AwlaVision Song Contest 7

Final date
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Broadcaster
 Executive producer
 Opening act
 Interval act
 Entries
 Debuting
 System
 Winner

**AwlaVision Song Contest 7**, often referred to as **ASC#7**, was the seventh edition of AwlaVision Song Contest, held in Tampere, Finland. The edition started the 14th June 2016, and ended the 30th June 2016.

28 countries participated in this edition. Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania debuted in this edition. No one decided to withdraw from ASC. Kazakhstan returned to the competition. Christine And The Queens from France won the contest with the song "Tilted" receiving a total of 181 points, 22 points ahead the runner-up, Portugal. Czech Republic finished in third place with 143 points. The host country, Finland achieved a 8th place with 97 points. The last place was for Switzerland, that got only 2 points.

## Organisation

After Finland's victory in AwlaVision Song Contest 6, YLE and  ABU had to decide where to organise the contest this time. The main projects were from Helsinki (*Hartwall Areena*) and Tampere (*Tampereen Hakametsä*). Finally, YLE and ABU chose **Tampere** as the host city of ASC7.

YLE decided to use popular and professionals people as presenters. Finally **Topi Latukka** and **Krista Siegfrids** were selected.

## Location

### **Tampereen Hakametsä**

Tampere Ice Stadium *(Finnish: Tampereen jäähalli, often called Hakametsä)* is a sports arena in Tampere, Finland. It is primarily used for ice hockey, and is the home arena of Ilves and Tappara of the Finnish Liiga. The ice hall, designed by the architect Jaakko Tähtinen was built for the 1965 World Ice Hockey Championships and opened the same year. The current capacity of the ice hall for hockey games is 7,300 spectators (5,629 seats, 1,359 standing, 312 suites). Tampere ice stadium is the third biggest ice hall in the Finnish ice hockey league.

Finland was awarded the opportunity to host the 1965 ice hockey World Championships, and Helsinki was to build an arena for the tournament. However, Helsinki did not manage to finish the project in time, and Tampere was asked to build an arena and host the games instead.

Originally, the spectator capacity of the Tampereen jäähalli was 10,200 people, with only 1,573 seats on the eastern side of the rink. The ice hall has also served as one of the venues of the ice hockey World Championships in 1982, 1991, 1997 and 2003 and also for the women's World Championship in 1992.

In 2007, a new video screen cube was installed in the arena. Of note is the fact that the balcony hanging over the stand B blocks the view to the screen from the uppermost rows. This has been augmented by placing TV monitors under the balcony, mirroring the output of the screen. There are several bars, restaurants and fast food stalls around the ice hall, as well as fan shops and the VIP clubs of the two local hockey teams.

### **Tampere**

**Tampere** is a city in Pirkanmaa, southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of 223,292 growing to 313,058 people in the urban area, and 364,000 in the metropolitan area *(Tampere sub-region)* on an area of 4,977 km2 as of 2011. Tampere is the second-largest urban area and third most-populous individual municipality in the country, after Helsinki and Espoo municipalities (2014 data). It's also the most populous Finnish city outside the Greater Helsinki area and inner Finland's major urban, economic and cultural hub.

Tampere is between two lakes, Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi. Since the two lakes differ in level by 18 metres (59 ft), the rapids linking them, Tammerkoski, have been an important power source throughout history, most recently for generating electricity. Tampere is dubbed the "Manchester of Finland" for its industrial past as the former center of Finnish industry, and this has given rise to its Finnish nickname "Manse" and terms such as "Manserock".

Helsinki is approximately 160 kilometres (99 mi) south of Tampere, and can be reached in 1.5 hours by train and 2 hours by car. The distance to Turku is roughly the same. Tampere–Pirkkala Airport is Finland's third-busiest airport, with over 400,000 passengers annually.

This is the second time in the contest that AwlaVision Song Contest is held in Finland, and the first time that it's held in Tampere.

## Participants

28 countries participated in the edition.

### **Debuting countries**

Bellow a list of all debuting countries:

* Czechia
* Latvia
* Lithuania

### **Returning countries**

Bellow a list of all returning countries:

* Kazakhstan

## See also

* AwlaVision Song Contest
* AwlaVision Song Contest 1
* AwlaVision Song Contest 2
* AwlaVision Song Contest 3
* AwlaVision Song Contest 4
* AwlaVision Song Contest 5
* AwlaVision Song Contest 6