EuroMusic Song Contest 42

Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Broadcaster
 Opening act
 Interval act
 Entries
 Returning
 System
 Winner

The EuroMusic Song Contest 42 was the forty-second edition of the EuroMusic Song Contest. Serbia was the host country, because they won the previous edition, with the song "*Dance like nobody's watching*". This was the first time that Serbia hosted this contest. Belgrade was selected to host this edition.

Thirty-seven countries participated in this edition. One country less as in the previous edition. Both Bulgaria and Latvia decded to return to the contest. The two broadcasters already showed interests to return. The Danish broadcaster announced to withdraw from the competition because of the recent disappointing results. The Dutch broadcaster withdrew because of the same reasons. The Slovak broadcaster withdrew because of the financial cost to take part. The Czech Republic is called Czechia since this edition.

## Location

The Serbian broadcaster announced that it would like to organise the festival. At the official press conference after their victory, they said to be proud that the EuroMusic would come in Serbia for the first time.

RTS announced some days later that Belgrade would host this edition. At the end the Štark Arena was selected. It has a capacity of 20.094 spectators.

## Format

### Number of participants

Since the seventh edition the EBU announced to put a maximum at the number of participants. In the seventh and eighth edition, eighteen countries were able to participate.

Because the introduction of the semi finals, there is no maximum of participating countries. However, since the seventeenth edition the EBU announced that they would put a new maximum of countries. This meant that 41 countries were able to sign for a participation. This means that each semi final would have 20 countries, plus the host nation (who qualify automatically). Until now, they never reached this limit. Because of the limited number of participants, there was no semi final.

From the 27th edition unitil the 30th edition, the last three countries have to withdraw from the competition. This is to give other countries the possibility to return to the contest because of the limited spots. From the the 31st until the 37th edition there is one semi-final, with a maximum of 20 countries. In the 38th edition, the two semi finals were reintroduced.

### Running order

There are specific rules about how a country gets his running order.

The host country will have a random number. The rest of the countries will be split in to groups (first- and second half). This will happen fully random. Later on, a team will create a running order to make the show as interesting as possible.

### Song

Each country sends one song to the contest. There are no rules about the language of the song, but the song can't be longer than five minutes.

### Voting rules

After that all the participating countries have sang their song, each single country awards a set of points. The country who gets the most amount of points wins the contest. If two or more countries receive the same number of points, the country that received from the most countries points, will be ranked higher. If that is also the same, then the country who have the highest rank of a country, will be ranked higher.

## Semi final allocation draw

* Georgia
* Israel
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Ukraine
* Estonia
* Finland
* Iceland
* Norway
* Sweden
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Croatia
* Montenegro
* North Macedonia
* Slovenia
* Czechia
* Poland
* Romania
* San Marino
* Türkiye
* Belgium
* France
* Germany
* Ireland
* United Kingdom
* Greece
* Italy
* Malta
* Portugal
* Spain

## Returning artists

The contest featured two representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same country.

## Scoreboard

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

## Other Countries

### Returning countries

* Bulgaria - The Bulgarian broadcaster already showed some interests to return for some editions ago but due financial difficulties they postponed their return. At the end of the 41st edition, they announced to return. The last time Bulgaria took part was in the 27th edition.
* Latvia - When the Lithuanian broadcaster announced their return in the 40th edition, there were rumors that Latvia would also return. The Latvian broadcaster said in a statement that they are trying to return as soon as possible. When the EBU published the official list of participating countries, it was clear that Latvia would participate in this edition.

### Withdrawing countries

* Denmark - The decision not to select an entry for this edition was mainly due to the disappointing results in the previous editions. The Danish broadcaster later confirmed that it would be a break for one edition before returning strongly in the 43rd edition.
* Netherlands - The Dutch broadcaster announced that it would withdraw from the festival. The disappointing results were the main reason for the decision.
* Slovakia - The country wasn't named on the official list of participating countries.