World Song Contest 1 June 2017

Semi-final 1 date
 Semi-final 2 date
 Final date
 Venue
 Entries
 Debuting
 Host & Big 5
 System
 Winner
 Next edition

**World Song Contest 1** was the first World Song Contest. It was held in Australia after Australia had won the bid over the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Netherlands. The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Melbourne won the bid as host city over cities like Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra. The hosts of the show were previous Eurovision participant Guy Sebastian, actress Robbie Margot and Lee Lin Chin, who gave Australia's points at Eurovision.

55 countries participated. That was almost the maximum amount, but because there was no big 5 yet, the semi-finals were bigger than normally allowed. Only Australia was automatically qualified for the final. Each semi-final consisted of 27 countries.

Sweden's Wiktoria won the contest with the song "Unthink You", followed by New Zealand's Lorde in second and Mexico's Dulce Maria in third.

## Location

> *For further information on the host country, see Australia.*
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> *For further information on the host city, see Melbourne.*
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### Venue

The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre was chosen as the host venue for the contest. It was the only venue in Melbourne that had shown interest in hosting. The centre was construced in 1996 and cost A$129 million.

### Bidding Phase

When Australia won the bid for host countries, the cities Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and the capital Canberra were interested in hosting the contest. Canberra and Perth dropped out due to transportation issues. Both cities were too remote from other civilized places. Brisbane then dropped out because of financial reasons. Sydney was the most likely to host the contest, but Melbourne surprised and won the bid.

## Format

The first semi-final was held on 29 May 2017 and the second semi-final on 5 June 2017 both in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The final was on the 12 June 2017 in Melbourne aswell.

### Semi-final allocation draw

Unfortunately, there are no records of the semi-final allocation draw. All we know is that there was one. The pot's were arranged in such a way to prevent "bloc voting" as much as possible.

### Presenters

Guy Sebastian was the first to be announced as presenter. SBS said that a person with Eurovision experience would be an amazing addition to the first worldwide song contest. Later, Margot Robbie and Lee Lin Chin were both announced as presenters at the same time.

## Participating countries

This was the first contest to allow every souvereign country in the world to participate. After Australia, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany were the first countries to cofirm their participation. The last country to join was Thailand.

There was some controversy though when Hong Kong wanted to participate. It was likely that China, who had already confirmed their participation, would not let Hong Kong participate. China said though, in a press release, that they are happy Hong Kong wants to participate and encouraged the city-state to. Serbia wasn't happy when Kosovo was confirmed to participate, but eventually settled with the countries participation.

### Result

#### Semi-final 1

Twenty-seven countries patricipated in the first semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Watch the results of Semi-Final 1 **HERE**.

### Semi-final 2

Twenty-seven countries patricipated in the second semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Watch the results of Semi-Final 2 **HERE**.

#### Final

Twenty-five countries participated in the final, with all 55 participating countries eligible to vote. The running order for the final was revealed after the second semi-final qualifiers were announced on 5 June 2017.

Watch the results of the Grand Final **HERE**.