Universal Song Contest 1

Final date
 Venue
 Entries
 Debuting
 Winning song

**Universal Song Contest 1**, was the 1st edition of the Universal Song Contest, an official spin-off for the Eurofans Song Contest. It was held in  Singapore. Singapore chose the Singapore National Stadium to serve as the host venue for the edition.

Thirty-nine countries took part in the contest; The submissions for the first edition opened on 10 November 2019.

With 400 points, The winner was  South Africa with the song "Helele", performed by Velile and Safari Dou. South Africa won for the first time and received the highest total score in the history of the contest and with a margin of 72 points over the second place which went to  Canada.  Palau,  Colombia, and  Egypt completed the top five of the edition.

## Location

*For further information see Singapore*
The first edition took place in Singapore for the first time.

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign city-state and island country located in maritime Southeast Asia. Singapore lies about one degree of latitude (137 kilometers or 85 miles) north of the equator, and is situated off the southern tip of the Malay peninsula, and, by extension, the southernmost extremity of continental Eurasia.

The island country is wedged between western Indonesia and peninsular Malaysia, sharing its southern maritime border with the Batam, Bintan, and Karimun archipelago of the former's Riau Islands province, and its northern, western, and eastern maritime borders with the latter's Johor state; it is additionally in the vicinity of Sumatra to its west and Borneo to its east. The island country is enveloped by the littoral waters of the Johore Strait to its north and the Singapore Strait to its south and is geographically positioned within the confluence of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, being bounded by the Malacca Strait to its west and the South China Sea to its east.

The country's territory, which is archipelagic, is composed of one main island, 63 satellite islands, and islets, and one outlying islet, the combined area of which has increased by 25% since the country's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects.

## Venue

*For further information see National Stadium, Singapore*
*The National Stadium* is a multi-purpose stadium in Singapore. It was completed in late 2013 and officially opened on 30 June 2014, on the site of the former National Stadium, which was closed in 2007 and demolished in 2010. A centerpiece of the larger Singapore Sports Hub complex, the stadium hosts major association football matches, including the home matches of the Singapore national team.

The stadium features the world's largest retractable domed roof and the configurable seating on the lowest spectator tier to make it the only stadium in the world that is custom-designed to host different sporting events at any given time. Depending on its configurations, the stadium has a maximum seating capacity of 55,000 for football and rugby, 52,000 for cricket and 50,000 for athletics events/concerts. The roof is made out of insulated metal to reflect sunlight.

**Key**
     Host venue

  Singapore | Singapore Indoor Stadium

## Format

The executive supervisors have decided that in the first edition will be 2 Semi-finals with 19 - 20 countries in each. In each semi-final, 13 countries will qualify for the Grand Final to make a line-up of 26 competing countries.

### Semi-final allocation draw

The draw to determine the participating countries' semi-finals took place right after the closing of the songs' submissions. The thirty-nine semi-finalists had been allocated into seven pots, based on their geographical place and cultural ties. Drawing from different pots helped to reduce the chance of so-called neighborly voting and increases suspense in the semi-finals (to make the contest more realistic).

The seven pots were the following:

* Japan
* North Korea
* Philippines
* South Korea
* Taiwan
* Cuba
* Mexico
* Panama
* St. Lucia
* Suriname
* India
* Peru
* South Africa
* Zimbabwe
* Chile
* Colombia
* Ecuador
* Uruguay
 Pot 5
 * Bahamas
* Canada
* Palau
* St. Kitts & Nevis
* United States
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* New Zealand
* Tuvalu
* Egypt
* Lebanon
* Sudan
* Tunisia

### Voting

The executive supervisors have announced that the voting system would be each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Televoting votes from all countries are pooled. After players have cast their votes, the results of each professional jury are presented. After the results of the professional juries are presented, the televoting points from all participating countries are combined, providing one score for each song. The results are announced in reverse order. The voting system is also used to determine the qualifiers from each semi-final, but as before the qualifiers are announced in random order.

## Participating Countries

### Semi-Final 1

The first semi-final took place on 26 November 2019. Twenty countries participated in the first semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### Semi-Final 2

The second semi-final took place on 30 November 2019. Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### Final

The final took place on 28 December 2019. Twenty-six countries participated in the final, with all 39 participating countries eligible to vote.

## Scoreboard

### Semi-final 1

#### 12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country in the first Semi-final.

### Semi-final 2

#### 12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country in the second Semi-final.

### Final

#### 12 points

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points awarded by each country in the Final.

## Voting Order

2. Colombia
3. United States
4. South Korea
5. Egypt
6. Palau
7. New Zealand
8. Uganda
9. Japan
10. Brazil
11. Panama
12. Zimbabwe
13. Micronesia

15. Taiwan
16. Mexico
17. Tuvalu
18. North Korea
19. Argentina
20. Tunisia
21. Costa Rica
22. Peru
23. China
24. Algeria
25. Lebanon
26. Chile
28. Suriname
29. St. Kitts & Nevis
30. Uruguay
31. St. Lucia
32. Ecuador
33. Sudan
34. Cuba
35. India
36. Nauru
37. Bahamas
38. Venezuela
39. Marshall Islands

## External links

* Recap of all the songs performed at the 1st Semi-Final of the 1st Universal Song Contest
* Recap of all the songs performed at the 2nd Semi-Final of the 1st Universal Song Contest
* Full voting of the Grand Final of the 1st Universal Song Contest