AwlaVision Song Contest 15

Final date
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Broadcaster
 Executive producer
 Opening act
 Interval act
 Entries
 Debuting
 System
 Winner

**AwlaVision Song Contest 15**, often referred to as **ASC#15**, was the fifteenth edition of AwlaVision Song Contest, held in Nottingham, England. The edition started the 19th January 2017, and ended the 05th February 2017.

43 countries took part in this edition. No one debuted in this edition. Latvia and Lebanon withdraw from ASC. Kazakhstan returned to the competition. Edea Demaliaj from Kosovo won the contest with the song "Ne" receiving a total of 322 points, 77 point ahead the runner-up, Kazakhstan. Russia finished in third place with 218 points. The host country, England achieved a 16th place with 45 points. The last place was for Hungary, that got 2 point.

## Organisation

After England's victory in AwlaVision Song Contest 14, BBC England and ABU had to decide where to organise the contest this time. The projects were from Birmingham (*Barclaycard Arena*), Leeds (*First Direct Arena*), Liverpool (*Echo Arena*), Nottingham (*Motorpoint Arena*) and London (*Copper Box*). Finally, BBC England and ABU chose **Nottingham** as the host city of ASC15.

BBC England decided to use popular and professionals people as presenters. Finally **Molly Smitten** and **Jake Shakeshaft** were selected.

 Leeds
 Liverpool
 Nottingham
 London

## Location

### **Motorpoint Arena**

**Motorpoint Arena** is a multi-use indoor arena located within the National Ice Centre in the Lace Market district of Nottingham, England. The National Ice Centre and Nottingham Arena were opened by Olympic gold medallist Jayne Torvill on 1 April 2000. Since its opening, the arena has hosted over a thousand concerts, comedy acts, family shows and sporting events. The arena is the UK’s first twin ice pad facility and centre of excellence for ice sports in the UK.

The arena is part of the National Ice Centre which was constructed on the site of the former Nottingham Ice Stadium. The ice stadium opened in 1939 and was showing its age, so, in September 1995, plans were announced to replace the Ice Stadium. Plans for the new ice rink, supported by the British Olympic Association, were unveiled in October 1996. In mid-1997 Nottingham City Council voted to adapt the plans of the new centre to incorporate a sport arena. Several buildings were demolished to make way for the new ice centre; This included an Art Deco warehouse and "The Old Cricket Players" pub, which was initially planned to be spared. The former Ice Stadium closed in March 2000, and by May 2000 was described as "nearly demolished", with four skip loads of demolition rubble being removed from the site every day. During excavation for the new building in July 1998 a 100 years-old Saxon jug was found, which is on display at the Nottingham Castle Museum. A 19th-century graveyard was also found under the car park, from which the bodies were then exhumed.

The arena is multi-use. Metallica holds the record for the largest concert at the arena, with an audience of 10,337. The Killers' 2009 concert was the fastest selling show, selling 9,661 tickets in one hour. Westlife has performed the most at the arena, with 20 shows between 2001–2012. As of 2014 the arena has hosted artists and events including Whitney Houston, Katy Perry, Elton John, The X Factor Tour and We Will Rock You, as well as conferences, galas and balls, including Nottingham Trent University’s Graduation Ball. Kylie Minogue performed here as part of her Kiss Me Once Tour in October 2014. Upcoming events include The Who in December 2014, and EM-Con in March 2015. In 2014 it was announced that Kasabian would be playing at the arena in November 2014, with an extra date added at the arena due to the first date nearly selling out in under an hour.

### **Nottingham**

**Nottingham** is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, located 128 miles (206 km) north of London, in the East Midlands. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robin Hood and to the lace-making, bicycle (notably Raleigh bikes) and tobacco industries. It was granted its city charter in 1897 as part of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Nottingham is a tourist destination; in 2011, visitors spent over £1.5 billion - the thirteenth highest amount in England's 111 statistical territories.

In 2015, Nottingham had an estimated population of 321,550 with the wider urban area, which includes many of the city's suburbs, having a population of 915,977. Its urban area is the largest in the east Midlands and the second largest in the Midlands. The population of the Nottingham/Derby metropolitan area is estimated to be 1,610,000. Its metropolitan economy is the seventh largest in the United Kingdom with a GDP of $50.9bn (2014). The city is also ranked as a sufficiency-level world city by the Globalisation and World Cities Research Network.

Nottingham has an award-winning public transport system, including the largest publicly owned bus network in England and is also served by Nottingham railway station and the modern Nottingham Express Transit tram system. It is also a major sporting centre, and in October 2015 was named 'Home of English Sport'. The National Ice Centre, Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre, and Trent Bridge international cricket ground are all based in or around the city, which is also the home of two professional league football teams; the world's oldest professional league club Notts County, and Nottingham Forest, famously two-time winners of the UEFA European Cup under Brian Clough in 1979 and 1980. The city also has professional rugby, ice hockey and cricket teams, and the Aegon Nottingham Open, an international tennis tournament on the ATP and WTA tours. This accolade came just over a year after Nottingham was named as the UK's first City of Football.

There are weather reporting stations close to Nottingham – the former "Nottingham Weather Centre", at Watnall, about 10 km north-west of the city centre; and the University of Nottingham's agricultural campus at Sutton Bonington, about 16 km to the south-west of the city centre. The highest temperature recorded in Nottingham (Watnall) stands at 34.6 °C. On average, a temperature of 25 °C or above is recorded on 11.0 days per year at Watnall (1981–2010), and the warmest day of the year reaches an average of 29.4 °C. For the period 1981–2010 Nottingham (Watnall) recorded on average 42.9 days of air frost per year, and Sutton Bonington 47.1.

This is the first time in the contest that AwlaVision Song Contest is held in England.

### **Withdrawing countries**

Bellow a list of all withdrawing countries:

* Latvia
* Lebanon

### **Returning countries**

Bellow a list of all withdrawing countries:

* Kazakhstan

## Results

### **First Semifinal**

**Jury**

* England (Host)
* Netherlands (Finalist)
* Sweden (Finalist)

### **Second Semifinal**

**Jury**

* Belgium (Finalist)
* Lithuania (Finalist)
* Macedonia (Finalist)

## See also

* AwlaVision Song Contest
* AwlaVision Song Contest 1
* AwlaVision Song Contest 2
* AwlaVision Song Contest 3
* AwlaVision Song Contest 4
* AwlaVision Song Contest 5
* AwlaVision Song Contest 6
* AwlaVision Song Contest 7
* AwlaVision Song Contest 8
* AwlaVision Song Contest 9
* AwlaVision Song Contest 10
* AwlaVision Song Contest 11
* AwlaVision Song Contest 12
* AwlaVision Song Contest 13
* AwlaVision Song Contest 14