Country Contest 8

Semi-final 1 date
 Semi-final 2 date
 Final date
 Venue
 Number of entries
 Debuting countries
 Voting system

The **Country Contest 7** was the seventh edition of the contest. It featured the return of the semi-finals and revelation of split voting results. The contest has the largest amount of participants to date, beating last edition's 34. Despite this, it is also the biggest amount of withdrawals since the sixth edition.

## Semi-final 1

Portugal and Azerbaijan also voted here. The top nine countries qualified to the Grand Final.

## Final

Qualifiers from the semi-finals, as well as the top 4 of previous edition took part.

## Commentators

#### Non-participating countries

* Canada – Sasha Pieterse (ABC Spark/Bravo, final)
* United States – Sasha Pieterse (Freeform, final)

## Incidents

### Lack of semi-final qualifiers

After the finalists were revealed, 28 of 40 countries were left in the semi-finals, which caused criticism from many countries. Over fifteen countries had stated that they were to withdraw, which would become the biggest since the sixth edition when 16 countries had withdrawn. The CCU finally responded, stating that they were happy how big the contest was becoming but this obviously meant changes had to be made. These changes were later revealed as having eleven out of eighteen countries qualifying from both semi-finals, making a final of 26 leaving fourteen out in total. The broadcasters had an agreement with the CCU, confirming their participation for the next edition regardless of the semi-final result. An exception had been made for Montenegro's RTCG as they were not able to broadcast financially.

## Other countries

### Possible debuts and returns

#### CCU members

* Kazakhstan: The network stated that returning to the contest was not in their plans.
* Kosovo: The broadcaster stated its intentions in debuting in the future, though stated that they were waiting for Macedonia to come back first.
* Macedonia: MRT stated that if its neighbours were to do well in this edition, they would "most definitely" return next edition.
* Morocco: SNRT stated that although many of its neighbors have debuted at the contest, and some returned, due to an Israeli withdrawal, that the broadcaster would be closely inspecting the event for a potential return in the next edition.

#### Non-CCU members

The CCU stated that they were pleased with the reaction to another guest country being invited to the contest. They added that more guest countries could participate at once in the future if the interest keeps growing.

* Argentina: Telefe decided to broadcast the contest as its neighbor Brazil became the guest country, so Argentina became the first non-participant to broadcast a semi-final.
* Canada: Bravo broadcasted the final, as the channel syndicates many series from Freeform. The same commentator used from the American broadcast was used, though Canada itself has not claimed any interest in participating.
* Colombia: RTVC SMP decided to broadcast the contest also due to Brazil's debut.
* New Zealand: The network stated that they were going to broadcast this edition after Australia's success in the past but after learning of the withdrawal decided against.
* Peru: A station had looked into broadcasting the show, but did not find the contest appealing to its programming.
* United States: Following Brazil's invitation, Freeform decided to broadcast the final. The broadcaster stated that they were "very interested" in participating in the country in the future.
* Venezuela: A station had originally intended on broadcasting, but pulled out last minute due to scheduling issues.

### Withdrawals

* Australia: SBS was forced to withdraw as the nation did not achieve top four. Brazil became the new guest country.
* Belarus: BRTC withdraw stating that in the two editions they participated in they were either last in the final, or most recently, last in the semi-final.
* Israel: IBA withdrew as the TV network was shut down as it was replaced by IPBC. IPBC stated that the contest was not in their highest priorities, especially after the recent third-to-last placement. Before its withdrawal, the country was one of the ones that had participated in every single edition, though never made the top 2.
* Liechtenstein: 1FLTV withdrew stating that the contest was a one-time experiment as the costs were too much and the ratings were not strong enough to support the broadcast.
* Lithuania: LRT withdrew citing lack of interest, funding and results.
* United Kingdom: BBC withdrew from the contest, citing lack of results and ratings.