Country Contest 11

Semi-final 1 date
 Semi-final 2 date
 Final date
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Host broadcaster
 Number of entries
 Debuting countries
 Voting system

The **Country Contest 11** was the eleventh edition of the contest. It is the contest with the most amount of withdrawals, with 19 countries leaving the competition; six being permanent members. Although several countries managed to make the top four, the CCU stated that it would take time to process their application into the CCU.

The contest is the first since the fifth edition that had only countries exclusive to the Country Contest Union, after six editions with Australia, Brazil, South Korea/Africa and the load of countries in tenth. However, Brazil was listed as one of the competing countries in order to defend their winning title.

With the previous contest taking place in June 2017, the contest was delayed by over four editions due to financial issues within the CCU. The CCU later announced that the contest would "take place sometime in October 2017." The CCU also decided to revive their "Country Games" idea, which took place prior to the Country Contest.

## Confirmation period

### **Confirmed countries**

The following countries, which participated in the previous edition, confirmed their participation for the contest:

* Austria
* Azerbaijan
* Brazil (co-host)
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Cyprus
* Czech Republic
* Denmark
* Egypt
* Estonia
* Finland
* France

* Greece
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Lebanon
* Liberland
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Monaco
* Morocco
* Poland
* Portugal

* Russia
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* South Africa
* South Korea
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Tunisia
* Turkey
* United Kingdom (host)

Additionally,  Kazakhstan returned to the contest.
### **Associate countries**

The following countries participated as associates in the previous edition, and forcefully withdrew (save Brazil):

* Australia
* Brazil (participant)
* Canada

* Colombia
* Indonesia
* New Zealand

* Philippines
* United States
* Venezuela

### **Withdrawing countries**

* Belarus
* Georgia

* Liechtenstein
* Montenegro

* Ukraine
* Vatican City

## Semi-final 1

Brazil, United Kingdom and Morocco also voted here. The top ten countries qualified to the Grand Final.

## Semi-final 2

Iceland, Italy and Switzerland also voted here. The top ten countries qualified to the Grand Final.

## Final

Qualifiers from the semi-finals, as well as the top 6 of previous edition took part.

## Format

### Country limit

The CCU announced on 9 June 2017 after the deadline that effective next edition, the contest would be limited to 46 countries. This comes after the tenth contest had a record breaking amount of 58 countries, which meant three semi-finals had to take place; this which CCU does not want to happen again.

The CCU initially predicted that 46 countries would take part this edition, but the withdrawals of 9 regular participants caused the number to change to 38. A statement from the CCU read, "The eleventh Country Contest will see 38 countries taking part to be crowned the winner; the lowest number since the 7th edition. Despite the original prediction of 46 participating countries, a number of factors had led to the 9 regular withdrawals; the months-long hiatus from the jubilee edition, the "constant qualifications" from countries and the growing interest of the Country Contest."

On 10 November 2017, CCU announced that due to the number of complaints from withdrawing countries this edition, that a new system would be implemented to be first used next edition. However, CCU refused to disclose any other details regarding the new system.

### Big 6

The fifth edition for the first time had semi-finals, in which the Top 3 of the previous edition auto-qualified. From the seventh to tenth edition, four countries were always auto-qualified to the grand final from being in the top four previous edition. However, on 5 November 2017, CCU announced that the Big 4 would expand to the Big 6 given the constant expansion of the contest. From the previous edition, only the top 6 regular participating countries were counted with an exception for winning country Brazil. This requirement meant that, Switzerland, which placed tenth was counted as part of the Big 6.

## Incidents

### **Liberland jury/televote disagreement**

On 18 November 2017, the CCU revealed the full semi-final and final split results, which included debutant Liberland. Liberland's performance in semi-final 2 saw the country place last, just 5 points away from surpassing Turkey. Despite placing last overall, the televoters ranked Liberland 5th out of the field of 16 candidates, earning 83 points. Contrary to the televoting, Liberland was placed last with the juries receiving nul points. LTC argued that this was an "unfair boycott" from the juries which is why they should have a "televote qualifier" and "jury qualifier" to "disable such bias." (However, this system would have allowed Azerbaijan and already-qualified Lebanon to qualify leaving San Marino, not helping Liberland anyways.) The CCU stated that they had taken their idea into suggestion.

Nonetheless, fans stated that the Liberland televote result was a result of "troll voting", which is why the country did not receive any jury votes, stating that it only proved the "consistency" and "professionalism" of the jurors.

## Other countries

* Albania: Participating four editions since returning in the 7th edition, Albania never qualified leading to the broadcaster's withdrawal.
* Catalonia: TVC sent an application to join the Country Contest Union to participate in the Contest on October 27, 2017, which was rejected on October 30 due to the "non-existent approval from the Spanish government."
* Georgia: With Georgia also having failed since its return in 7th edition, never qualifying, the broadcaster decided to withdraw.
* Israel: IPBC announced that the country would not return to the contest in the near future; this being due to CCU's rejection. Regarding this, the CCU stated that the broadcaster had not existed long, so it is just a "matter of waiting."
* Liberland: With previous unsuccessful attempts to join the Country Contest Union on June 6, 2016 with the defunct LBTV and LTC's May 22, 2017, LTC sent representatives to Serbia and Croatia leading to their approval of participation in their application to the CCU sent on September 25, 2017; the CCU then formally accepted the application on October 30, 2017, leading to LTC's confirmation of debut in the Contest. Some journalists claimed that Liberland's debut was a result of Albania and Montenegro's withdrawal which meant less points for Serbia and Croatia.
* Montenegro: Despite RTCG's return in the previous edition, the broadcaster announced that it would withdraw due to lack of funding.
* Scotland: BBC Scotland stated that they "were waiting for an answer from CCU," hoping that the country can participate "within months."
* Spain: RTVE announced on 7 June 2017 that Spain would withdraw from the contest due to "reforming Spain's participation format." Having only missed the contest twice, it's the first absence for 7 editions.