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This was the seventeenth Lied van Liedjes to be held. The final event, the biggest, was held on 22nd December 2001 with Semi-Finals and Golden Duel nights happening between 17th December 2001 until 19th December 2001, and on the 21st December 2001 - on the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of that week.

## Organization

Belgrade was chosen to host amid other hosting bids such as Novi Sad or Niš. asefgasgageseageag

Eliza Boterman decided to resign as executive producer due to stress. She remained on as director, whilst Hans Weiss moved to executive positive. Miloje Savićevič moved on as coordinator.

all Muslim countries, excluding Turkey (who submitted late and was fined), withdrew in this edition due to the return of Israel. Cyprus, Greece and Malta all returned. Belarus tried to submit but was still banned under the previous edition. Canada debuted, having wanted to join since the beginning, always broadcasting the show, and having participated in the Commonwealth Music Festival.

Northern Ireland remained distinct from the Republic of Ireland. the Isle of Man failed to debut and Gibraltar failed to return to the contest.

## Contest

Following on from the previous edition, the 17th edition would maintain 3 semi-finals and a second chance round, renamed the Golden Duels. Five countries, the top 5 from the previous edition, would automatically qualify. This left 40 countries to be placed in pots and distributed unevenly across the 3 semi-finals. Each semi-final would have at least 13 countries, with the first semi-final given the extra due to being the first night. Six countries from each would qualify to the final. Two would enter the Golden Duels. The countries duelling would be shuffled and the winner based purely on televotes would advance. This gives 18 countries qualifying from the Semi-Finals, 3 countries qualifying from the Golden Duels, and 5 automatically qualifying countries, allowing the final to have a total of 26 participants.

### Pots for Semi Finals

To avoid too many similar countries in the same semi final, each country would be placed in a geographical or cultural group and then drawn to be in the semi final from there.

### Other Countries

* Template:Cf - the Algerian broadcaster withdrew due to conflicts with Israel. They provided no more information.
* Template:Cf - the Egyptian broadcaster withdrew due to conflicts with Israel. They provided no more information.
* Template:Cf - the Gibraltar broadcaster made no official statement. They did not appear on the final list of participants. It is believed they conflicted with Spain
* Template:Cf - the Lebanese broadcaster made no official statement. They did not appear on the final list of participants.
* Template:Cf - the Libyan broadcaster made no official statement. They did not appear on the final list of participants.
* Template:Cf - the Luxembourgish broadcaster withdrew stating that the broadcaster were short on money and unable to pay the participation fee. They stated they hoped for a return in the 18th edition.
* Template:Cf - the Malaysian broadcaster, who is participating in the Commonwealth spin-off tournament, appealed to the contest to allow their participation despite being in East Asia. Rumours mentioned a possible Singapore and Malaysia duo debut in the contest but they did not appear on the final list of participants.
* Template:Cf - the Moroccan broadcaster made no official statement. They did not appear on the final list of participants.
* Template:Cf - the Syrian broadcaster made no official statement. They did not appear on the final list of participants.
* Template:Cf - the Tunisian broadcaster made no official statement. They did not appear on the final list of participants.