Zone Song Contest 11

Final
 Venue
 Entries
 Debuting
**Participation map**
* Participating countries     Did not qualify from the semi final or the PSR     Countries that participated in the past but not this edition
 System
 Winner

**Zone Song Contest 11**, often referred as **ZSC 11**, was the eleventh edition of the Zone Song Contest. This edition was located in France as host country. FTV was the TV station chosen by the French delegation to televise and organize such important event of this dimensions for all Europe and the world after their first victory at the tenth edition with the singer *Juliette Armanet* and the song *"Le Dernier Jour Du Disco"* with *464 points* in a final voting where the jury and the televote agreed on their winner for the second time. France won with a considerable distance from its main competitors, 37 points from the United Kingdom and 84 from Denmark who completed the Top 3.

On December 22, 2021, the French public broadcaster FTV released a statement together with the ZBU revealing that Australia had been invited to participate in the eleventh edition of the Zone Song Contest. In said statement was also announced that they would reveal more information about the Australian participation. The public chain SBS will have its own national final and will have options to win, in case that this scenario happens the SBS would have the right to participate again and help to organize the festival with the country that obtained the second position, since they are only a guest country for one edition and not a full part of the ZBU.

The presenters of the edition were the first to be revealed, before the dates, slogan, logo or the venue of the edition in a special statement from the FTV. As of December 30 just before the end of the year, the statement suggested that it would be an edition based on and for the music so the two hosts of the edition would be artists and presenters. Amel Bent and Matt Pokora were chosen to host both semi-finals and the Grand Final. On the other hand Frederic Tonton was the host of the Green Room.

From January 1, 2022, the Zone Broadcasting Union gave two weeks for the countries to make the decision to return, continue, debut or withdraw from the contest. A total of **44** countries confirmed their presence in the eleventh edition, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina decided to withdraw from the festival. The Australian debut and the return of San Marino matched the number of participants to last edition's. The rest of the countries confirmed before the deadline of the term on January 16.

## Location

**France** is a transcontinental country spanning Western Europe and overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra and Spain in Europe, as well as the Netherlands, Suriname and Brazil in the Americas. Its eighteen integral regions (five of which are overseas) span a combined area of 643,801 km (248,573 sq mi) and over 67 million people. France is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre; other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

**Paris** is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,175,601 residents as of 2018, in an area of more than 105 square kilometres (41 square miles). Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, gastronomy, science, and arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the region and province of Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated population of 12,174,880, or about 18 percent of the population of France as of 2017.

### Bidding phase

As of December 26, 2021, the French HoD Christophe Romaine officially presented the rules that French cities should meet in order to hold the contest. The basic requirements to select a host city were set out in a document presented by the ZBU to FTV:

* A suitable venue that can accommodate around at least 10,000 spectators.
* An international press centre for 1,500 journalists with adequate facilities for all the delegates.
* A good distribution of hotel rooms, at different price categories, able to accommodate at least 2,000 delegates, accredited journalists and spectators.
* An efficient transport infrastructure, including a nearby international airport with readily available connections with the city, venue, and hotels.

On 13 January five cities were announced with possibilities to host the contest, they were:

**Key**
  †  Host venue   ‡  Shortlisted venues

 Paris | Parc des Princes † | 48,710

## Format

### Allocation Draw

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place on February 11 2022 at 16:00 CET, at the *Palais Des Congrès de Paris*  located in Paris. The organizing committee of the festival decided to do the second allocation draw there. As well as holding a presentation for the host city, Paris.
The thirty-eight semi-finalists had been allocated into six pots, based on their geographical place and cultural similarities. Drawing from different pots helps to reduce the chance of so-called "bloc voting" and 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: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and the guest country Australia. It was also decided in which Semi-Final each member of the Big 5 + Australia should vote.

* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* North Macedonia
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Belgium
* Malta
* Netherlands
* Portugal
* Switzerland
* Greece
* Israel
* Moldova
* Romania
 Pot 4
 * Czechia
* Estonia
* Hungary
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Poland
* Slovakia
* Azerbaijan
* Belarus
* Georgia
* Russia
* Türkiye
* Ukraine
* Finland
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Norway
* Sweden

## Participants

1.**^** Contains some phrases in Polish.
2.**^** Contains some verses in Albanian.
## Results

### Semi-Final 1

Germany, Italy and United Kingdom will also vote in this semi-final.

### Semi-Final 2

Australia, France and Spain will also vote in this semi-final.

## Incidents

### Belarusian unprecedented withdrawal

After the revamped Belarusian national final was held for the first time, the winner of "*Pieramožam Darahaja*" relinquished victory at the winner press conference. The scandal provoked reactions of all kinds calling for the expulsion of Belarus but the ZBU gave them a very limited time to comply with the rules and submit a song that complies with the rules. Making the runners-up finally selected to represent Belarus in the eleventh edition.

## External Links

* Google Drive
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* Youtube