European Autonomous Region Song Contest 1

## European Autonomous Region Song Contest

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**European Autonomous Region Song Contest 1,** often referred to as **EARSC #1,** was the first edition of the European Autonomous Region Song Contest, held in Ceuta, Ceuta.

Thirty-five autonomous regions participated in the first contest. Enrique Bunbury from La Rioja won the contest with the song "El Solitario" receiving a total of 217 points. Mount Athos finished in second place, with Svalbard finishing in third place. They were followed by Abkhazia in fourth place and Scotland in fifth place.

Twenty-two autonomous regions participated in the Grand Final. The host autonomous region, Ceuta made it into the first half of the leader board receiving 101 points and placed 8th.

## Venue

**Estadio Alfonso Murube** is a football stadium in the autonomous city of Ceuta, Spain in Northern Africa. It is the home stadium of Agrupación Deportiva Ceuta Fútbol Club, who currently plays in Tercera División - Group 10, with a capacity of 6,500 seats. The stadium was inaugurated with a match between Ceuta and Algeciras Club de Fútbol, with the home team winning 4–2.

## Location

**Ceuta** is a Spanish autonomous city on the north coast of Africa.

Bordered by Morocco, it lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of nine populated Spanish territories in Africa and, along with Melilla, one of two populated Spanish territories on mainland Africa. It was part of the province of Cádiz until 14 March 1995. On that date, Statutes of Autonomy were passed for both Ceuta and Melilla.

Ceuta, like Melilla and the Canary Islands, was classified as a free port before Spain joined the European Union. Its population consists of Christians, Muslims, and small minorities of Sephardic Jews and ethnic Sindhis from modern-day Pakistan.

Spanish is the official language. Darija Arabic is also spoken by 40–50% of the population.

## Participants

Thirty five autonomous regions participated in the contest with only the host advancing automatically in the final. The other thirty-four autonomous regions participated in the two semi-finals.

The final included the ten selected autonomous regions from each semi-final, the host and a wildcard, making a total of twenty-two participants

### **Confirmed and debuting autonomous regions**

Below is a list of all the debuting autonomous regions:

## Results

### **Semi-finals**

The semi-finals took place on 8th of May 2012 and 10th May 2012. Twenty-eight autonomous regions took part in the two semi-finals.

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

* seventeen autonomous regions participated in the first semi-final.
* the ten autonomous regions, in this semi-final, with the highest scoring points, according to the voting of the autonomous regions, qualify for the final.
* Ceuta (host autonomous region) voted in both semi-finals

#### **Notes**

1. The 11th ranked participant (Yamalo-Nenets) qualified for the Second Chance Round where it lost.
2. Catalonia received points from 11 autonomous regions, while Aragon received points from 8 autonomous regions.

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

* seventeen autonomous regions participated in the first semi-final.
* the ten autonomous regions, in this semi-final, with the highest scoring points, according to the voting of the autonomous regions, qualify for the final.
* Melilla got the wildcard
* Ceuta (host autonomous region) voted in both semi-finals

#### **Notes**

1. The 11th ranked participant (Melilla) qualified for the Second Chance Round where it won.
2. Andalusia received points from 12 autonomous regions with two maximum points, while Gibraltar, also, received points from 12 autonomous regions but only one maximum point.
3. Komi received points from 12 autonomous regions, while Transnistria received points from 9 autonomous regions.
4. Valencian Community received points from 12 autonomous regions, while Vojvodina received points from 8 autonomous regions.
5. Heligoland received points from 12 autonomous regions, while Faroe Islands received points from 9 autonomous regions.

### **Second Chance Round**

The Second Chance Round took place on May 11, 2012.

### **Grand Final**

The Grand Final took place on May 12, 2012.

The finalists are:

* the host autonomous region: Ceuta
* the top ten autonomous regions from the first semifinal.
* the top ten autonomous regions from the second semifinal.
* the wildcard, chosen from an autonomous region ranked 11th in the semifinals: Melilla

## Final Rank Order

This is the final ranking order of all the contestants.

### Notes

1. Yamalo-Nenets received points from 11 autonomous regions, while Udmurtia received points from 10 autonomous regions.
2. Sakha Republic received points from 13 autonomous regions, while Chechnya received points from 10 autonomous regions.
3. Heligoland received points from 12 autonomous regions, while Faroe Islands received points from 9 autonomous regions and Alderney received points from 6 autonomous regions.

## *NovosMusica* Incident

On April, 2012 many Russian okrugs and oblasts announced their plans of organizing contests to determine their contestant for EARSC. Most of them waited for the participants of EARSC to be announced. But Novosibirsk Oblast, hosted the contest one day before the announcement of the participants. Pelageya won the contest named *NovosMusica*, with the song "Тропы (Tropy)". The next day, it was announced that Novosibirsk Oblast wouldn't compete in EARSC as it didn't have the needed autonomy. So Pelageya decided to represent Yamalo-Nenets, that had a lack of artists.