The Origin Song Contest 05

Final date
 Venue
 Broadcaster
 Interval act
 Entries
 Debuting
 System
 Winner

**The Origin Song Contest 05**, often referred to as TOSC 05, was the fifth edition of The Origin Song Contest. The contest was hosted in Gdańsk-Sopot, Poland, as Italy declined to host the contest following their win in the previous edition. The show was hosted by Anna Popek, and was the second time that Poland hosted the contest, as the first edition was held in in Kraków. It was also the second edition hosted by Popek.

Forty countries participated in the contest, making the edition the largest to date. Azerbaijan and Turkey made their debuts as new members of the OBU, whilst Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Iceland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia all returned having last been seen two editions ago. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Russia and, most controversially, reigning champions Italy withdrew.

Sweden achieved their first victory in the contest with the song "Hardcore" performed by Esther Vallee, scoring 150 points, enough to place 9 points ahead of the runners up Belgium. Hosts Poland placed third, whilst Greece, Norway and Latvia finished the top 6. Big six member Malta placed last with -10 points.

## Location

*For more information, see Gdańsk and Sopot.*

The Ergo Arena, venue for the edition, is directly on the boundary between the cities of Gdańsk and Sopot.
Sopot is a seaside resort city in Eastern Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is a major health-spa and tourist resort destination.
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast. It is the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland's principal seaport and the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area. Alongside Sopot and Gdynia, it forms the Tricity *(Trójmiasto)* metropolitan area.

## Format

### Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to allocate the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place on 5th August 2018. The first part of the draw determined in which semi-final the "big 6" would have to vote. The second part of the draw decided in which half of the two semi-finals each country would perform, with the exact running order determined by the producers of the show at a later date. Seventeen countries would participate in each semi-final, with ten qualifying from each show to result in a final of 26 songs.

The thirty-four semi-finalists were allocated into six pots, which were decided by analysing potential voting patterns between the countries. Drawing from different pots helps in reducing the chance of "bloc-voting". 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:

* Belarus
* Belgium
* Iceland
* Romania
* Bulgaria
* Monaco
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Ukraine
* Azerbaijan
* Czech Republic
* Estonia
* Greece
 Pot 4
 * Cyprus
* FYR Macedonia
* Hungary
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Portugal
* Germany
* Ireland
* Norway
* Spain
* Faroe Islands
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Sweden
* Switzerland

## Participating countries

### Returning artists

Nataša Malinkova represented FYR Macedonia for the second consecutive edition, this time alongside Aleksandra Janeva, after participating in the previous edition. Mariliis Jõgeva returned to participate for Estonia, after also participating in the fourth edition.

## Results

### Semi-final 1

Malta, Poland and the United Kingdom also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified to the final.

### Semi-final 2

Finland, Latvia and the Netherlands also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified to the final.

## Voting Grids

### Semi-final 2

#### 12 points

 3
 2
 1
 Slovenia | Czech Republic

## Other countries

*Further information: List of countries in The Origin Song Contest*
Every edition, the Origin Broadcasting Union invites all its active members to participate at the contest. The countries below have declined their invitations to participate, with the reasons stated.

* Bosnia-Herzegovina: The country's Head of Delegation left their post and therefore Bosnia and Herzegovina was forced to withdraw until a replacement is found.
* Italy: Despite winning the previous edition, RAI confirmed on 29 May 2018 that they would not be present nor hosting the following edition. As a result, Finland became automatically qualified to the final after their seventh place in the previous edition.
* Liechtenstein: 1FLTV sent a memo to the OBU stating they would not be participating in the next edition following disputes between the delegation and the broadcaster. Despite rumours that the country would change their decision, 1FLTV reiterated that they would not be participating.
* Moldova: TRM's delegation informally announced they would take part however no official RSVP was received by the OBU and therefore Moldova could not participate.
* Russia: Russia-1 announced on 23 May 2018 that they might withdraw from the edition due to time constraints. On 5th June it was officially confirmed that Russia would not participate in the upcoming edition.

## Incidents

### RAI exposed letters

On 17 May 2018, the Italian newspaper la Repubblica published a series of letters from RAI executives responsible for the country's participation in The Origin Song Contest, which amongst other things called hosting the contest an "accident waiting to happen" and "financially impracticable". Neither the OBU nor RAI have made a statement about the allegations.

On 28 May 2018, Monica Maggioni, chairperson of RAI, stated that the broadcaster would require "the most significant financial input in the broadcaster's recent history" in order to host the edition, money "which the state is unwilling to give". Many speculated that the country would withdraw from the contest in the coming days.

Under 24 hours later, RAI confirmed that Italy would withdraw from the contest, with hosting duties passed to Poland, stating that hosting is too much of a "commercial opportunity" and detracts from the goals of the contest.

### Running order change

A few days before the second semi-final, it was announced that temporary executive supervisor Laura Rizzotto had approved a slight modification to the running order. This was due to an ongoing legal dispute with the French division of Elektra Records, and resulted in the Czech Republic and Romania swapping positions. As the dispute was not rectified, France and Albania had to swap positions in the final.