European Singing Competition 35

## European Singing Competition

Previous: 34
Next: 36

**European Singing Competition 35**, often referred to as ESC #35, is the thirty-fifth edition of European Singing Competition. The contest took place in Bologna, Italy, following Fulminacci's victory in the 34th edition. This is the fourth time that Italy hosted the contest. The event was hosted by Alessandro Cattelan, Chiara Ferragni and Mario Acampa. The event was hosted in the Unipol Arena with a capacity of 20.000. The host broadcaster was RAI.

Fourty four countries participated in the thirty-fifth edition. The participating countries, except of the host Italy, Hungary, New Zealand, Ukraine, San Marino and Malta competed in two semi-finals. Azerbaijan and Turkey qualified from the Pre-Qualification Round 12.

RAI requested the introduction of an enforced native language rule, which was rejected by the EMBU. Instead, the Italian broadcaster simply urged the participating broadcasters to promote their linguistic diversity following the success of non english songs in the previous edition.

The winner was the United Kingdom with the song "High Tops" by Del Water Gap which scored 498 points, winning by a margin of 102 points in front of Poland, which achieved its first top 3 result since the very first edition. The podium was completed by Greece, which finished on the third place. The host country Italy ended 5th. The top 6 was rounded up by Finland, Italy and Serbia. This marked the third victory of the United Kingdom, having previously won in the 25th and the 29th edition. This edition saw Georgia repeating their best result, a 7th place they last achieved 30 editions ago. Spain and Slovenia reached the top 10 (9th and 10th respectively) for the first time in 12 and 25 editions each. France, San Marino, Canada and the Faroe Islands all got their worst results ever, getting 21st, last in the final, 14th in the semifinal and 17th in the semifinal respectively. Ukraine kept their successful top 10 streak for the fourth edition in a row. Serbia ending 6th achieved their second best result ever.

## Location

The contest took place for the fourth time in Italy.

### Bidding phase and host city selection

**Key**:
     Host venue

 Milan
 Pesaro
 Rome
 Turin

## Returning Artists

Aidan will return for Malta, having previously ended last in the semifinal of the 27th edition with his song "Drums". Lee Triffon will return to represent Israel for the second time, having previously ended 12th in the semifinal of the 4th edition.

Aysat will be representing Monaco, having previously competed for her homeland France in European Singing Competition Second Chance Contest 4, where she ended 5th with her song "On M'a Dit".

## Participating countries

### **Semi-final Allocation Draw**

The thirty-eight semi-finalists were allocated into six pots, based on their geographical place and cultural similarities. Drawing from different pots helps in reducing the chance of so-called neighbour voting and increasing suspense in the semi-finals. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final and half of the semi-final was determined.

The six pots were the following:

* Lebanon
* Monaco
* Turkey
* Kosovo
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Faroe Islands
* Finland
* Norway
* Sweden
* Azerbaijan
* Georgia
* Latvia
 Pot 5
 * Andorra
* Cyprus
* Gibraltar
* Greece
* Spain
* Iceland
* Poland
* Slovakia
* Switzerland
* Ireland
* Luxembourg
* The Netherlands
* United Kingdom
* Estonia
* Israel
* Romania
* United States

### **Semi-final 1**

Nineteen countries participated in the first semi-final. The ten highlighted ones qualified for the final. Every country in this semifinal voted alongside  Hungary,  New Zealand and  Ukraine.

### **Semi-final 2**

Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. The ten highlighted ones qualified for the final. Every country in this semifinal voted alongside the host  Italy,  Malta and  San Marino.

### **Grand Final**

26 countries competed in the Grand Final, while all 44 participants voted.

## Voting

### Semifinal 1

##### 12 Points

Televoting
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the first semi-final:

##### 12 Points

Jury
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's jury in the first semi-final:

### Semifinal 2

##### 12 Points

Televoting
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the second semi-final:

##### 12 Points

Jury
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's jury in the second semi-final:

### Final

##### 12 Points

Televoting

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's televote in the grand final:

##### 12 Points

Jury

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country's jury in the grand final:

## Fan Voting

Fan voting took place again this edition, the top 5 of the final outcome was the following.

 Greece | Die Arkitekt ft. Lena Platonos
 Serbia | S.A.R.S.
 Sweden | Hindarfjäll
 France | Maya Kamaty

## Broadcasts

Countries may add commentary from commentators working on-location or remotely at the broadcaster. Commentators can add insight to the participating entries and the provision of voting information.

1. ↑ Contains words in Spanish.
2. ↑ Contains words in Spanish.