Olympiad Song Contest 45

Semi-finals dates
 Final dates
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Director
 Executive supervisor
 Host
 Number of entries
 Voting system
 Winning song

**The Olympiad Song Contest** welcomes the world to  Ghana for the 45th Edition.

The **Olympiad Song Contest #45** will be the 45th edition of the annual Olympiad Song Contest. It will take place in the **Accra Sports Stadium**, located in **Accra**,  Ghana, following the country's victory at the 44th edition with Fleur East performing **"Favourite Things"**. This will be the **01** time the country hosts the contest.

The contest is scheduled to consist of 2 semi finals and finally the grand final, with official dates for the semi finals being **28th March 2019** and **11th April 2019**. The grand final official date being the **29th April 2019**. All three live shows were hosted by **Joselyn Dumas** & **Akosua Busia**.

As of **23rd March 2019** **42** confirmed countries participated in the contest. **0** countries have made their debut. **09** countries returned to the contest after absences, while **11** countries withdrew.

## Location

It will take place in the **Accra Sports Stadium**, located in **Accra**,  Ghana, following the country's victory at the 44th edition with Fleur East performing **"Favourite Things"**.

### **Venue**

The **Accra Sports Stadium** in **Accra**, which has a capacity of approximately **40,000** attendees, was announced as the host venue on **20th March 2019**. This will be the Arena's first time hosting the contest.

### **Bidding phase and host city selection**

Following **Ghana's** triumph, the Olympiad Broadcasting Union (OBU)'s Executive Supervisor for the Olympiad Song Contest, issued the hosting invitation to **MULTI TV** during the winner's press conference.

**MULTI TV**, announced on **16th March 2019** that with the contest being held in  **Ghana** that any city, town or arena that would like to host the contest would had four days to apply to the broadcaster with their interest.

The following selection criteria were outlined for the selection of the host city:-

* The venue must be covered with a capacity of at least 1,000 but ideally up to 10,000 attendees.
* An international press centre must be able to accommodate no less than 1,550 journalists.
* Venues must also be provided for the opening and closing ceremonies of at least 3,000 attendees.
* The host city must be able to guarantee the safety and security of participants, members of delegations and guests.
* The host city must provide a social program alongside their bid, showcasing the hospitality, originality, cultural values and identity of both the city and country.

     **Host City**

## Format

### **Visual Design**

The theme for the contest, **Your Inner Star**, was unveiled on **21st March 2019** in a press conference. Its visual design features a geometric four-point star that alludes to the ideas that you create your own 'star power' and only yourself can unlock your true potential in a world that generates hard challenges. The contest's Executive Supervisor remarked that the theme and logos "resonate with OSC's core values, including diversity, very well. The geometric star connects all of us and its variety can provide good inspiration for each of the participating broadcasters that we look forward to seeing in Ghana this edition."

### **Presenters**

On **21st March 2019**, **MULTI TV** announced that the contest would be hosted by **Joselyn Dumas** & **Akosua Busia**.

**Spokesperson 1**:- Akosua Busia
Akosua Gyamama Busia (born 30 December 1966) is a Ghanaian actress, film director, author and songwriter who lives in the U.K. Busia is best known for her role as Nettie Harris in the 1985 film The Color Purple alongside Whoopi Goldberg.

Akosua Busia is the daughter of Kofi Abrefa Busia, who was prime minister of the Republic of Ghana (from 1969 to 1972) and a prince of the royal family of Wenchi, a subgroup of the Ashanti. Akosua is a princess of the royal family of Wenchi. Her sister, Abena Busia, is a poet and academic, who was a professor in English at Rutgers University, and since 2017 has been the Ghanaian ambassador to Brazil.

**Spokesperson 2**:- Joselyn Dumas
Joselyn Dumas (born 31 August 1980) is a Ghanaian television host and actress. In 2014 she starred in a A Northern Affair, a role that earned her a Ghana Movie Award and an Africa Movie Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Dumas was born Joselyn Canfor-Dumas in Ghana and spent her early childhood in Accra, Ghana. She believes in giving back to society, especially where children are concerned. Her passion for philanthropic work led to the establishment of The Joselyn Canfor-Dumas Foundation (JCDF) to help address the needs of vulnerable children from all backgrounds and regions of Ghana. The JCD foundation is currently undertaking a project with focus on Autism.

### **Voting**

The competition will consist of **02** semi-finals and a final. The **10** countries with the highest scores in each semi-final will qualify to the grand final where they will join the top 6 countries from the previous edition  **Albania,  Kazakhstan,  Romania,  Spain,  Switzerland and the host nation  Ghana**.

Each participating country had their own national jury/HoD. Each member of a respective nation's jury is required to rank every song, except that of their own country, to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1 point.

### **Semi-final allocation draw**

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place on **24th March 2019**. The **36** semi-finalists had been allocated into **6** pots, based on the geographical locations of the nations. Drawing from different pots helps to increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final would be broadcast and voted by each of the six automatic finalist countries ( **Albania,  Kazakhstan,  Romania,  Spain,  Switzerland and the host nation  Ghana**).

* Indonesia
* Japan
* Malaysia
* New Zealand
* Philippines
* Denmark
* Germany
* Hungary
* Poland
* Sweden
* Belgium
* France
* Monaco
* The Netherlands
* United Kingdom
* Canada
* Ethiopia
* Mexico
* Sierra Leone
* United States
* Greece
* North Macedonia
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Ukraine
* China
* Lebanon
* Mongolia
* South Korea
* Turkey

## Participating Countries

On **23rd March 2019** **42** confirmed countries participated in the contest. **0** countries have made their debut. **09** countries returned to the contest after absences, while **11** countries withdrew.

### **Returning Artists**

We welcome back some artists who have previous joined us in OSC.

* Armenia Sirusho
* Denmark Christopher Niesson
* Ghana Kwabs
* Greece Xenia Ghali
* Hungary Fehervari Gabor Alfred
* Indonesia JKT48
* Italy Emma Marrone
* The Netherlands Yellow Claw
* Romania Bella Santiago
* Sweden Dolly Style
* United States Bebe Rexha

## Finals

### **Semi Final 1**

**18 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Albania**,  **Kazakhstan** and  **Romania** voting as 3 of the 6 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 10 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

### **Semi Final 2**

**18 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Ghana**,  **Spain** and  **Switzerland** voting as 3 of the 6 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 10 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

### **Grand Final**

26 Countries will create the grand final. 10 from Semi Final 1, 10 from Semi Final 2 and the automatic qualifiers  Albania,  Kazakhstan,  Romania,  Spain,  Switzerland and the host nation  Ghana.

The draw on  Albania,  Kazakhstan,  Romania,  Spain,  Switzerland and the host nation  Ghana positions in the running order were done prior to the Semi Finals.

## Scoring

### **12points**

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the Grand final:

### **Scoreboards**

#### This is how the votes were scored in each Semi Final.

     Voter was replaced
     Qualified

## National Selections

Here is a list of all the national selections held this edition.

 United Kingdom | British Choices #01 | 1999  Charli XCX & Troye Sivan  | 09