The Sound Of Europe 6

## Editions

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The **Sound Of Europe 6**was the 6th edition of the Sound Of Europe. It took place in **Groupama Arena, Budapest, Hungary**, following **Hungary's victory** with **Gigi Radics** and her song **"Over You"**. This was the first time that Hungary hosted the contest. The 6th edition consisted of **two semi-finals**, which took place on 3 December 2015, and **a final**, held on 10 December 2015. The shows were presented by **Wolf Kati** and **Viktor Kiraly** while **Oroszlan Szonja** was hosting the green room. Forty-four countries participated in the 6th edition.

Once all the votes had been announced, based on 50% jury and 50% televoting, **Israel** won the contest, with **Ishtar Alabina's** song **"Last Kiss"**.

## Location

**Budapest** is the capital and most populous city of Hungary, one of the largest cities in the European Union and sometimes described as the primate city of Hungary. It has an area of 525 square kilometres (203 square miles) and a population of about 1.8 million within the administrative limits in 2016. It is both a city and county, and forms the centre of the Budapest Metropolitan Area, which has an area of 7,626 square kilometres (2,944 square miles) and a population of 3.3 million, comprising 33 percent of the population of Hungary. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the Danube river with the unification of Buda and Óbuda on the west bank, with Pest on the east bank on November 17, 1873.

### **Venue**

The contest took place in Groupama Arena in Budapest, following Hungary's victory at the 5th edition of the contest in Paris with the song "Over You", performed by Gigi Radics. The Groupama Arena has a capacity of approximately 23,698 attendees. Groupama Arena is the second largest stadium in Hungary after Ferenc Puskás Stadium and it is the home venue of one of the most famous sports club in Hungary, Ferencvárosi TC. The stadium lies on the ground of Albert Flórián Stadium, the club's former stadium, which was demolished in 2013.

## Format

The edition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. The ten countries with the highest scores in all semi-finals qualified to the final.

Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Each member of a respective nation's jury was required to rank every song, except that of their own country. The voting results from each member of a particular nation's jury were combined to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. Likewise, the televoting results were also interpreted as a full ranking, taking into account the full televoting result rather than just the top ten. The combination of the jury's full ranking and the televote's full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1 point.

### **Running order**

The final running order of the competing performances at the semi-finals and the final were decided by the producer of the show and approved by the Executive Producer, the Executive Supervisor, the CBU and the Reference Group.

### **Presenters**

On 20 September 2015, MTV announced that **Wolf Kati**and **Viktor Kiraly**were the hosts of the 6th edition. **Oroszlan Szonja** was also chosen as host of the green room.

### **National host broadcaster**

During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster MTV and CBU (Contest Broadcasting Union) in 24 November 2015, the representatives of the core organising team were selected. **Merfi Amadeus** was announced as the executive producer and **Kostas Bouris** as the executive supervisor.

## Participants

45 countries will participate in the edition. The edition consisted of two semi-finals with 20 countries, from which the 10 with the highest scores qualified, and a final. Two countries returned to the contest; San Marino and Sweden, who last took part in the 4th edition, returned to the contest after a one-edition break.However, one country withdrew from the edition; Cyprus, due to the big cost of the participation.

### **Big 5**

  United Kingdom | Fleur East
  Sweden | Mariette
  Romania | Inna
  Portugal | Rosa Negra

## Results

### **Semi-final 1**

20 countries took part in the first semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange. Hungary, United Kingdom and Romania voted from the Big 5.

### **Semi-final 2**

20 countries took part in the second semi-final. The ten songs in places 1 to 10 qualified for the final and are marked in orange. Hungary, Sweden and Portugal voted from the Big 5.

## Other countries

 Andorra - Ràdio i Televisió d'Andorra (RTVA) announced that the country would not participate in the 6th edition of the Sound Of Europe.

 Cyprus - CyBC announced the country's withdrawal from the contest because of the big cost associated with the participation.

## Incidents

### **Swiss disqualification**

Switzerland with "Together Forever" by Eliane was DSQ, because the song was released prior the submission deadline set by CBU. This lead to Switzerland's disqualification. Switzerland was placed in the 1st semi-final.