European Singing Competition

The **European Singing Competition**, often shortened to **ESC** is a song contest held, primarily, among the member countries of the EMBU since November 2016. The competition is based upon the existing Eurovision Song Contest held among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956.

Each country's head of delegation gets to select an entry for each edition either by internal or national selection. Then the countries get to vote for each show (semi-final or final) to determine the qualifiers and the winner of the edition.

Italy holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest three times. China has won the second, the seventh and the sixteenth editions. The highest scoring winner is Alina Orlova of Lithuania who won the twenty-seventh edition with her song "Elegantiskai Sninga" which got 664 points, 109 points ahead the runner-up.

## Origins

The first ever Own Asiavision Song Contest started on 21st of November 2016. It was held in the capital city of Finland which also was the first ever country to host the Own Asiavision Song Contest. Thirty-eight nations took part in the first edition each submitting one entry to the contest. Each country awarded 12 points to their favorite, 10 points to their second favourite and then 8 points to 1 point for the rest.

The first contest was won by Poland.

## Participation

Any full member of the EMBU is allowed to send a song for the European Singing Competition. Each full member has got a certain broadcaster that is responsible for the choice of the artists and songs the country is sending for each edition.

74 countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the edition in which they made their debut:

## Format

The contest's format has stayed the same over the editions; Two semifinals are held while the grand final has 26 (or rarely 27) participants, the top 6 of one edition qualifies directly for the next one
Since the very first edition the winning country of each edition is automatically chosen to be the host of the next edition. As the host broadcaster, the heads of delegation can decide how and when they want to host the competition, present the logo, make a theme song and other things. However if a broadcaster cannot afford to host the competition, the runner-up or the council will help out. The show would still be hosted in the winning country.

### Autoqualifications

Since the introductions of the semi-final in the first edition the six highest-placed countries in the grand final were guaranteed a place in the following edition's grand final, without having to qualify. The remaining countries had to enter the semi-final.

Members of the Big 6 through the editions have been several countries. Currently, Italy holds the record of being in the Big 6 seventeen times.

## Rules

Template:MainThere are several rules of the contest in order to enter. Main rule of the contest is that the country has to officially join the EMBU (exceptions were made with the foreign guests between the 1st and the 10th edition, and then again in the 30th) with a certain broadcaster before applying to enter the contest. Regarding the broadcaster, any broadcaster can be accepted by the EMBU. The head of delegation of the certain country must be at the position for at least three editions. If the head of delegation is not satisfied with the country, one can swap the countries with other users. There are also rules regarding the entries, such as that Eurovision Song Contest songs are not allowed to compete in the contest or that the singer must be over the age of 16.

## Voting

The voting system used in the contest has been in place since the beginning, and is a positional voting system. Each country awards one set of 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs. In case of the country not being able to deliver the voting, back-up juries were used to replace it. The system was slightly altered sometimes with juries and public of each country giving two separate sets of points, this is still used since the 8th edition.

### Nul points and ties

So far there has been no entry that received no points from any country.

There have been several ties during the contest. In case of a tie between two or more countries, the country that received points from the most countries wins the tie. However, if the countries received points from the same number of countries, the number of 12 points is counted and if they are still tied it goes on until the tie breaks. The first notable and controversial tie in the contest was the one between Italy and Palestine in the seventh edition where Italy won the edition and Palestine ended second, the current voting system was re-introduced after this controversy.

## Winners

Template:MainThe contest has so far nineteen different winning countries. Italy hold the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest three times.