Eurovision Song Festival 5

The Eurovision Song Festival 5 will be the 5th edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. It will take place in the Polyvalent Hall in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This will be the first time the contest will take place in Romania. The contest is expected to consist of two semi-finals on 3 October and the final on 3 October 2017.

On the 17th of September, the EBO confirmed that a total of 44 countries will be present in the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Festival.

## Location

### **Bidding phase**

On 10 September 2017, the EBO confirmed that three cities, with four venues, were in the race to host the fifth edition of the Eurovision Song Festival. The host city will be announced on the 17th of September 2017. The head of the contest, Adéla Bronislava, announced that the host city announcement will take place on 22:30 CET.

All cities were allowed to submit a venue for hosting the contest. The cities had to announce the venue and the capacity for the show. In the end, five cities were submitted to host the contest. The following cities are in the race to host the contest:
  †   Host venue
  ‡   Shortlisted

 Timișoara
 Cluj-Napoca †

### **Venue**

The Polyvalent Hall (Romanian: Sala Polivalentă) is a multi-purpose indoor arena that is located in in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The venue holds 10,000 people in its largest configuration. The building is located next to the Cluj Arena.

The arena opened on 21 October 2014. The arena hosted a concert, on 31 October 2014, by English musician James Blunt, who sang from his album Moon Landing. The concert had an attendance of upwards of 6,000. Sala Polivalentă hosted the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015.

The arena's seating capacity for basketball games was expanded to 10,000 seats for the EuroBasket 2017. The renovation work on the arena's existing stands began after the 2017 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

## Format

On the 17th of September, the EBO confirmed that 2 Semi-Finals and the final were scheduled to take place in September. There is a jury and a televote. They both decide 50% of the score. There was also a big 6 pre-qualified to the final. Those countries were the host Romania, Ukraine, Albania, Poland, Italy and Slovenia.

## Participating countries

Participating countries had until 10 September 2017 to submit their applications for participation in the contest. The EBO announced on 17 September that 44 countries would participate in the contest.

Sweden debuted in the contest, while Malta decided to withdraw for the second time.

## Results

### **Semi-final 1**

Nineteen countries participated in the first semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### **Semi-final 2**

Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

## Other countries

 Andorra - Again, Andorra proposed to the government to take part in the Eurovision Song Festival 5. This time, the government approved participation, but due to a strike at the broadcaster of Andorra, RTVA, Andorra withdrew their application form to join this edition.

 Belgium - VRT and RTBF decided not to return to the contest and refused to give a reason.

 Kosovo - Kosovo confirmed that they wanted to debut this edition, but because Romania doesn't recognize Kosovo as an independent state, Kosovo couldn't debut. Serbia congratulated Romania for refusing Kosovo to enter the contest. Romania replied to Serbia that they want to keep the contest clean of politics and that it is a decision of the Romanian government, not from TVR, the broadcaster.

 Malta - PBS confirmed that Malta would take a break for at least one edition, due to the bad results, low interest and budget cuts.

 Norway - NRK confirmed that Norway had no interest in joining, but that they will broadcast the final live.