Country Contest 17

Semi-final 1 date
 Semi-final 2 date
 Final date
 Host broadcaster
 Number of entries
 Debuting countries
 Returning countries
 Voting system

The **Country Contest 17** will be the seventeenth edition of the contest. Once again, the CCU invited no guest countries, due to the announcement of the *World Country Contest*.

The CCU announced that after five editions of the public and jury qualifier, that this system would be scrapped due to the evident results showing that the countries did poorly in the Grand Final.

On 4 May 2018, it was announced that this edition would feature the return of scoreboard voting as a one-off. This announcement led to a large amount of returning of countries.

## Format

### Live and social slogans

This edition was the first to introduce two new slogans, compared to the past editions which featured 1, and some that had none at all. The main slogan, considered the *Social Slogan*, was announced as *#Abenteuer*; *#Adventure* in English. The secondary slogan, considered the *Live Slogan*, was announced to be *Abenteuer für alle*, meaning *Adventure for all* in English. SRG SSR explained that this move was decided to go forward with the simplistic themes of the future, but not making this stop use creative and longer slogans, used on air. While these slogans were in German, the other broadcasters also used official Italian, French and Romansh slogans to signify the territories of Switzerland.

## Semi-final 1

France, Malta and Portugal also voted here. The top ten overall countries qualified to the Grand Final.

## Semi-final 2

Luxembourg, Switzerland and United Kingdom also voted here. The top ten overall countries qualified to the Grand Final.

## Final

The 20 qualifiers from the semi-finals, as well as the top 6 of previous edition took part. All participating countries in the edition voted, including international televote and jury.

## Other countries

Further information: List of countries in the Country Contest
With the number of participating countries decreasing in the past few editions, the CCU launched an initiative in hopes of seeing some countries return. In a meeting with a vast amount of delegations, the CCU agreed to return the scoreboard this edition as a one-off and see if it would encourage the return of some broadcasters. This proved to be a success as this edition had the most participating countries in awhile.

### **Active CCU members**

* Vatican City: VR announced that after participating for 2 editions and winning the former, that Vatican City's stint in the contest would come to an end, also noting that it was originally intended to be a one-off to celebrate Italy's victory - but then [the Vatican City] won itself.

### **Eligible non-participants**

* Algeria: Rejected
* Egypt: Rejected
* Jordan: Rejected
* Kosovo: Despite Switzerland recognizing Kosovo's independence, RTK was unable to debut due to complaints from several broadcasters, whose countries do not recognize the country.
* Lebanon: TL announced that it would return this edition, after taking a one-edition break. This last-minute decision was unprecedented as the CCU had initially announced that 47 countries would take part.
* Liberland: LBTV stated that they are working towards a potential return, but that the country's past results did not help to gain sponsors, which they stated became "difficult to find."
* Libya: Rejected
* Liechtenstein: Rejected
* Russia: Rejected
* Tunisia: Rejected