BalkanVision Song Contest 16

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* Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in #16
* **BalkanVision Song Contest**
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The **BalkanVision Song Contest 16** was the sixteenth edition of the BalkanVision Song Contest. The contest took place in Chișinău, Moldova, following Moldova's victory at the BalkanVision Song Contest 15 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, with the song "Aja Mara", performed by Iana and Alessandra. 20 countries participated in the contest. Albania, Austria, Bulgaria and Slovakia returned while Turkey withdrew.

The winner was Kosovo with the song "Kiss and Make Up" performed by Dua Lipa and Blackpink. This was both Kosovo's and Dua Lipa's second win, having previously won the third edition. Crimea placed 2nd and Cyprus placed 3rd.

## Location

**Chișinău**

The contest took place in Chișinău, Moldova.

### Venue

**Manej Sport Arena** *(Manejul de Atletică Ușoară)* is an indoor arena in Chișinău, Moldova.

### About the host city

**Chișinău**, also known as **Kishinev**, is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bâc, a tributary of Dniester. According to the results of the 2014 census, the city proper had a population of 532,513, while the population of the Municipality of Chișinău (which includes the city itself and other nearby communities) was 662,836. Chișinău is the most economically prosperous locality in Moldova and its largest transportation hub.

**Etymology and names**
The origin of the city's name is unclear. A theory suggests that the name may come from the archaic Romanian word *chișla* (meaning "spring", "source of water") and *nouă* ("new"), because it was built around a small spring, at the corner of Pușkin and Albișoara streets.

The other version, formulated by Ștefan Ciobanu, Romanian historian and academician, holds that the name was formed the same way as the name of Chișineu (alternative spelling: Chișinău) in Western Romania, near the border with Hungary. Its Hungarian name is *Kisjenő*, from which the Romanian name originates. Kisjenő comes from *kis* "small" and the Jenő, one of the seven Hungarian tribes that entered the Carpathian Basin in 896. At least 24 other settlements are named after the Jenő tribe.

Chișinău is known in Russian as Кишинёв (*Kishinjóv*), while Moldova’s Russian-language media call it Кишинэу (*Kishineu*). It is written *Kişinöv* in the Latin Gagauz alphabet. It was also written as *Chișineu* in pre-20th-century Romanian and as Кишинэу in the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet. Historically, the English language name for the city, *Kishinev*, was based on the modified Russian one because it entered the English language via Russian at the time Chișinău was part of the Russian Empire (e.g. Kishinev pogrom). Therefore, it remains a common English name in some historical contexts. Otherwise, the Romanian-based *Chișinău* has been steadily gaining wider currency, especially in written language. The city is also historically referred to as German: Kischinau, Polish: Kiszyniów, Ukrainian: Кишинів, or Yiddish: קעשענעװ‎, romanized: Keshenev.

## Format

### Visual design

The theme for the edition "*Express Thoughts*", was unveiled on the contest's Google+ community on the 16 December 2018.

### Presenter(s)

Lidia Isac and Nelly Ciobanu were selected to host on the 16 December 2018.

### Running order

The running order was made by randomly splitting the participating countries into 2 halves.

## Other countries

* Turkey - TRT announced that the country would be taking a break due to the previous head of delegation's resignation.