TESCO8

Fly Together

### Debuting

South Africa, Puerto Rico, Falkland Islands, Belgium, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Vatican City

### Withdrawing

Lithuania, France, Caribbean Netherlands, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Israel, Canada, Ireland, Slovenia(dq), Greece(dq)

Previous: TESCO7
Next: TESCO9

**TESCO8** is the most recent, and final edition of the contest. It was hosted in Armenia, after their win in TESCO7.

## Slogan and Artwork

The artwork and slogan, decided by winning & hosting HoD of Armenia, Emery, decided the slogan to be Fly Together. The slogan goes around the theme of bees. The artwork shoes an image of the nature of Yerevan, with bees on the top and bottom, and the word TESCO (the O being shown as the Armenia flag heart). Above TESCO, the slogan "Fly Together", and below it, the host city and edition "Yerevan 08".

## Host

The host city, Yerevan, is the capital city of Armenia, and the winning artist of TESCO7, Srbuk's, birthplace. TESCO8 is the first ever contest hosted in a capital city. Yerevan was founded in 782 BC, and was declared a city in 1879 while it was part of Russia.

## Incidents

### Disqualification

This edition, two countries Slovenia and Greece were disqualified, for not submitting a song within the deadline. The team at TESCO originally planned to find two replacements, however could only find one, the Vatican City. They allowed the Vatican City to participate despite joining far after the deadline, due to them dropping below the 34 country limit.

### Semi Finals Results Delay

The semi finals this edition had extremely delayed results. The results were originally planned to take place around August 7th, however they didn't take place until October 22nd. This was due to restrictions due to covid-19.

### Televotes

There were originally going to be televotes, and some countries even submitted their semi final televotes, however televoting was eventually cancelled due to restrictions around covid-19.

### Delayed Grand Final Voting

Due to covid-19, when the grand final voting should've begun immediately after the results on October 22nd, they instead didn't start until November 6th, over 2 weeks later.

### Staff and HoD Withdrawal

Due to the delays, a number of HoD's in the contest, Wales, San Marino, Bulgaria, Vatican City, Falkland Islands, Norway, and Luxembourg declared that TESCO8 would be their last participation for now, and for their country to participate again it would require a new HoD. As well as this, one of the contest's owners, Adam, stepped down from his position and became a regular staff member.

### Grand Final Results Delay

The grand final had extremely delayed results. Scheduled originally to take place in August 2020, then rescheduled to November 2020, they eventually happened in February 2021. This delay also caused issues and changes with the voting.

## Participants

The following countries participated in the contest.

## Semi Finals

The semi final allocation draw happened on the 30th of July 2020. The results were delayed and did not happen until October 2020.

### Semi Final 1

Norway, South Korea & Australia will vote in the first semi final.

### Semi Final 2

United States, Cocos Islands & Armenia will vote in the second semi final.

## Grand Final

The grand final running order was published at the same time as voting started, on the 6th of November 2020.