OVSC26

## Voting

### System

Each country awards a set of 1 - 7 points, followed by 8, 10 and 12 points for their top 3 favourite songs

### Winner

 Norway
 "Rear View" by Moyka

After their victory in Lausanne, the 26th OrbisVision Song Contest finally returned to North America, this time in the Canadian city of Quebec City for the very first time!

This was Canada's first time hosting the contest, as well as the 2nd time the contest was hosted in North America, and the 4th time it went to the Americas overall.

44 countries have confirmed their participation.

The contest consisted of 3 shows, 2 semi-finals and a Grand Final.

The contest was won for the second time by Norway with the song "Rear View" by Moyka. This is the 11th time a European country won, the fourth time a Scandinavian country won, and the 4th time a country who had a previous victory before won again.

## Location

### Host city

Quebec City (*Québec* or *Ville de Québec* in French) is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec. It sits at a commanding position on cliffs overlooking the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Quebec City's Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of only three cities in North America (the others being Campeche, Mexico and San Juan, Puerto Rico) with its original city walls. Quebec is a city of about 700,000 residents.

Quebec City is referred to as the National Capital in the province. Much of the business here is of the administrative and bureaucratic nature, which would normally make a city quite dull.

    Fortunately, the city has a remarkable history, as the fortress capital of New France since the 16th century. Although the town's day-to-day life leaves things a little yawny at times, the vibrant historical centre makes for an incredible visit.
Quebec was first settled by Europeans in 1608 in an "Habitation" led by Samuel de Champlain, and celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2008.

        The generally accepted dates of Champlain's arrival in the city, July 3rd and 4th, were marked with major celebrations. The area was also inhabited by Native peoples for many centuries before the arrival of the Europeans, and their ongoing presence has been notable since then.

When it was founded by the French to make a claim in the New World, the name Quebec referred to just the city. It is an Aboriginal word for "where the river narrows" as the St. Lawrence River dramatically closes in just east of the city.

It rests on 65 m high (200-foot) cliffs with stunning views of the surrounding Laurentian Mountains and the St. Lawrence River. Under French rule from 1608 to 1759, the major industries were the fur and lumber trades.

    The French lost the city and the whole colony of New France to the British in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.

Much of the French nobility returned to France, and the British assumed rule over the remaining French population.
The rulers of the colony allowed the French to retain their language and religion, leaving much of the culture intact. In the 1840s, there was an influx of Irish immigrants during the Potato Famine.

Due to cholera and typhus outbreaks, ships were quarantined at Grosse Isle to the east of the city past l'Île d'Orléans. The bodies of those who perished on the journey and while in quarantine are buried there.

    The city remained under British rule until 1867 when Canada West (Quebec) and Canada East (Ontario) joined New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to form the Dominion of Canada.

French is the official language of the province of Quebec though in the tourist areas of Quebec City, English is widely spoken as a second language by almost all of the staff.

It is also not unusual to find Spanish, German and Japanese spoken in many establishments in Vieux-Quebec.

Outside of the tourist areas, some knowledge of French is advisable and perhaps necessary, depending on how rural the area is.

While older locals struggle when attempting to sustain a discussion in English, most people under 35 should be able to speak conversational English.

Less than a third of the overall population is bilingual French/English.

Quebec City was named the 5th best city destination in North America and 10th in the world in 2010 by Condé Nast Traveler, and best Canadian city for culture, 4th best Canadian destination, and 7th most romantic city in the world in 2010 by TripAdvisor.

### Venue

The Vidéotron Centre is an indoor arena in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The 18,259-seat arena replaced Colisée Pepsi as Quebec City's primary venue for indoor events.

The arena is primarily used for ice hockey, serving as the home arena of the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL and has been prospected as a venue for a new or re-located National Hockey League team in Quebec City, and as part of a Winter Olympic Games bid.

The building opened on September 8, 2015. It is now the seventh-largest indoor arena in North America, and the largest that does not host an NHL team.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new arena was held on September 3, 2012, attended by then-Quebecor Chairman Pierre Karl Péladeau, then-Premier of Quebec Jean Charest, and former Quebec Nordiques players Michel Goulet, Peter Šťastný, and Alain Côté. Arena construction began on September 10, 2012.

The arena was expected to cost $400 million, but cost $370 million instead with the city and province covering 50% of the cost of the arena.

On March 1, 2011 Quebecor entered into an agreement to acquire management rights to the new arena, a deal expected to be between $33 million and $63 million up front, plus between $3.15 million and $5 million in annual rent. The value of the deal will increase if an NHL franchise moves into the arena; Quebecor has actively backed an expansion franchise for Quebec City. This arrangement was made without public tender, for which the provincial government provided legal immunity.

As part of the management contract, Quebecor also holds the arena's naming rights; on April 7, 2015, it was announced that the arena would carry the name of Quebecor-owned cable company Vidéotron, and be known as the Videotron Centre (Centre Vidéotron in French).

The arena held its official opening on September 3, running public two-hour tours for the following three days. It hosted its first Quebec Remparts game on September 12, with a game against the Rimouski Oceanic setting a QMJHL attendance record of 18,259.

Two days after playing the last event of its predecessor, Colisée Pepsi, Metallica played the first-ever concert at Videotron Centre on September 16, both as part of their Lords of Summer Tour.

Rihanna played at the venue on April 5, 2016 as an act of her Anti World Tour.

To this day, Celine Dion is the singer who has played the venue the most times, for a total of 8 concerts. During her Summer Tour 2016, she played the arena 5 times in front of 67,368 spectators. In 2019, she launched her Courage World Tour at the arena with 3 concerts in front of 39,930 spectators.

Videotron Centre has hosted the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament since 2016.

### Bidding process

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, also known as CBC/Radio-Canada, immediately after becoming the new host broadcaster, decided to have a bidding process take place with 8 cities submitting their bids to be chosen as the host city of the 26th OrbisVision Song Contest. Those cities were Montreal, Edmonton, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg.

The bids with more than one vote then made it into the final four. These were Montreal, Toronto, Quebec City and Vancouver.

After a landslide against Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Quebec City was chosen as the winning bid and was immediately confirmed as host city of OVSC26 with the 20,396-capacity Vidéotron Centre chosen as the venue.

Winning bid is marked in blue, other bids are marked in magenta.

## Participating countries

### Semi-final 1

Gibraltar, Luxembourg and Syria will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.

### Semi-final 2

South Korea, Canada and France will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.