The New Eurovision Song Contest 11

## The New Eurovision Song Contest 11*Light Your Life*

**Semi-final 2:** "Shallow (A Star Is Born)" performed by Baran, Shadmehr and Mahan Moin
**Semi-final 3:** "Goalie Goalie" performed by Arash, Nyusha, Pitbull and Blanco
**Grand Final:** Orchestral version of "Elysium" performed by Mahan Moin (together with Amanda Delara)

### Interval act

**Semi-final 1:** A mashup of "Wake Me Up" and "Lonely Together" remixed by DJ Borhan
**Semi-final 2:** TBD
**Semi-final 3:** TBD
**Grand Final:** Former TNESC winners along with traditional Persian instruments

## Vote

### Voting system

Each country awards 12, 10, 8-1 points to their 10 favourite songs

## The New Eurovision Song Contest

###

10  12

**The New Eurovision Song Contest 11**was the eleventh edition of The New Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Tehran, Iran. It is the second time the contest will take place in the Iran after Mahan Moin won the tenth edition with her song "Elysium".
67 countries participated in this edition. Armenia and Croatia returned to the contest after a one-edition absence. No country debuted or withdrew from the contest.

Turkey was the winner of the edition with the song "One Thing" performed by Lyan ft. Serel which scored 197 points, just only 11 points ahead the runner-up Algeria. This is the first time that the country wins the contest. Kosovo finished in third place, which they achieved their best result since their debut. Canada, Romania and France were on fourth, fifth and sixth places.

## Host Venue

The Azadi Stadium, formerly known as Aryamehr Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Tehran, Iran. The stadium was designed by SOM, an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was inaugurated on 18 October 1971 under the Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran; it is currently self-owned by Esteghlal and Persepolis. It is also the home stadium of the Iran national football team. It has a capacity of 100,000 spectators, though it has been able to hold more than that during special matches. The stadium is part of the much larger Azadi Sport Complex, and is surrounded by a rowing river, football training pitches, a weightlifting complex, swimming facilities and indoor volleyball and futsal courts, among many other amenities.

The stadium is located in the West of Tehran, near Ekbatan district, and is easily accessible for most people living in the city. The stadium has two entrances. The West entrance is located on Ferdous street and the East entrance is on Farhangian street.

The Azadi Stadium was constructed by Arme Construction Company and designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill for the 7th Asian Games in 1974 with international criteria. Its land measurement is 450 Hectares and it is located in West Tehran. It replaced the Amjadieh Stadium as the new home of Iran's national football team.

The stadium was built as part of a much larger complex which included numerous Olympic-sized venues for various sports, laying the groundwork for ambitious plans for Tehran to make a bid to host the Summer Olympics. In August of 1975, Iran's Shah, Tehran's Mayor and the Iranian Olympic Committee submitted a formal letter to the IOC, notifying it of Iran's interest in hosting the 1984 Summer Games. The stadium was the focal point for the bid, in which it would have only required slight modifications to become the main Olympic Stadium. But political unrest in the late-1970s saw Tehran drop its bid for Games, leaving the eventual host, Los Angeles, the only city left bidding.

Renovations first began on the stadium in 2002, when the lower level had seats installed and the pitch was replanted along with the installation of an underground heating system. Stadium management also planned to later install seats in the upper level of the stadium. Those renovations were completed in 2003, and brought down the capacity of the stadium to well under 100,000. Later upgrades to the stadium brought it down to its current capacity of 78,116. Despite its reduced capacity, Azadi Stadium has been filled over capacity at times such as the Iran-Japan World Cup 2006 qualification match in March 2005 which resulted in the deaths of seven people. In 2004 a large jumbotron television was added, replacing the original scoreboard. This giant screen with a total area of about 300 square meters and screen area of 104 square meters (20 m by 7.5 m) is one of the biggest in the world. The stadium hosted two West Asian Football Federation Championship in 2004 and 2008. In 2008, AFC forced Sepahan to play the home matches in AFC Champions League in this stadium after their home stadium Naghsh-e-Jahan Stadium was closed for renovation. The stadium also is the regular host for Iran U-23 for the Olympics football qualifying.

In recent years the Iranian Football Federation has repeatedly submitted bids to host the AFC Asian Cup, which Iran last hosted in 1976. But some officials have hinted that rules in Iran banning women from stadiums like Azadi have kept international sports organizations from staging events there. Iranian women have been banned from watching matches at Azadi Stadium since 1982.

Aryamehr (meaning "Light of the Aryans") was the title of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, it was renamed after the Iranian Revolution to Azadi (meaning "freedom" in Persian), is the 10th largest association football stadium in the world. It was built to host the 1974 Asian Games and has hosted the 1976 AFC Asian Cup. The stadium also hosted AFC Champions League final on two occasions: in 1999 and 2002.

## Location

Tehran is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With a population of around 8.8 million in the city and 15 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most populous city in Iran and Western Asia, and has the second-largest metropolitan area in the Middle East. It is ranked 29th in the world by the population of its metropolitan area.

In the Classical era, part of the territory of present-day Tehran was occupied by Rhages, a prominent Median city. It was subject to destruction through the medieval Arab, Turkic, and Mongol invasions. Its modern-day inheritor remains as an urban area absorbed into the metropolitan area of Greater Tehran.

Tehran was first chosen as the capital of Iran by Agha Mohammad Khan of the Qajar dynasty in 1796, in order to remain within close reach of Iran's territories in the Caucasus, before being separated from Iran as a result of the Russo-Iranian Wars, and to avoid the vying factions of the previously ruling Iranian dynasties. The capital has been moved several times throughout the history, and Tehran is the 32nd national capital of Iran. Large scale demolition and rebuilding began in the 1920s, and Tehran has been a destination for mass migrations from all over Iran since the 20th century.

Tehran is home to many historical collections, including the royal complexes of Golestan, Sa'dabad, and Niavaran, where the two last dynasties of the former Imperial State of Iran were seated. Tehran's most famous landmarks include the Azadi Tower, a memorial built under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1971 to mark the 2,500th year of the foundation of the Imperial State of Iran, and the Milad Tower, the world's sixth-tallest self-supporting tower which was completed in 2007. The Tabiat Bridge, a newly-built landmark, was completed in 2014.

The majority of the population of Tehran are Persian-speaking people, and roughly 99% of the population understand and speak Persian, but there are large populations of other ethno-linguistic groups who live in Tehran and speak Persian as a second language.

Tehran is served by the international airports of Mehrabad and Khomeini, a central railway station, the rapid transit system of Tehran Metro, a bus rapid transit system, trolleybuses, and a large network of highways.

There have been plans to relocate Iran's capital from Tehran to another area, due mainly to air pollution and the city's exposure to earthquakes. To date, no definitive plans have been approved. A 2016 survey of 230 cities by consultant Mercer ranked Tehran 203rd for quality of life. According to the Global Destinations Cities Index in 2016, Tehran is among the top ten fastest growing destinations.

## Results

#### **Semi-final 1**

* The ten countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country will qualify for the Grand Final.

#### **Semi-final 2**

* The ten countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country will qualify for the Grand Final.

#### **Semi-final 3**

* The ten countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country will qualify for the Grand Final.

#### **Grand Final**

* Thirty-one countries participated in the final, with all countries participating in the contest eligible to vote.
* Non-qualifying countries will be counted as televoting.

## Other Countries

* Egypt - On 25 October 2018, it was reported that ERTU had submitted a preliminary application in order to compete in the eleventh edition, meaning that Egypt would return to the contest after a seven-edition break. However, on 28 October 2018, ERTU confirmed that they would not return to the contest.
* Faroe Islands - Kringvarp Føroya (KVF) announced via their official website that they are currently working to apply for TNEBU membership, despite being a constituent part of the Kingdom of Denmark. However, the Faroe Islands wasn't in the final list of participants.
* Palau - On 26 October 2018, Palauan vice-present Raynold Oilouch has expressed his ambitions of Palau for participating in the contest, and the government would collaborate with regional Japanese broadcaster TVQ Kyushu in order to have a broadcaster to take part. However, TVQ Kyushu has declined such plans, stating their lack of interest in the collaboration, forcing Palau to pull out from participation.
* Tunisia  - On 20 October 2018, ERTT announced that they would not be returning to the contest in the eleventh edition.