OVSC25

## OrbisVision Song Contest #25

 Four past Eurovision songs from Switzerland, representing the country's four official languages.

## Participants

### Debuting

 Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Jordan

### Returning

 Algeria
  Andorra
  Armenia
  Austria
  Belgium
  Cuba
  Czechia
  Gibraltar
 Indonesia
  Liechtenstein
  Lithuania
  Luxembourg
  Netherlands
  Nicaragua
  North Macedonia
  Portugal
  South Africa
  Syria
  Ukraine

### Withdrawing

 Albania
  Burkina Faso
  Republic of the Congo
  Greece
  Guam
  Hong Kong
  Iran
  Isle of Man
  Lebanon
  Macau
  Malaysia
  Mexico
  Moldova
  Palau
  Poland
  Puerto Rico
 Serbia
  Thailand
  US Virgin Islands
  Uzbekistan
  Vietnam

## Voting

### System

Each country awards a set of 1 - 7 points, followed by 8, 10 and 12 points for their top 3 favourite songs

### Winner

 Canada
 "10:35" by Tiësto feat. Tate McRae

After their shocker of a win in Hong Kong, OVSC came back to Europe, this time in the Swiss city of Lausanne for the first time for its 25th edition.

This was Switzerland's first time hosting the contest, as well as the 12th time the contest was hosted in Europe.

44 countries confirmed their participation.

The contest consisted of 3 shows, 2 semi-finals and a Grand Final.

The contest was won for the first time by Canada, with the song "10:35" by Tiësto feat. Tate McRae. This was only the second time a country in North America had won the contest and the fourth time a country in the Americas won overall, after the US, Brazil and Honduras.

## Location

### Host city

Lausanne (***Losanna*** in Italian and Romansh, ***Losena*** in Franco-Provençal), the capital of the Swiss canton of Vaud, is a city of 140,000 people (2020) that sits at the northernmost point of Lake Geneva (Lac Léman).

It is the public transport hub of Vaud, and a gateway to the alpine Canton of the Valais, home to some of the best-known ski slopes in the world.

Lausanne is also the fourth-largest city in Switzerland after Basel, Geneva and Zürich.

The city is the host to the International Olympic Committee (hence its nickname of the Olympic Capital) and two major universities.

As you might expect the large student population makes for a lively nightlife and arts community, revolving around the Flon district.

You'll also find a number of quality restaurants and two dozen museums of note, including the Olympic Museum and the offbeat Collection de l'Art Brut.

    Architecture buffs will find the best preserved Gothic cathedral in Switzerland at the top of the town.
Despite being a very international city (42% of its population in 2013 were foreign nationals), Lausanne is a French-speaking city.

English is not as commonly spoken as in Geneva and you will probably have trouble communicating with an average person on the street.

Most service-sector employees speak a little English however, and the level of English amongst young Swiss tends to be high (amongst the older generation it is German that tends to be far stronger).

A visitor will have little trouble getting around with just English.

There has been a settlement on the hill of Lausanne since at least the stone age, but most histories of the city trace its origin to the Roman camp Lausanna which occupied a position just down the hill toward the lake in what is now the village of Vidy.

Relocated to a more defensible hilltop in the Middle Ages, Lausanne's increasing wealth and importance were largely derived from its placement on the primary north-south routes between Italy and the north sea.

    It was the first major town north of the Saint Bernard pass, at least until the establishment of the bishopric of Valais.
In 1536 the Bernese took the city from the Dukes of Savoy as part of their drive to secure their southwestern frontier.

    The Bernese held the territory until Lausanne gained its independence from Berne after the invasion of a French army under Napoléon Bonaparte in 1798.

The city was later, in 1803, admitted to Switzerland as the capital of Vaud.
Lavaux, the mini region of the northwestern shore of Lake Geneva from Lausanne to Montreux (sometimes called the Swiss Riviera) has been a second home to writers, artists and musicians for about 150 years starting with the Shelleys and Lord Byron, who partied and wrote in Lausanne (*Frankenstein* is rumoured to have been composed here).

Other famous residents include Ernest Hemingway, who wintered here with his young family around the time related in *A Movable Feast* and Charlie Chaplin who lived in Vevey from the mid-1930s on.

In Montreux, you can also find a statue of the late Freddie Mercury, the lead vocalist of English rock icons Queen. Montreux is also famous for its mild microclimate and its yearly Jazz Festival, held every July.

### Venue

The Vaudoise Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Prilly, a western suburb of Lausanne in Switzerland. Opened in September 2019, it was built on the site of the former, now demolished, CIG de Malley.

The arena serves as the home for Lausanne HC of the National League (NL).

The facility was built for hosting the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics and is one of two venues that was intended to host the 2020 IIHF World Championship, though at a reduced capacity of 8,500.

The complex includes three ice rinks (the main ice rink, a training field and an outdoor ice rink). The plans also include a fencing center, a table tennis hall and a swimming pool with three pools and 1,000 spectator seats that is scheduled for completion in 2021. Vaudoise Aréna is the center of the new Malley Sports Centre.

Provisionally named Espace Malley, the facility adopted its final name in September 2018, after a sponsorship agreement with the insurance company Vaudoise assurances.

Local hockey clubs played in a temporary 6,700-seat ice rink (Malley 2.0), following the closure of Patinoire de Malley in 2017 and while construction work on the 9,600-seat Vaudoise Aréna took place. It was established as the largest temporary ice hockey arena in the world.

24 September 2019 saw its inaugural match of the 2019–20 NL season, which was between Lausanne and Genève-Servette HC. The Genevans won this Lemanic derby with a score of 5–3.

On 30 September 2019, Lausanne HC hosted the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL for a gala match as part of the "2019 Global Series NHL Challenge". Leading 4–0 early in the second period, the Swiss team defeated the Pennsylvania franchise (4–3).

The venue will host matches for the 2028 European Men's Handball Championship, which Switzerland is co-hosting with Spain and Portugal.

In July 2020, the Pétanque World Championships was supposed to be held at Vaudoise Aréna, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

### Bidding process

SRG SSR, after becoming the new host broadcaster, decided to have a bidding process take place with 5 cities submitting their bids to be chosen as the host city of the 25th OrbisVision Song Contest.

After a landslide against Bern, Zürich, Basel and Geneva, Lausanne came out as the winning bid and was immediately confirmed as host city of OVSC25 with the 12,000-capacity Vaudoise Aréna chosen as the venue. French-language Swiss broadcaster RTS was also confirmed as a host broadcaster.

Winning bid is marked in blue, other bids are marked in magenta.

 Zürich
 Lausanne
 Basel
 Geneva

## Participating countries

### Semi-final 1

Norway, Spain and South Korea will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.

### Semi-final 2

Switzerland, North Korea and Italy will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.