OVSC16

## OrbisVision Song Contest #16

 Composed by Modest Mussorgsky, performed by the Orchestre Symphonique du Montréal, conducted by Charles Dutoit.
 **Semi-finals:**
 A selection of classical
 music from Russia from the likes of Igor Stravinsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Georgy Sviridov.
 **Grand Final:**
 Another selection of
 classical music from Russia from the likes of Dimitri Tiomkin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

## Participants

### Debuting

 Cameroon
  Republic of the Congo
  Ivory Coast

### Returning

 Australia
  Austria
  Denmark
 Dominican Republic
  Faroe Islands
  Gibraltar
  Hungary
  Iran
  Kenya
  Mongolia
  San Marino
  Sweden
  Switzerland

### Withdrawing

 Åland Islands
  Bonaire
  China
  Cyprus
  Finland
  The Gambia
  Ghana
  Honduras
  India
  Jamaica
  Nigeria
 North Macedonia
  Romania
 Singapore
  Thailand
  US Virgin Islands

## Voting

### System

Each country awards a set of 1 - 7 points, followed by 8, 10 and 12 points for their top 3 favourite songs

### Winner

 Japan
 "Hold The Girl" by Rina Sawayama

After their victory in Oslo, the Russian resort city of Sochi hosted the 16th OrbisVision Song Contest!

This was Russia's first time hosting as well as the first time an transcontinental country (since Russia covers both Europe and Asia) has hosted. Russia was also the largest country to ever host the contest.

However, if you count Russia as either part of Europe or Asia, this was the eighth time the contest has been to Europe and the fourth time it's been to Asia.

The contest consisted of 3 shows, 2 semi-finals and a Grand Final.

44 countries have confirmed their participation.

The winner was Japan, making this only their second victory at the contest, becoming only the second country after Iran to win more than once. Their winning song was "Hold The Girl" by Rina Sawayama.

This is also the fifth time (if you count Russia as part of Asia) an Asian country has won.

## Location

### Host city

Sochi, **Сочи** in Russian, is one of the southernmost places of Russia and the second-largest city of Krasnodar Krai, with a population of 415,000. Located along the Black Sea coast, it's about 1,600km (995 mi) south of Moscow.

Sochi is often called the unofficial 'Summer Capital' of Russia, or the Black Sea Pearl.

This is the country's biggest and busiest summer sea resort, attracting more than four million visitors annually with its amazing mountainous coastline, endless shingle beaches, warm sunny days, and bustling nightlife.

From May to September Sochi's population at least doubles with tourists, including celebrities and the political elite of the country.

Strangely, only three percent of this visitors' crowd are international travellers, and even the frontier location of the city doesn't help to change the situation.

Maybe the most famous non-politician foreign visitor of Sochi was Bono, who was invited to spend some time at President Medvedev's residence in 2010.

But, in general, the city remains a very domestic destination, somewhat lacking in appropriate international infrastructure and having the same language barrier most regional centres of Russia do.

Sochi became world-known in 2007, when it won the bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 22nd Winter Olympics took place 7th to 23rd February 2014, and were followed two weeks later by the Winter Paralympic Games from 7th to 18th March 2014.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games were held in Sochi and the nearby ski resort of Roza Khutor at Krasnaya Polyana. It was the first time Russia had hosted the Olympics since the breakup of the USSR in 1991.

Sochi has always been associated with Russia's national mentality with the south, palms, and a hot climate, that's why it was quite a bit of a surprise for many that the city won the 2014 Winter Olympic bid.

This phenomenon will be probably never be understood by Russians completely: every place in the country has a real winter, but Sochi?

The answers are an absence of harsh frost and the very promising Alpine resort of Krasnaya Polyana in the city area.

A less pragmatic explanation is the lucky destiny of Sochi. The most famous Russian saying about the city is "If I could read the cards, I would live in Sochi" ("Знал бы прикуп - жил бы в Сочи"). Initially coming from the Preference card game, this saying shows the association of Sochi and its inhabitants with luck, moreover, with an accidental and unpredictable fortune.

Sochi has many attractions to offer for anyone who loves nature, sports, history, and sunny beach leisure.

It would later go on to host matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup with the Fisht Olympic Stadium as its venue.

The territory of today's Sochi was inhabited for thousands of years, populated by Caucasian mountainous tribes and being under the influence and dominion of ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Abkhazian and Ottoman civilizations.

A few landmarks of antecedent civilizations remained, including the bronze age table-stones and medieval Byzantine temples.

The Russian Empire approached these lands at the beginning of the 19th century, and after a war with the Ottoman Empire acquired them in 1829.

Soon after that, in 1838, Russian authorities established the fort of Alexandria, at the site of modern Central Sochi, and 2 more forts in the modern Lazarevskoe district of the city. Alexandria was renamed several times and finally obtained the name Sochi (by the name of a local river) in 1896.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Sochi became known as a resort place. In 1902 the first bath building in Matsesta was constructed and in 1909 the official resort named "Caucasian Riviera" was open.

Right before the 1917 revolution, Sochi got its city status, and at the same time, the railway connected it with the rest of Russia. But the regular train service started only six years later after the Russian Civil War finished with the Bolsheviks' victory. The city was growing quite slowly (from 13,000 in 1916 to 17,000 in 1932).

The situation changed in 1934 when a general reconstruction of Sochi was initiated by Stalin's government. In just seven years, from 1932 to 1939, the city's population skyrocketed from 17,000 to 72,000. New roads, theatres, parks, hotels, and spa resorts were constructed, making the look of Sochi closer to what can be seen today.

In 1961, the authorities decided to incorporate settlements nearby into Sochi, starting the history of Greater Sochi (Большой Сочи).

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Sochi took over the role of the Russian President's traditional summer residence from Crimea, as that became a part of the independent Ukraine, but was annexed by the Russians in 2014.

In 2007 the city opened a new chapter in its history by winning the bid of the Olympic host city of 2014. The volume of construction work was huge, including new infrastructure (roads, sanitation, air, and seaports, etc.), sports venues (both indoor and outdoor), commercial and residential buildings.

The new-look of Sochi transformed the features of once a Soviet domestic resort.

### Venue

The Bolshoy Ice Dome is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Olympic Park, Sochi, Russia. Opened in 2012, the 12,000-seat arena was primarily constructed to host hockey competitions during the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Following the Games, it became the home arena of HC Sochi, an expansion team of the KHL. The arena has also hosted concerts and other events.

Prior to the Games, the arena hosted the IIHF World U18 Championships and Channel One Cup in 2013.

The arena's exterior is distinguished by its LED-illuminated roof, which its designers described as resembling fabergé eggs and frozen water droplets.

The arena was named "Bolshoy", meaning "big", "large" and "huge" in Russian.

This highlights the integral role of ice hockey at the Olympics, which has been dubbed "the most popular sport" of the Games by the organizers themselves.

Furthermore, the name was chosen due to its universal familiarity in other countries, in addition to its allusion to the Bolshoi Theatre, Bolshoi Ballet, and other great Russian accomplishments.

The Ice Dome was situated in the Coastal Cluster zone of venues for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

It served as the main arena for the men and women's ice hockey tournament throughout the Games.

It is the only venue in the Olympic Park located on top of a hill, and is less than 1,000 feet (300 m) away from Shayba Arena, which was the secondary ice hockey venue that hosted mainly preliminary round matches.

### Bidding process

After Russia's victory in Oslo, Channel One Russia became host broadcaster and decided to hold a poll to decide which of three Russian cities would host OVSC16. It was a race between the capital, Moscow, Saint Petersburg or Sochi.

After a lightning-fast competition and a mass amount of votes, Sochi emerged victorious and was confirmed as host city of the contest with the iconic 12,035-seat Bolshoy Ice Dome chosen for its venue.

 Saint Petersburg
 Sochi

## Participating countries

### Semi-final 1

Brazil, Ukraine and Sudan will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.

### Semi-final 2

North Korea, Russia and the Isle of Man will vote in this semi-final. Qualifiers are marked in blue.