Mysterious Song Contest 35

Semi-finals dates
 Final dates
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Director
 Executive supervisor
 Host
 Opening act
 Interval act
 Number of entries
 Voting system
 Winning song

**Mysterious Song Contest** welcomes the world to  Fiji for the 35th Edition.

The Mysterious Song Contest #35 will be the 35th edition of the annual Mysterious Song Contest Wikia. It will take place in the **Vodafone Arena**, located in **Suva**,  Fiji, following the country's victory at the 34th edition with Brooke Fraser performing "Kings & Queens". This will be the 01st time the country hosts the contest.

The contest is scheduled to consist of 02 semi finals and finally the grand final, with official dates for the semi finals being **4th September 2017**. The grand final official date being the **11th September 2017**. All three live shows were hosted by **Lasarus Ratuere** and **Brooke Fraser**.

As of **21st August 2017** **48** countries participated in the contest. **3** countries have made their debut, The countries being  Costa Rica,  Cuba and  Turkmenistan **17** countries returned to the contest after absences, while **18** countries withdrew. The  US Virgin Islands had originally attempted to compete but due to financial complications they had been forced to withdraw, citing that they may return when we have a stable chance.

This will be the fourth edition where the voting will be displayed by separating the votes into qualifiers and non qualifying countries. The votes will be rewarded with the first set revealed from the finalists, revealing their points by their chosen spokespersons. The second set will be a total score from the non - finalists. The final result would be the total of both sets of votes.

## Location

**Fiji Television Limited**  Fiji, announced on **14th August 2017** that with the contest being held in  Fiji that any city, town or arena that would like to host the contest would had four days to apply to the broadcaster with their interest.

The following selection criteria were outlined for the selection of the host city:-

* The venue must be covered with a capacity of at least 7,000 but ideally up to 10,000 attendees.
* An international press centre must be able to accommodate no less than 1,550 journalists.
* Venues must also be provided for the opening and closing ceremonies of at least 3,000 attendees.
* The host city must be able to guarantee the safety and security of participants, members of delegations and guests.
* The host city must provide a social program alongside their bid, showcasing the hospitality, originality, cultural values and identity of both the city and Fiji.

     **Host City**

 Lautoka
 Suva
 Suva

The **Vodafone Arena** in **Suva**, which has a capacity of approximately 4,000 attendees, was announced as the host venue on **18th August 2017**. This will be the Arena's 1st time hosting the contest.

Despite the arena not meeting the requirement of a minimum capacity of 7,000, The MBU decided that the security and safety of participants and performers were of higher priority. Alongside this, the other locations were open spaces which were at risk to poor weather conditions.

## Presenters

On **23rd August 2017**, **Fiji Television Limited** announced that **Lasarus Ratuere** and **Brooke Fraser** will be the host of the 35th contest.

**Spokesperson #01**:- Lasarus Ratuere

Lasarus Ratuere (born 30 June 1985) is an Australian actor with part Fijian heritage. Born in Adelaide, Lasarus grew up in Brisbane, Australia.

He is known for his Helpmann Award nominated role as the troubled lad Paul Witt, with Belvoir St Theatre in the Australian play Kill the Messenger.

He also features as Ishikawa of Section 9 in the upcoming DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures feature film adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.

**Spokesperson #02**:- Brooke Fraser

Brooke Gabrielle Fraser Ligertwood, better known as Brooke Fraser (born 15 December 1983), is a New Zealand singer and songwriter best known for her victory in the Mysterious Song Contest #34 with her song Kings & Queens.

Fraser is the eldest of three children born to former All Black Bernie Fraser, who was born in Lautoka, Fiji, and his wife Lynda Fraser.

She is one of the top selling and most popular New Zealand recording artists of all time: her albums were certified 15× Platinum.

## Format

The competition will consist of 02 semi-finals and a final, a format which is being reintroduced into the contest to maximise the chances for all countries qualifying. The 10 countries with the highest scores in each semi-final will qualify to the grand final where they will join the top 6 countries from the previous edition  Albania,  Germany,  Puerto Rico,  Sweden,  United Kingdom and the host nation  Fiji.

Each participating country had their own national jury/HoD. Each member of a respective nation's jury is required to rank every song, except that of their own country, to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1 point.

## Participants

The following countries have confirmed their participation into the contest.

### Participant Map

**Table key**

     *The Big '6' Countries*
     *Participating Countries*
     *Countries That Failed To Qualify*
     *Withdrawing Countries*
     *Countries That Have Participated Before*

## Returning Artists

We welcome back some artists who have previous joined us in MSC.

* Armenia Iveta Mukuchyan [Prev. #34]
* Finland Cheek [Prev. #07]
* Greece Eleni Foureira [Prev. #18]
* Italy Francesca Michielin [Prev. #12, #24, #29]
* Japan Happiness [Prev. #34]
* Portugal David Carreira [Prev.  France #16]
* Singapore Gentle Bones [Prev. #26, #29]
* Puerto Rico Melanie Martinez [Prev.  Dominican Republic #25,#26,#27  Puerto Rico #29]
* Uzbekistan Rayhon [Prev. #21]
* Venezuela Romina Palmisano [Prev. #23]

Cheek is our oldest returnee, after competing 28 editions ago with a collaboration with Diandra and the song 'Fiiliksissä'. In edition #07, they had failed to qualify into the grand final. Cheek hopes to return and achieve a better result.

Melanie Martinez is the biggest returnee, returning for the fifth time after representing the  Dominican Republic three times and  Puerto Rico once prior to this edition. Melanie Martinez has only reached the final once in edition #25 with her song 'Pity Party' coming 19th.

Gentle Bones returns for the third time in Mysterious Song Contest. Gentle Bones debuted in edition #26 where he won the contest with his song 'Sixty Five' which made it the second time Singapore had won the contest, the previous being Daphne Khoo with 'Rooftops'. He then returned to edition #29 to reclaim the title and unfortunately failing to reach the grand final.

## Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 27th October. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists  Albania,  Germany,  Puerto Rico,  Sweden,  United Kingdom and the host nation  Fiji. The countries were split into two pots which would either be semi final 1 or semi final 2. Then a random generator was used to allocate countries into the running order. The results were as follows:

It was decided that  Albania,  Fiji and  United Kingdom would vote in semi final #01 and  Germany,  Puerto Rico and  Sweden would vote in semi final #02. This was to assure to make the results fair and even for all participants in the edition.

## Semi Final 1

**21 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Albania**,  **Fiji** and  **United Kingdom** voting as 3 of the 6 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 10 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

## Semi Final 2

**21 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Germany**,  **Puerto Rico** and  **Sweden** voting as 3 of the 6 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 10 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

## Grand Final

26 Countries will create the grand final. 10 from Semi Final 1, 10 from Semi Final 2 and the automatic qualifiers  Albania,  Germany,  Puerto Rico,  Sweden,  United Kingdom and the host nation  Fiji.

The draw on  Albania,  Germany,  Puerto Rico,  Sweden,  United Kingdom and the host nation  Fiji position in the running order were done prior to the Semi Finals.

This was the running order for the Grand Final

### **12points**

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the final:

## Voting & Spokespeople

This is the order of how the votes were released and the spokesperson from each country

First half of results

01. Uruguay Natalia Oreiro

02. Ireland Danny O'Donoghue

03. France Julien Doré

04. Tajikistan Zulaykho

05. Japan Shigeru Miyamoto

06. Hong Kong Sammi Cheng

07. Kazakhstan Dimash Kudaibergen

08. Gibraltar Oliver Sykes

09. Italy Annalisa

10. Ethiopia Ehtnesh Fenta

11. Slovakia Adriana Karembeu

12. Bulgaria Stefka Kostadinova

13. Puerto Rico Luis Fonsi

14. Spain Alvaro Soler

15. Turkmenistan Mähri Pirgulyýewa

16. Malta Chiara Siracusa

17. Sweden Eric Saade

18. United States Jerry Springer

19. Philippines Jake Zyrus

20. Costa Rica Melania González

21. Australia Guy Sebastian

22. Armenia Sirusho

23. Liechtenstein Oonagh

24. The Netherlands Lieke Martens

Second half of results

25. Canada Jacob Hoggard

26. San Marino Marco Mengoni

27. South Korea Hyuna

28. Albania Era Istrefi

29. United Kingdom Ellie Goulding

30. Ukraine Tatyana Reshetnyak

31. Greece Demy

32. Fiji Paulini

33. Finland Robin Packalen

34. Georgia Sofia Nizharadze

35. Singapore Daphne Khoo

36. Portugal Luyanna

37. Germany Lena Meyer-Landrut

38. Argentina Daniela Anahi Bessia

39. Kyrgyzstan Jiidesh İdirisova

40. Taiwan A-Lin

41. New Zealand Natasha Bedingfield

42. Brazil Elaine Martins

43. Cyprus Ivi Adamou

44. Turkey Demet Akalın

45. Uzbekistan Sogdiana Fedorinskaya

46. Venezuela Marger Sealey

47. North Macedonia Kaliopi

48. Cuba Daisy Fuentes

## Voting Grid

This is how the votes were scored in each Semi Final.

     Voter was replaced
     Qualified
     Jury Vote
     Televote

Here is how the world voted in the grand final.

     Voter was replaced
     Jury Vote
     Televote