Mysterious Song Contest 37

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  Iraq for the 37th Edition.

The Mysterious Song Contest #37 will be the 37th edition of the annual Mysterious Song Contest Wikia. It will take place in the **Baghdad Gymnasium**, located in **Baghdad**,  Iraq, following the country's victory at the 36th edition with Dashni Morad performing "Love Wins". 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 **04th January 2018**. The grand final official date being the **15th January 2018**. All three live shows were hosted by **Alia Al Shammari** and **Tamara Dhia**.

As of **29th December 2017** **43** countries participated in the contest. **2** countries have made their debut, The countries being  Cape Verde and  Malaysia. **13** countries returned to the contest after absences, while **13** countries withdrew.  Belgium originally was not part of the participating country list. However, do to communication errors between  Belgium and the MBU their confirmation had been lost. Communications has now been restored and  Belgium were given the chance to compete.

This will be the fifth 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 jury results, revealing their points by their chosen spokespersons. The second set will be a total score from the televote from each nation. The final result would be the total of both sets of votes.

## Location

**LANA TV**, announced on **22nd Decemeber 2017** that with the contest being held in  Iraq 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**

 Basra
 Erbil
 Samaraa

The **Baghdad Gymnasium** in **Baghdad**, which has a capacity of approximately **3,000** attendees, was announced as the host venue on **29th December 2017**. This will be the Arena's 1st time hosting the contest.

The decision on this location had to include the safety of performers and spectators. Despite some arenas having the ability to host more people. Adverse weather conditions and security declined those venues.

It was decided by the MBU that the Baghdad Gymnasium would suit a more safe environment for acts and spectators.

## Presenters

On **27th December 2017**, **LANA TV** announced that **Alia Al Shammari** and **Tamara Dhia** will be the host of the 35th contest.

**Spokesperson #01**:- Alia Al Shammari

**Spokesperson #02**:- Tamara Dhia
Tamara Dhia was born November 22, 1992 in Baghdad, Iraq
TV personality and actress who became the host of MTV's TRL reboot in 2017. She's also known for such credits as Santa Claus in Baghdad, The Party is Over and S-it White Girls Say...To Arab Girls.

## 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  Argentina,  Australia,  Norway,  South Korea,  Spain and the host nation  Iraq.

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*
     *Withdrawing Countries*
     *Countries That Have Participated Before*

## Returning Artists

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

* Argentina Lali Espósito [Prev. #25]
* Denmark Stine Bramsen [Prev. #12. #20]
* Finland Saara Aalto [Prev. #27]
* Greece Helena Paparizou [Prev. #09, #11, #23 part of Antique, #26 part of Antique, #27]
* Iraq Dashni Morad [Prev. #36]
* Norway Ina Wroldsen [Prev. #29]
* Serbia Emina Jahovic [Prev.  Bosnia and Herzegovina #36]
* Spain Adelen [Prev. #32]
* Slovakia Lina Mayer [Prev. #35]
* Sweden Mariette [Prev. #18]
* Ukraine The Hardkiss [Prev. #28]
* United States Trevor Moran [Prev. JMSC #03]

## Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 27th October. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists  Argentina,  Australia,  Norway,  South Korea,  Spain and the host nation  Iraq. 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  Argentina,  Australia and  Iraq would vote in semi final #01 and  Norway,  South Korea and  Spain 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

**19 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Argentina**,  **Australia** and  **Iraq** 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

**20 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Norway**,  **South Korea** and  **Spain** 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  Argentina,  Australia,  Norway,  South Korea,  Spain and the host nation  Iraq.

The draws on positions for  Argentina,  Australia,  Norway,  South Korea,  Spain and the host nation  Iraq 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 Grid

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

     Voter was replaced
     Qualified

Here is how the world voted in the grand final.

     Voter was replaced