OVSC37

## OrbisVision Song Contest #37  *READY TO ROCK*

 Girls Aloud, Spice Girls and Take That, followed by the flag parade featuring New Order.

## Participants

### Debuting

 Haiti
  Trinidad and Tobago
  Tuvalu
  United Arab Emirates

### Returning

 Albania
  Andorra
  Belarus
  China
  Faroe Islands
  Indonesia
  Isle of Man
  Italy
  Lithuania
  Luxembourg
  Malaysia
  North Korea
  Norway
  Poland
  Portugal
  San Marino
  Singapore
  Switzerland
  Turkmenistan

### Withdrawing

 American Samoa
  Austria
  Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Cameroon
  Czechia
  Denmark
  Gibraltar
  Hungary
  Ireland
  Jamaica
  Laos
  Mexico
  Moldova
  Montenegro
  Nepal
  Nigeria
  Palau
  Samoa
  Taiwan
  US Virgin Islands
  Yemen

## 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

 Poland
 "WITCH-ER Tarohoro" by Justyna Steczkowska

After their landslide victory in Budapest, the OrbisVision Song Contest once again returned to the United Kingdom for its first edition of 2024 in the city of Manchester!

This was the UK's record 4th time hosting the contest, as well as the 21st time a European country hosted.

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

For the first time in this edition and in future editions, 46 countries have confirmed their participation.

Poland won the contest for the second time with a record number of 207 points, thanks to Justyna Steczkowska and her song "WITCH-ER Tarohoro". This was also the 19th time a European country had won the contest and the 3rd time in a row.

## Location

### Host city

Manchester is a vibrant, post-industrial gem at the heart of North West England.

The city that used to be nicknamed 'Cottonopolis' (a reference to its most famous export) has hung up its clogs and, thanks to successive regeneration projects, is now a major centre for culture and commerce; seen by many as the capital of the north of England, and sometimes regarded as England's second city.

The site of the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station and one of the birthplaces of socialism and the industrial revolution, Manchester remains at the vanguard of British culture and technology with a verve and vibe of its own.

This vivacious spirit is augmented by the city's two world-famous football clubs and large student population; whilst the mills have been swapped for Michelin stars and the warehouses for world-class shopping and museums, this is still a city that is very proud of its industrial past and of its influences on music and sport.

Smaller than London, Manchester offers the 'buzz' of a large city without the overwhelming scale of the capital.

Outside of the city 'proper' lies Greater Manchester, home to 2.8 million inhabitants, unique shopping destinations, urban havens and beautiful countryside.

The region also hosts Manchester Airport, one of the UK's best-run international airports and the busiest British airport outside of South East England.

Throughout time, writers have sought to describe the magic of Manchester: George Orwell called it "the belly and guts of the Nation"; Edward Abbott Parry "a synonym for energy and freedom", but Ian Brown, lead singer of The Stone Roses, perhaps summed up the Mancunian spirit best when he said "Manchester's got everything except a beach". The sand is almost certainly on order already.

Manchester was the site of the Roman fort Mamucium (breast-shaped), founded in AD 79, but a town was not built until the 13th century. The old Roman road that ran to the nearby fort of Coccium (Wigan) is mirrored today by the route through Atherton & Tyldesley.

A priests' college and church (now Chetham's School and Library and the Cathedral) were established in Manchester in 1421.

Early evidence of its tendency towards political radicalism was its support for Parliament during the Civil War and in 1745 for the Jacobite forces of the Young Pretender.

It was not until the start of the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries that this small mediaeval town would build its fortune.

The presence of an existing cloth trade, coupled with the mechanisation of spinning in nearby Bolton, created a thriving cotton industry in Manchester.

The damp, humid atmosphere was good for cotton spinning since it meant fewer broken threads and reduced the risk of explosions from cotton dust.

Water power rapidly gave way here to steam invented by Boulton and Watt and a steam-driven factory was built in Ancoats, immediately north-east of what is now the city centre.

By the end of the 19th century, Manchester was one of the ten biggest urban centres on Earth (even before counting the wider population, within 50 miles of the Northern England region, such as Liverpool, Sheffield, Bradford, Leeds, and Central Lancashire).

Whitworth, inventor of the eponymous mass-cut screw thread, also manufactured his equally revolutionary rifled guns in huge quantities at his factory on Sackville Street.

After their initial meeting at the Midland Hotel, still one of the city's most luxurious, Rolls and Royce began manufacture of their luxury motor cars in Hulme.

Trafford Park, in Trafford, was to become the first industrial estate in the world, housing the Ford Motor Company and much of the pre-wartime aircraft industry, notably the 'Lancaster' Bombers of the AVRO Co.

Manchester's success during the Victorian era and before is evident everywhere you look. Great Ancoats Street was a source of wonder to Schinkel, the neo-classical architect from Berlin.

Equally grandiose neo-Gothic buildings line the old Financial District around King Street, and public institutions such as the University and the many libraries are dotted around everywhere.

There is even a statue of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln Square, commemorating his personal thanks for Manchester's support during a cotton famine created by Britain's refusal to run the Federal blockade of the slave-owning Confederacy during the American Civil War.

Continuing its radical political tradition, Manchester was the home of opposition to the Corn Laws and espoused Free Trade, as well as Chartism and the Great Reform Act.

It was instrumental in the establishment of socialism in the UK. Early socialist theorists Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx frequented the city; the former conducted his famous inquiry into the condition of the working class, and the latter sought to draw universal rules from the particular circumstances of the early industrial revolution.

Cleaving to a more gently pragmatic English tradition, it was the birthplace of the Trades Union Congress which led to the creation of the Labour Party.

It was also home to a number of philanthropists of the industrial age, such as John Owens and John Dalton, who bequeathed large parts of their fortunes to improving the city.

Manchester has also been famous for its influence on the UK music scene.

The Madchester movement of the early 1980s, started by Factory Records and Joy Division, led to the creation of the Haçienda nightclub (now demolished after standing empty for many years) and the birth of modern club culture.

Manchester has given life to many hugely successful musicians, among them The Stone Roses, The Smiths, The Fall, Joy Division/New Order, The Happy Mondays, Oasis, James, and Badly Drawn Boy.

In the 2020s, Greater Manchester has become one of the preferred destinations for Hongkongers fleeing repressive laws imposed by China, with Salford, Sale and Tameside having a particularly high concentration of them.

At 11:20, on Saturday, 15 June 1996, Manchester's city centre was rocked by a huge 1500 kg IRA bomb blast.

Although preliminary intelligence managed to clear people from the scene enough for there to be no fatalities, the very heart of the city was ripped to shreds.

A huge amount of money and effort was put into regenerating this bomb damaged part of the centre, redubbed the Millennium Quarter.

The area has renewed interest in the centre and contains the entertainment and shopping heart of the city.

Manchester is famous all over the world thanks to its football clubs, the world renowned Manchester United, who have the record number of 20 English football league titles and Manchester City, who recently won the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup.

Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium is 2 miles from the city centre in neighbouring Trafford and Manchester City's stadium is 2.5 miles to the east.

Old Trafford is also home to the Lancashire County Cricket Club. despite no longer being a part of the county of Lancashire.

In 2002, Manchester was the host to the Commonwealth Games and a large area of East Manchester was converted into a new Sportcity, the centre-piece of which is the new athletics and football stadium.

### Venue

Manchester Arena (currently known as AO Arena for sponsorship reasons), is an indoor arena in Manchester, England, immediately north of the city centre and partly above Manchester Victoria station in air rights space.

The arena has the highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the United Kingdom, and the fifth-largest in Europe with a capacity of 21,000.

The arena is one of the world's busiest indoor arenas, hosting music and sporting events such as boxing and swimming. The arena was a key part of Manchester's bids to host the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000 and was eventually used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

The arena was temporarily closed following a terror attack on 22 May 2017, in which suicide bomber Salman Abedi killed 22 people, and injured 500 more, at the end of an Ariana Grande concert during her Dangerous Woman Tour.

Shows and events that were scheduled to take place at the arena were either moved to alternative venues, or cancelled completely.

The arena was reopened on 9 September with a special benefit concert headlined by Manchester-born singer Noel Gallagher.

The arena is the only indoor venue in the UK to be built following a layout of 360-degree seating. (London's The O2, formerly the Millennium Dome, also has 360-degree seating, but only on its lower tier, whereas Manchester's arena features it on both tiers). Other European indoor venues built to the same concept include the Lanxess Arena (Cologne, Germany), Arena Zagreb (Zagreb, Croatia), Spaladium Arena (Split, Croatia), Štark Arena (Belgrade, Serbia), O2 Arena (Prague, Czech Republic), and the Barclaycard Arena (Hamburg, Germany).

A three-year £50 million re-development started in 2022. The arena's capacity will increase to 24,000, and new public entrances and custom lounges will be opened. Once complete, the increase in capacity will retain the indoor arena's place as the largest in the city after the 23,500-seat Co-op Live Arena opens.

The arena has hosted music icons such as Take That, the Spice Girls, U2, Janet Jackson, Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Rihanna, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Gorillaz, Coldplay, Blackpink, Liam Gallagher, Mariah Carey, Metallica, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera, Little Mix and Dua Lipa, just to name a few.

The Commonwealth Games weren't just the only sporting event that came to the arena either. The arena has been the home of three sports teams: the Manchester Storm and Manchester Phoenix ice hockey teams, and the Manchester Giants basketball team with limited success, as it is no longer used by sports teams but is used for one-off sporting events such as boxing and football masters.

UFC and WWE events were also held here over the arena's history. It also hosted the World Taekwondo Championships in 2019.

Recently on 14 October 2023, KSI and Logan Paul returned to the arena fighting a double main event, with KSI taking on the brother of Tyson Fury and WBC Diriyah Champion, Tommy Fury, and Logan Paul taking on Dillon Danis.

Comedians such as Peter Kay, Lee Evans and Alan Carr have also performed here on stand-up tours.

## Participating countries

### Semi-final 1

The United Kingdom, Türkiye and Guam will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.

### Semi-final 2

Croatia, Spain and Zambia will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.

### Grand Final

1. ↑  Due to the Japanese HoD leaving the Discord server for personal reasons, Japan did not go to the final, despite being in 5th place and being eligible to qualify. Instead, they were replaced by the country who was in 11th place, which was Portugal.