Mearthvision Song Contest

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The **Mearthvision Song Contest** (French: *Concours Mearthvision de la chanson*) is an international song competition organised annually by the International Broadcasting Union (IBU) and featuring participants representing countries from around the world. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, transmitted to national broadcasters via the IBU's Mearthvision and Mearthradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine a winner.

Based on the Eurovision Song Contest held on Earth since 1956 (152), Mearthvision has been held every year since 200, making one of the longest-running annual international televised music competitions. Active members of the EBU, as well as invited associate members, are eligible to compete in the contest, and as of 2016, 22 countries have participated at least once. As of 217, ten countries have participated in every contest: Bisini, Canadina, Dania, Lincly, Lincon, Noda, Rinasine, South Yelsiva, Tontin and Yelsiva, while Bisini holds the record for the most victories, with three wins in total.

## Origins and history

Following the 190 IFA World Cup, many people believed that a union between all national broadcasters was needed for international television broadcasting, as, while the cup had been a success, disputes arose about a variety of things, most notably the lack of international broadcasting (especially on TV).

Due to this, the International Broadcasting Union was founded in 193. Seventeen countries joined the union in the following years. In February 198, a music contest was proposed as the first thing that the IBU would produce by themselves, similar to the European Broadcasting Union, which produced the ESC. This was accepted, and the IBU announced that the first Mearthvision Song Contest would be held on the 15th of May 200, in the same year that the first Summer Olympics would be held in Nazaline. It was also announced that the first contest's host country would be determined by a bid, and all subsequent host countries would be the winner of the previous edition. The bid would not be held until the 14th of May 199.

On the 14th of April 199, one month before the bid date, seven countries (Dania, Lincon, Jolivan, Noda, Yelsiva, Russanplon and Easatloa) submitted bids, and all were accepted. On the 14th, after a lengthy bid process, Dania was announced as the winner of the bid, and just over a month later, on 27 June, Poler, the capital and largest city of Dania, was announced as the host city for the 200 contest.

## Format

The format of the contest has changed over the years, but many aspects have remained consistent since its inception. Participating countries submit original songs to be performed in a live television programme broadcast via the Mearthvision and Mearthradio networks simultaneously to all countries. A "country" as a participant is represented by one television broadcaster from that country, a member of the European Broadcasting Union, and is typically, but not always, that country's national Public broadcasting organisation. The programme is hosted by one of the participant countries and is broadcast from an auditorium in the selected host city. During the programme, after all the songs have been performed, each participating country proceeds to cast votes for the other countries' songs—nations are not permitted to vote for their own song. At the end of the programme, the song which has received the most points is declared as the winner. The winner receives, simply, the prestige of having won—although it is usual for a trophy to be awarded to the winning performers and songwriters, and the winning country is formally invited to host the event the following year.

The contest is a non-profit event, and financing is typically achieved through a participation fee from each participating broadcaster, contributions from the host broadcaster and the host city, and commercial revenues from sponsorships, ticket sales, televoting and merchandise.

The programme is invariably opened by one or more presenters, who welcome viewers to the show and guide the voting process. Other performances are usually featured alongside the competing songs, with one or more interval acts typically performing following the last competing song and before the presentation of the votes.

As national broadcasters join and leave the Mearthvision feed transmitted by the IBU, the IBU/Mearthvision network logo ident (not to be confused with the song contest logo) is displayed. The accompanying music (used on other Mearthvision broadcasts) is the Prelude (*Marche en rondeau*) to Marc-Antoine Charpentier's *Te Deum*, the same as is used in Eurovision.

## Participation

*Further information: List of countries in the Mearthvision Song Contest*

Active Members (as opposed to Associate Members) of the International Broadcasting Union are eligible to participate; Active Members are those who have joined the IBU with at least one broadcaster.. Active Members include media organisations whose broadcasts are often made available to at least 98% of households in their own country which are equipped to receive such transmissions. Associate Member broadcasters may also be eligible to compete in the contest, dependent on approval by the contest's Reference Group. These Associate Members are usually allowed to participate for two years as an "independence present": only Plos and Porta have taken part under these rules. Fernit has been allowed to take part in the contest despite not being a sovereign state; its broadcaster is LBC Fernit, a subsidiary of Lincly's broadcaster LBC.

IBU Members who wish to participate must fulfil conditions as laid down by the rules of the contest, a separate copy of which is drafted annually. Broadcasters must have paid the IBU a participation fee in advance to the deadline specified in the rules for the year in which they wish to participate; this fee is different for each country based on its size and viewership.

Twenty-two countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the year in which they made their debut:

## Hosting

*Further information: List of host cities of the Mearthvision Song Contest*

Once the participating broadcaster of the winning country confirms to the EBU that they intend to host the event, a host city is chosen by the broadcaster, which should meet certain criteria set out in the contest's rules. The host venue must be able to accommodate at least 10,000 spectators, space for a press centre for 1,500 journalists, and the host city should be within easy reach of an international airport. In addition, the location must also have hotel accommodation available for at least 2,000 delegates, journalists and spectators. For these reasons, the contest is typically, but not always, held in a national or regional capital city. In recent years, bid processes have become a common occurrence, with a number of cities in the host country applying to host the contest.

The contest has been hosted in a variety of different venues. The largest venue to host the contest is Estadio Traicana in Traicana, which held the 204 contest and was attended by 33,000 spectators. The smallest contest host is Sydinie Place in Sydinie, which hosted the contest in 201, with a capacity of 11,500 at the time. The hotel and press facilities in the vicinity of the venue, and in particular the accommodation costs for the visiting delegations, journalists and fans, are typically an important consideration when choosing a host city.

### Host country

The winning country has always hosted the next country. In 200, a bid was held to decide the host country, with Dania winning this bid. Afterwards, no winning country has ever declined the right to host the contest.

### Theme

Each slogan used in the contest is listed below:

## Rules

### Language

As Mearthvision is a *song* contest, all competing entries must include vocals and lyrics of some kind; purely instrumental pieces have never been allowed. Presently competing entries may be performed in any language, be that natural or constructed. The large majority of entries at each year's contest are performed in Linclian, given its status as a *lingua franca*.

At the 200 contest, many entries were performed in a non-native language other than Linclian. Five of the six countries represented by a song including non-Linclian vocals sang part of it in a non-native language; Noda and Yelsiva's songs were both performed in Danian and South Yelsiva's in Linconian, while Easatloa and Dania both included Linconian lyrics in their songs (Dania's song "Hole In My Head" also had lyrics in Danian). In fact, Rinasine's Zerkanie was the only act to perform their song, "Nie mogę się zdecydować", entirely in their native language. This occurred less at the next contest: out of the seven songs with non-Linclian lyrics, two were performed in non-native languages: "Cairde" (performed in Linconian for the United Republic) and "Anoche" (performed in Yelsivan for Easatloa). Linconian is a recognised regional language in Lincly, thus it is sometimes referred to as a native language there: "Oh Yes", is, therefore, not counted. In 203, only Easatloa sent a song with non-native lyrics: "Gewinnen oder beenden", which was mostly performed in Easatloan but had some lyrics in Danian. In 204, the winning song was performed in a non-native language: "très drôle" by carmaple was performed in Danian. While Noda (the winning country) has a notable Danian-speaking population, it is not often considered "native". Lincon and Tontin also both used non-native languages in their song. Lincly was also represented by a song performed in Linconian. In 205, the NSC's song was in Easatloan while Canadina's song had Yelsivan lyrics. In 206, Lincly's song "Ancora?" was in Maron, while the NSC's song once again had Easatloan lyrics. In 207, Lincly's song was in Yelsivan. 208 was the first year in which no songs were like this; Lincly's song once again had Linconian lyrics in it, however. This repeated in 209, but in 210, Lincly's song was in the Linclian indigenous language, which is native to the country but not the official language. In 212, host NSC had a Easatloan song, and in 213, 214 and 215, no songs were like this. However, in 216, Bisini won the contest with a song with multiple languages (two of which had not been present at the contest before: South Halsivese and, notably, Warelersh), but no Linclian lyrics.

In 200, Maro's song "Driew si Siht" was sung in backwards Linclian, the only time this has happened. No constructed language has ever been present at the contest. Both Jolivan and Rinasine have always been represented by a song in their native languages, while Halsivon has always had songs purely in Linclian.

As the contest is presented in both Linclian and Danian, at least one of the contest's hosts must be able to speak Danian as well as Linclian.

### Running order

Prior to the 209 contest, the running order was not properly randomised. Countries were put in a certain order picked randomly by the producer but this was not true randomness. The host country always performed last in the running order. At the 209 contest, for the tenth anniversary, the way of deciding the running order was changed to how it is now. Under the current method, during the Allocation Draw each country competing is drawn into either the first half or second half of the final; once all songs have been selected the producers will then determine the running order for the final. The host country draws the exact place they will perform once every song has been revealed, and the rest of the running order is determined by the producers later.

The order in which competing countries perform is considered an important factor in the potential of winning the contest, and statistical analysis on this subject has been shown to corroborate that in a random draw songs which perform later in the contest have a better chance of being scored highly. However, in 216, Bisini, who performed first in the final, won the contest. Songs performing ninth, thirteenth, fourteenth and sixteenth have all won the contest twice. Songs who performed second, third, seventh, eighth, eleventh, twelfth, eighteenth, twentieth, twenty-first and twenty-second have never won yet. The winner has performed second to last twice. The winner has never performed last in the final; since the host would perform last between 200 and 209, this meant the host never won in these years.

### Voting

*Further information: Voting at the Mearthvision Song Contest*

Two voting systems have been used in the contest's history to determine the placing of the competing songs. The current system has been in place since 215, which works on the basis of positional voting. Each country awards two sets of points: one set is based on the votes of each country's professional jury, consisting of five music professionals from that country; and the other set is based on the votes received by the viewing public through telephone, SMS or via the official Mearthvision app. Each set of points consists of 1–8, 10 and 12 points to the jury and public's 10 favourite songs, with the most preferred song receiving 12 points. National juries and the public in each country are not allowed to vote for their own country. Before 215, each country's points were determined purely by a jury, which has at times consisted of members of the public, music professionals, or both in combination.

#### Presentation of the votes

Each country's votes have been announced as part of a voting segment of the contest's broadcast. After each country's votes have been calculated and verified, and following performances during the interval, the presenter(s) of the contest will call upon a spokesperson in each country in turn to invite them to announce the results of their country's vote in Linclian or Danian. This spokesperson is typically a musician, broadcaster or journalist who is well known in their country, and previous spokespersons have included former Mearthvision artists and hosts.

The votes from each country are tallied via a scoreboard, which typically shows the total number of points each country has so far received, as well as the points being given out by the country currently being called upon by the presenter(s). The scoreboard is able to sort itself to place the country with the most votes at the top. From 209, only each country's 8, 10 and 12 points are announced by their spokesperson, with points 1–7 automatically added to the scoreboard.

The juries are called in the order of the running order. Because of this, prior to 209, the host country would present their votes last. Since 215, the voting presentation begins with each country's spokespersons being called upon in turn to announce the points of their country's professional jury. Once the jury points from all countries have been announced, the contest's presenter(s) will then announce the total public points received for each finalist, with the results of all countries consolidated into a single value for each participating country. The public points are been announced in order according to their placing by the juries, with the country which received the fewest points from the juries receiving their public points first. The full televoting results, and the votes of each country's jury and individual jury members, are published on the official Mearthvision website after the show, with the individual televoting points for each country typically shown on screen towards the end of the show by that country's broadcaster.

### Broadcasting

Participating broadcasters from competing countries are required to air live the grand final, in its entirety, including all competing songs, the voting recap which contains short clips of the performances, the voting procedure or semi-final qualification reveal, and in the grand final the reprise of the winning song. Broadcasters who wished to do so are given the opportunity to provide advertising during short, non-essential hiatuses in the show's schedule.

#### Archive status

Every single contest has been broadcast as a livestream on the Mearthvision Vuzu and YouTube channels. The rights to each contest are held centrally by the IBU, and every contest has been backed up in case of removal.

The Vuzu version of the 207 livestream was removed by a broken copyright bot, but was uploaded back onto the channel once this copyright bot was fixed.

## Winners

*Further information: List of Mearthvision Song Contest winners*

17 songs have won the Mearthvision Song Contest as of 217, representing 16 countries. Bisini holds the record for the most wins, two in total. 6 countries have participated in the contest but have yet to win.

Noda holds the record for the number of second-place finishes, having come runner-up in the contest four times. Halsivon, meanwhile, has come last more than any other country, featuring at the bottom of the scoreboard on 5 occasions, including three times in a row. They have scored *nul points* once, in 214, and received a single point in 203.

The various competing countries have had varying degrees of success in the contest over the years. Only one country has won the contest in their first appearance: Bisini, the winner of the first contest in 200. Bisini became the first country to win the contest back-to-back, winning the event in 216 and 217.

Prior to 216, no country had won the contest twice. Thus, the record for longest wait for a win was, technically, broken every year, except for in 207, 213 and 215, when Avino, Plos and Jolivan won the contest, respectively. With Jolivan's win and Bisini's second win, Lincly now holds the record for longest wait for a win, with 14 years.

Discounting those that debuted at the first contest, Avino holds the record for the shortest amount of time between wins, with four years.

The majority of the winning songs have been performed at the contest in Linclian. Only ten winning songs have been performed either fully or partially in a language other than Linclian.

## References

1. ↑ South Yelsiva is the official name used in the Mearthvision Song Contest. South Yelsiva has never been presented as 'Southern Yelsiva', which is their official name according to the United Nations.
2. ↑ Fernit's participation was intended to be a one-off event to commemorate Lincly's hosting of the contest, due to Fernit being an overseas territory of Lincly, unless they won in 215 in which case they would have been allowed to defend their crown in 216. However, following negotiations between LBC (the national broadcaster of both Fernit and Lincly) and the IBU, it was formally announced on 19 September that Fernit would participate in 216 via LBC News. In November 2015, the IBU announced that Fernit would return in 216 and after this the country would become an effective participant in the contest.