Our Perfect Song Contest 21

**Our Perfect Song Contest 21** is the twenty-first edition of Our Perfect Song Contest. The contest took place in **Attard** after **Malta's** victory with MARINA in the 20th edition. A total of 50 countries competed in Our Perfect Song Contest 21. The big 6, which consists of Malta, Australia, Finland, South Korea, Japan and Russia are automatically pre-qualified to the final.

To see previous edition, click **here**. To see the next edition, click here.

## **Location**

### ***Host Country***

**Malta**, officially known as the **Republic of Malta**  and formerly Melita, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km (50 mi) south of Italy, 284 km (176 mi) east of Tunisia, and 333 km (207 mi) north of Libya. With a population of about 515,000 over an area of 316 km2 (122 sq mi), Malta is the world's tenth smallest country in area and fourth most densely populated sovereign country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at 0.8 km2 (0.31 sq mi). The official and national language is Maltese, which is descended from Sicilian Arabic that developed during the Emirate of Sicily, while English serves as the second official language. Italian and Sicilian also previously served as official and cultural languages on the island for centuries, with Italian being an official language in Malta until 1934 and a majority of the current Maltese population being at least conversational in the Italian language.

### ***Host City***

**Attard** (Maltese: *Ħ'Attard*) is a town in the Central Region of Malta. Together with Balzan and Lija it forms part of "the Three Villages" and has been inhabited since the Classical Period. It has a population of 10,650 as of March 2014. Attard's traditional Latin motto is *Florigera rosis halo* ("I perfume the air with my blossoms") due to its many flower gardens and citrus orchards. Attard is abundant with public gardens. The inhabitants of Attard are known as *saraċini*.

### ***Venue***

#### ***Venue information***

The **Malta Fairs & Conventions Centre** (MFCC) is a multi-purpose venue located in Attard, Malta. The venue was established in December 2006 on part of the former Royal Air Force base at Ta Kali which closed in 1968. It has since become the most successful venue in Malta. Prior to opening in Malta, the venue was used by Wembley Arena as a temporary concert venue whilst the main arena was undergoing refurbishment work during 2005 and 2006. The venue is a Tension Fabric Structure and it has a total floor space of 7,000 m2 (8,400 sq yd) with a 17.5m apex. The structure contains three RS Marquee Arches with a 20 tonne rigging capacity each. A bespoke removable track system means each six-metre wide arch can be moved along the length of the structure to provide overhead load-bearing capabilities in any position to accommodate the incoming production requirements.

#### ***Hosting Bids***

The table below shows the hosting bids of OPSC 20 venues.

 Marsa

## **Format**

### ***Host***

#### **Michela Pace**

**Michela Pace** (born 25 January 2001) is a Maltese singer who won the inaugural season of Malta's version of *The X Factor* in 2019. As a prize for her win, she represented Malta at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Chameleon" written by Joacim Persson; Paula Winger; Borislav Milanov and Johan Alkenäs, while also winning a contract with Sony Music Italy.

### ***Visual Design***

On the 15th of December, the OPBU has officially released the artwork for the 21st edition of Our Perfect Song Contest hosted in Attard. The picked slogan is "Enjoy", which was explained by:

*Following Marina's victory with her colourful pop song Froot we've decided to put the focus of this theme art on all the pastel colours there are, taking a few steps away from the usually monochromatic themes, and flowing, wave-like structures!*

### ***Voting***

The voting format for OPSC is each country awarding points from their professional jury of 12, 10, 8-1. The participants have to give two different sets of votes - One will be jury, the other one will be Televote.

### ***Big 6***

In the contest, the top six from the previous edition make up a **Big 6**, in different way **Pre-Qualified** or **Automatically qualiified** countries. The six countries won't compete in the Semi-Finals, but they will mandatory have to vote in them. Due to the format change of the contest, the Big 6 countries' HoD's were allowed to change their countries. The big 6 members of OPSC 21 are:  Malta,  Australia,  Finland,  South Korea,  Japan and  Russia

### ***Pre-Qualification Round***

Since the 21st edition of Our Perfect Song Contest, the OPBU has decided to host a Pre-qualification Round. The bottom 10 of the 20th edition will participate in the PQR. A total of 3 countries will qualify from the round and will make it to the Semi Finals.

### ***Semi-Finals***

In the Semi-Finals, a total of 44 countries will compete. 44 competeting nations from the current edition will be split into two semi-finals. There will be 19 competeting countries in each semi-final. The top 10 songs will make it to the Grand Final and continue fighting for the win.

### ***Grand Final***

The Final will consist of 26 countries that participated in the edition. The countries competeting in the Grand Final will be the Pre-qualified countries and 20 qualifiers from the Semi-Finals. All countries competeting in the edition will have to vote in the show, containing the Non-Qualifiers. The winner will be chosen by the Proffesional Jury votes and Televote.

## **Participating Countries**

### ***Pre-Qualification Round***

The pre-qualification round took place on 27 December 2020. All PQR participants must vote.

### ***Semi-Final 1***

Twenty countries participated in the first semi-final. Australia, Finland and Japan also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### ***Semi-Final 2***

.Twenty countries participated in the second semi-final. Malta, Russia and South Korea also voted in this semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.