Rules of participation for participants of the virtual contest of musical compositions "Eurovoice Song Contest"

## 1. Integrity of the Competition

1.1. The competition administration reserves the right to exclude/suspend the participation of a curator in the competition, issue warnings, and modify the competition status if there are suspicions of the curator's involvement in any incidents, information leaks, or conflicts with other simulators/groups of people.

1.2. The competition organizers reserve the right to modify/exclude/amend the Season rules at any time without providing reasons.

## 2. Participation in the Competition

2.1. Only one country can be assigned to a curator. A country is considered assigned if it has been submitted in the designated channel when it is available and free. The country assignment must follow the specified application format.

2.2. By assigning a country, you confirm that you have read and agree to comply with the Participation Rules and Code of Conduct. In case of violations, a warning will be issued to the curator. Accumulating 2 or 3 warnings will result in the curator's exclusion from the competition without the possibility of reinstatement.

2.3. The competition may contain content that is not suitable for children under 16 years old. By assigning a country, you confirm your awareness of this age limit. Otherwise, you take full responsibility for providing inaccurate information.

2.4. If a curator declines participation without informing for more than 2 seasons, the assigned country will be automatically released.

2.5. The curator is allowed to participate only if there is a subscription to one of the services of the competition: Telegram, Discord (ad. VK). If there is no subscription or unsubscription, the curator may not be accepted/disqualified in/out of competition/season.

## 3. Official Country Page (Channel)

3.1. Participants have the right to request the organizers to create a channel for the assigned country in the competition, following the specified formatting rules described below.

3.2. The country's channel can be used to publish any news about the competition, selections, and other relevant information.

Mandatory: The channel's formatting should be aesthetically pleasing, have a logical sequence, and posts must be grammatically correct, complying with the Code of Conduct.

## 4. National Selection

4.1. To conduct a national selection, you should first have a country channel.

4.2. Official selections can be held during the designated time.

4.3. The dates for the selection will be coordinated and announced by the administration.

4.4. Songs participating in the national selection must adhere to the main competition rules. However, additional restrictions may apply specifically to national selection songs.

4.5. Songs participating in the national selection must be approved in advance by the competition administration.

4.5.1. To reserve songs for a national selection of a country, the curator must provide a complete list of the songs in a designated form within the specified timeframe.

4.5.2. Songs reserved by a country for a national selection cannot be used in another national selection.

4.5.3. In case the same application is submitted for reservation on behalf of two countries, the song can only be used by the curator who submitted it first.

4.5.4. A country participating under a neutral flag is not eligible to conduct a national selection.

4.5.5. Choosing the "Internal Selection" obligates you to fill out a form with a list of participating songs for further review and approval/rejection of your selection/one of the songs.

The administration reserves the right not to disclose the reason for selection rejection/song rejection.

## 5. Neutral Flag and National Eurovoice Committees

5.1. A country (curator) loses the opportunity to participate under the National Flag in the following cases:

5.1.1. Ignoring information (notifications, voting, etc.) from the contest organizers;

5.1.2. Late submission of the application or conducting the selection process;

5.1.3. Non-compliance with the Code of Conduct, gross or repeated violations thereof;

5.1.4. Other cases not provided for in the Rules are subject to consideration by the contest organizers;

5.2. In official protocols, the respective curators will be identified, for example, as Eurovoice artists from Malta;

5.3. Unlike regular countries, special conditions are applied to disqualified curators:

5.3.1. The curator does not receive any rating points regardless of the result;

5.3.2. The main country of the curator cannot participate in the season;

5.3.3. In the event of a National Eurovoice Committee's victory, the designated country does not have the right to host the next season, and the host location is chosen through alternative means;

## 6. Song

6.1. The following are eligible for participation:

6.1.1. Songs with less than 7 million views on the official video (lyric video, visualization, mood video) on the YouTube platform;

6.1.2. Songs with a duration of no more than 4 minutes and 30 seconds;

6.1.3. Songs released from 2021 to the present;

6.1.4. Songs with a video quality of at least 720 HD;

6.2. The following are prohibited from participation:

6.2.1. Songs from Eurovision, national selections for Eurovision, Junior Eurovision, covers, songs by deceased artists or disbanded groups;

6.2.2. Songs with more than 7 million views;

6.2.3. Songs that have previously participated in the contest (songs from the Archive);

6.2.4. Songs used in the national selection of any country within the Eurovoice framework;

6.2.5. Songs with a duration exceeding 4 minutes and 30 seconds.

6.2.6. TOP-500 Artist`s songs: https://kworb.net/itunes/extended.html

## 7. Online Voting

7.1.1. National Jury voting and Online Voting are combined in a 50%/50% ratio;

7.1.2. Online Voting takes place on the Google Forms platform in a single phase:

7.1.3. Simultaneously with the recap publication and the start of National Jury voting, any curators can vote for 3-5 songs, including the curated country, by following the provided link;

7.1.4. A vote is considered invalid if fewer than 3 or more than 5 songs from countries are selected;

7.1.5. The contest organizers do not announce any attempts at manipulation during the voting process. Any votes that consistently favor one country are considered null and void;

7.1.6. In the event of disqualification of any country, the points awarded to that country from the Online Voting are distributed evenly among all participants in the semifinal/final, rounded down;

7.1.7. The contest organizers reserve the right to cancel the Online Voting in any of the shows (semifinal/final) in case of technical errors during the vote count;

7.1.8. In the event of a tie, the country with the higher score from the National Jury is considered the winner.

## 8. Voting System, Voting, and Automatic Finalists

8.1. Voting System:

8.1.1. Voting in the semifinals and final follows the 12/10/8-1 system;

8.1.2. In case of a tie, the country with the highest number of highest scores (12 points) takes the higher position, and so on. If all scores are equal, the country with the lower draw number takes the higher position.

8.1.3. The voting is considered open only after the official release of the semifinal/final recap.

8.2. Voting:

8.2.1. The curator is obliged to vote within the designated period set by the contest administration.

8.2.2. If the curator is unable to vote, they have the right to contact the administration and request a postponement of the voting or form the country's "results" based on the countries in the basket and their respective tops.

8.2.3. In the semifinals and final, the curator must submit a complete top, excluding their own country.

8.2.4. If the curator fails to vote within the time allocated by the administration or does not report any circumstances of force majeure, they will be disqualified for 1 (one) season.

8.2.5. Only the participants and auto-finalists drawn by lot vote in the semifinals.

8.2.6. All season participants are required to vote in the final.

8.2.7. The administration carefully monitors the voting process to prevent friendly or random voting. Otherwise, the organizers reserve the right to reject the voting without explanation or assign scores based on the averaged top of the countries in the draw basket.

8.3. Auto-finalists:

8.3.1. The host country (winner of the previous season), countries ranking second to fifth in the previous season, and the curator ranking first in the ratings become auto-finalists of the next season.

8.3.2. Auto-finalists are an integral part of the voting in the semifinals.

## 9. Final and Winner

9.1. Up to 26 countries participate in the final.

9.2. Placements are awarded based on the ranking of points among all finalists: the winner is the song with the highest number of points.

9.3. The winner of the contest, except for special exceptions, automatically becomes the host of the next season and an auto-finalist.

## 10. Curators' Rating

10.1. Curators can receive rating points by participating in seasons and showing activity on the contest's Discord server.

10.2. Rating points are awarded in two variations:

10.2.1. Based on the points distribution table for the placements in the season (see table below).

10.2.2. Based on the top 10 activity table for curators using the system: 12/10/8-1.

10.2.2.1. The activity rating is updated monthly, except for special exceptions.