EuroMusic Song Contest 40

Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Broadcaster
 Opening act
 Interval act
 Entries
 Returning
 System
 Winner

The EuroMusic Song Contest 40 was the fortieth edition of the EuroMusic Song Contest. Because Australia won the previous edition, with the song *Sound of silence*, SBS had to select another country to host this edition. According the rules, Australia cannot host the contest in their territory, because they are situated in Oceania. The Australian broadcaster could co-host this edition together with their choosen broadcaster. Through a selection, they decided to host this edition together with Germany. It was the fifth edition hosted by the German broadcaster but the first time Hamburg hosted the contest.

Cyprus won this edition with the song "*Ela*", performed by Andromache. It was the second victory of the Mediterranean island. Their first victory dated back in the second edition. Sweden finished at the second place while Ukraine completed the top three. The returning nation Austria finished at the fourth place. These four countries all came from the second semi final, and finished at the same places. Belgium, who won the first semi final, finished at the fifth place in the grand final. Australia finished at the last place.

Thirty six countries participated in this edition. Three countries more as in the previous edition. Austria decided to return to the contest after an absence of 23 editions. Besides Austria, both Lithuania and Slovakia announced their return to the contest. The broadcasters from Monaco and North Macedonia showed some interests to return, but ultimately didn't show up at the list of participating countries.

## Location

Because the fact Australia can't host the contest in their own territory, SBS was able to choose a co-hosting nation. The same senario happend in the 12th edition and the 13th edition when the USA co-hosted the EuroMusic Song Contest. Countries could select one city and venue. At the end, the Australian broadcaster and the EBU decided who became the co-hosting nation. One of the requirements to meet was to have a venue with a capacity for about 8.000 spectators.

Croatia was the fourth country to officially apply as a host country. Split was chosen as a city. The candidature was positively received from the countries of the Balkan, like Albania and from former Yugoslavia, like Slovenia. These countries supported Croatia's candidacy. Croatia has never hosted the competition.

Copenhagen tried, just like in the 12th and 13th edition, to host this edition. Both times they came very close of hosting the contest. This was the first time however Denmark selected the Bella Centre instead of the Royal Arena. The Royal arena is significantly bigger than the Bella centre. Denmark is the only Scandinavian country who has never hosted the competition.

Montpellier was selected by France 1 to bring the festival to France. The country had never organised the festival until now. However, in both the 12th and 13th editions they applied to co-host the contest alongside the American broadcaster. Then respectively Nantes and Lyon were selected. However they were immediately eliminated in the first round, both times.

The German broadcaster was first to show interests to co-host the event. Already before the final, the head of delegation announced that if Australia would win, Germany would like to try to host the 4Oth edition. One day after the Australian victory, Germany officaly anncounced to select a city for and official bid. Later it was clear that the Barclays Arena, in Hamburg, was selected. Germany has already hosted the competition four times.

The Greek entry of the previous edition was seen as a big contender to take the victory. The Greek broadcaster confirmed that if Greece would win, they would be honored to again host the contest. They said they would try to bring the contest to other Greek cities, like Patras or Heraklion. It would be the first time, a country hosts the contest for three consecutive editions. When it was clear that Greece finished at the second place, the broadcaster added to their statement that they had to receive the rights to host because of their placement in the previous edition. However, some days later it was clear that there were not suitable venues in Patras or Crete. A bit later, the Peace and Friendship Stadium was selected as venue for the Greek bid. The venue is located in Piraeus.

Milan announced to be selected by the Italian broadcaster. Besides Milan, Bologna, Rome and Genua were in the running as potential host cities. Italy has never hosted the competition.

The Netherlands confirmed their plans to co-host the event immediately after the Australian victory. The Dutch broadcaster was in contact with both Amsterdam and Rotterdam. However, both cities were ultimately uninterested in hosting the competition. As a result, AVROTROS started to negotiate with the city of Maastricht. A little later it was clear that Maastricht would become the Dutch candidate city. The country hosted the tenth edition, in Amsterdam.

The city of Seville announced that they were selected by the Spanish broadcaster as the Spanish candidate city. Other cities who tried to host this edition were: Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia. Spain hosted the very first edition the the EuroMusic Song Contest and hosted the 15th edition. Both times the contest took place in Madrid.

Sweden has announced that it will try to organise the 40th edition. Sweden has hosted the event five times. No country has organised it more. However, in the previous editions Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenborg hosted it. While now Lidköping was selected.

One of the big surprises came from the Turkish broadcaster. They announced that they would also submit a candidacy to organise the event. It later became clear that they had selected Istanbul as their candidate city. They have never hosted the contest before.

The United Kingdom announced that London would try to bring back the contest to the UK. OVO Arena Wembley was London's venue. In the past, the UK hosted the contest in Liverpool, in the fourth edition, and in Glasgow, in the 22nd edition.

The Czech broadcaster has announced its interest in submitting their application. There were rumors that this would be done in cooperation with the city of Brno. The venue would be the Brno Exhibition Centre, with a capacity around 10.000 people. However later on, the Czech broadcaster announced not to submit a bid. The Israeli broadcaster announced to select a venue and city. However they failed to submit a bid on time.

     Host venue
     Shortlisted

When the list of potential host countries was narrowed down to five potential host cities, the Australian broadcaster and the EBU started conversations. When the logo was revealed, it was clear that Hamburg had finally won the rights to host the festival, in collaboration with Australia.

## Format

### Number of participants

Since the seventh edition the EBU announced to put a maximum at the number of participants. In the seventh and eighth edition, eighteen countries were able to participate.

Because the introduction of the semi finals, there is no maximum of participating countries. However, since the seventeenth edition the EBU announced that they would put a new maximum of countries. This meant that 41 countries were able to sign for a participation. This means that each semi final would have 20 countries, plus the host nation (who qualify automatically). Until now, they never reached this limit. Because of the limited number of participants, there was no semi final.

From the 27th edition unitil the 30th edition, the last three countries have to withdraw from the competition. This is to give other countries the possibility to return to the contest because of the limited spots. From the the 31st until the 37th edition there is one semi-final, with a maximum of 20 countries. In the 38th edition, the two semi finals were reintroduced.

### Running order

There are specific rules about how a country gets his running order.

The host country will have a random number. The rest of the countries will be split in to groups (first- and second half). This will happen fully random. Later on, a team will create a running order to make the show as interesting as possible.

### Song

Each country sends one song to the contest. There are no rules about the language of the song, but the song can't be longer than five minutes.

### Voting rules

After that all the participating countries have sang their song, each single country awards a set of points. The country who gets the most amount of points wins the contest. If two or more countries receive the same number of points, the country that received from the most countries points, will be ranked higher. If that is also the same, then the country who have the highest rank of a country, will be ranked higher.

## Semi final allocation draw

* Estonia
* Finland
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Norway
* Sweden
* Georgia
* Israel
* Lithuania
* Romania
* Ukraine
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Croatia
* Montenegro
* Serbia
* Slovenia
* Türkiye
* France
* Greece
* Italy
* Malta
* Portugal
* Spain
* Belgium
* Czech Republic
* Netherlands
* Poland
* Slovakia
* United Kingdom

## Returning artists

The contest featured one representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same country.

## Scoreboard

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

### Grand Final

https://scorewiz.eu/scoreboard/view/652033/euromusic-song-contest-40---grand-final

### 12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

## Other Countries

### Returning countries

* Austria - The Austrian broadcaster announced that the country would return to take part in the 40th edition. The last time Austria took part was in the 17th edition.
* Lithuania - The national broadcaster already tried to return in the previous edition of the contest. However, due a lack of interested singers to represent the country, they decided to postpone their return for one edition.
* Slovakia - The last Slovak participation was in the 27th edition. They finished in last place and had to withdraw at the next edition. They had never returned until now. The Slovak broadcaster later stated that their surprising victory and organisation of the following edition had a huge financial impact and made future participations very unlikely.