ Randomizations were kept somewhat anonymous to prevent pre-contest spoiling
* The order of revealing points was the normal 01-29; points were somewhat checked every 9-10 delegations to make sure everything was up-to-date
* Indonesia and Japan obtained the most amount of points than they ever had; New Kanangri tied their previous record amount of points
	+ Indonesia beat their previous record number of points after 16 years
	+ Japan (1st) achieved their best placement
	+ South Mesa (8th), Polynesia (14th), and Celebes (16th) achieved their best non-top 5 placement; Kiribati (6th) tied their best
	+ The Philippines (24th), Vanuatu (25th), Palau (26th), Tuvalu (27th), New Guinea (28th), and The Maldives (29th) ALL managed to obtain their worst placement
		- This was also The Maldives' first-last place
* There were 3 ties this year, an uncommon amount in recent years; 3 2-country ties
	+ This is interesting since the difference between many of the placements was often only a few points
* The maximum number of countries that could perform was absent at this contest. 29 out of the maximum 31 countries confirmed their participation
	+ This was the second time that specific amount of countries participated in a single year, the last being in 2100
* This marked the 30th year of participation for Kiribati, The Marshall Islands, and Victoria!
	+ This also marked the 20th year of participation for Tasmanija!
* This is the first year since 2091 that Tonga did not release their song last; their national final could not be held on the last day of May, so TOT decided to change it up and host the national final within the first week of May
* This is also the first year in which no song was classified as a folk song
* This is the second time Queensland opened the show, the last time being when the country won in 2083
* For the third year in a row, Vanuatu and The Philippines' final placements were adjacent to each other
	+ The difference this year was The Philippines placed better than Vanuatu
* With Indonesia placing 3rd, they became the first country to achieve every placement in the top 10; 1st to 10th