The Sound Of Europe 14

The **Sound Of Europe 14**will be the 14th edition of the Sound Of Europe. It will take place in **Forest National, Brussels, Belgium**, following **Belgiums**'s**victory** in the 13th edition with **Loïc Nottet** and his song **"Million Eyes"**. This will be the first time that Belgium hosts the contest. The 14th edition consisted of **two semi-finals**, and **a final**. Thirty-one countries have already confirmed their participation in the 14th edition.

## Location

**Brussels**, officially the **Brussels-Capital Region,** is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is located in the central portion of the country and is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders (in which it forms an enclave) or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and a metropolitan area with a population of over 1.8 million, the largest agglomeration in Belgium. Brussels is also part of a large conurbation which extends between Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven and Walloon Brabant and is home to over 5 million people.

Brussels grew from a small rural settlement on the river Senne to become an important city-region in Europe. Since the end of the Second World War, Brussels has been a major centre for international politics and has become the home of numerous international organizations, politicians, diplomats and civil servants. Brussels is the *de facto* capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions (the other administrative centres are Luxembourg and Strasbourg). The secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an *Alpha* global city.

Historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is an officially bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages. Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages.

### **Venue**

The contest will take place in Forest National in Brussels, following Belgiums's victory at the 13th edition of the contest in Tallinn with the song "Million Eyes", performed by Loïc Nottet. Forest National has a capacity of approximately 8,400 attendees. Forest National is a multi-purpose arena and hosts indoor sporting events as well as concerts done by a wide variety of artists.

### **Bidding phase**

 Ghent
 Brussels

## Format

The edition consisted of two semi-finals and a final. The eleven countries with the highest scores in both semi-finals qualified to the final.

Each participating country had their own national jury, which consisted of five professional members of the music industry. Each member of a respective nation's jury was required to rank every song, except that of their own country. The voting results from each member of a particular nation's jury were combined to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. Likewise, the televoting results were also interpreted as a full ranking, taking into account the full televoting result rather than just the top ten. The combination of the jury's full ranking and the televote's full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1 point.

### **Running order**

The final running order of the competing performances at the semi-finals and the final will be decided by the producer of the show and will be approved by the Executive Producer, the Executive Supervisor, the CBU and the Reference Group.

### **National host broadcaster**

During an initial meeting between the host broadcaster VRT and CBU (Contest Broadcasting Union), the representatives of the core organising team were selected. **Merfi Amadeus** was announced as the executive producer and **Kostas Bouris** as the executive supervisor.

## Participating countries

45 countries have to date confirmed their participation in the 14th edition of the contest.

### **Big 5**

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