BalkanVision Song Contest

For the most recent edition see BalkanVision Song Contest 26.
For the upcoming edition see BalkanVision Song Contest 27.

The **BalkanVision Song Contest**, often simply called **BalkanVision**, is an international song competition held between the members of the Balkan Broadcasting Union, consisting of countries within and surrounding the Balkans. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio, then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the winner. At least 31 countries are eligible to compete as of April 2020.

Bulgaria and Romania hold the record for most victories, with six wins in the sixth, eighth, twelfth, seventeenth, twentieth, twenty-sixth and the first, fourth, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth and fourteenth editions respectively. The most recent winner is Victoria from Bulgaria who won the twenty-sixth edition with the song "alright.".

## History

On the 6 September 2017, Балкан, the executive supervisor of the BBU, created the BalkanVision Song Contest, a song contest that would be held between the members of the Balkan Broadcasting Union.

The contest began on the 22 September 2017 in Belgrade, Serbia. 11 countries took part, each submitting one entry to the contest.

Romania was the first-ever country to win the contest. The winner is traditionally set to be the host of the following BalkanVision edition.

Currently, the BBU Council has control over the contest, and its members work in different parts of the contest, like recaps, staging, result videos and websites.

The Council currently consists of the following members:

* **Luka**

* **Aris**

## Format

The format of the contest has changed over the years, though the basic tenets have always been thus: participant countries submit original songs, performed live on a television programme broadcast across the BalkanVision Network by the BBU simultaneously to all countries. A "country" as a participant is represented by one television broadcaster from that country: typically, but not always, that country's national public broadcasting organisation. The programme is hosted by one of the participant countries, and the programme is broadcast from the auditorium in the host city. During this programme, after all the songs have been performed, the countries then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs: nations are not allowed to vote for their own song. At the end of the programme, the song with the most points is declared as the winner. The winner receives, simply, the prestige of having won—although it is usual for a trophy to be awarded to the winning songwriters, and the winning country is formally invited to host the event the following edition.

The programme is invariably opened by one or more presenters, welcoming viewers to the show. Between the songs and the announcement of the voting, an interval act is performed.

As national broadcasters join and leave the BalkanVision feed transmitted by the BBU, the BBU and BalkanVision logos are displayed.

## Participation

Further information: List of countries in the BalkanVision Song Contest
A common misconception is that BalkanVision participants have to geographically be in the Balkans. However, that's not true, any full member of the BBU is allowed to send an entry to the BalkanVision Song Contest. Countries that are not full members can apply for becoming one. The Balkan Broadcasting Union has already accepted some countries that were not full members of the BBU at the beginnings of the BVSC. However, the BBU has also already declined a lot of nations and states that wanted to become a full member - and to participate in the BalkanVision Song Contest.

Each full member has got a certain broadcaster that is responsible for the choice of the artists and songs the country is sending for each edition. The broadcaster must have paid the BBU a participation fee in advance of the deadline specified in the rules of the contest for the year in which they wish to participate.

Eligibility to participate is not determined by geographic inclusion within the Balkans, despite the "Balkan" in "BalkanVision". Several countries that do not reside in the Balkans have competed: Cyprus, Moldova, Northern Cyprus and Transnistria since the second edition, Austria and Ukraine since the fifth edition, Hungary, Malta and San Marino since the seventh edition, Slovakia and Switzerland since the ninth edition, Crimea since the twelfth edition, Bavaria, Czech Republic, Gagauzia, Liechtenstein and Monaco since the twentieth edition, and Poland since the twenty-first edition.

Thirty-two countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the edition in which they made their debut:

a) Before the Prespa agreement in 2018 presented as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
## Hosting

*See also: List of host cities of the BalkanVision Song Contest*
Most of the expense of the contest is covered by commercial sponsors and contributions from the other participating nations. The contest is considered to be a unique opportunity for promoting the host country as a tourist destination.

Preparations for the event start a matter of days after the host wins in the previous edition, and confirms to the BBU that they intend to—and have the capacity to—host the event. A host city is chosen—often a national or regional capital city—and a suitable concert venue is identified. The largest venue to have hosted was the Romexpo in Bucharest (which held approximately 50,000 people when Romania hosted in #2, #5, #10, #12 and #4).

The hotel and press facilities in the vicinity are always a consideration when choosing a host city and venue.

### Host country

After the first contest was hosted by Serbia, it was decided that henceforth the winning country would host the contest the next edition.

### BalkanVision logo and theme

The logo, which was created by Rumen, was introduced in the 19th edition. The logo features the name "Balkan", next to the word "vision", below that the words "Song Contest" and below that, the name of the host city appears along with the number of the edition. The words "Balkan" and "vision" are formed in the calligraphic font while the letter "v" in vision has been replaced by a heart where the flag of the host country appears. The logo was generally received positively by both the press and the fans.

### Slogans

Since the eighth edition, slogans were used for the contest. In each edition, the host broadcaster is in charge to decide on the slogan of the edition and based on it, develop the contest's theme and visual design.

## Rules

Further information: Rules
The rules were last updated on the 19 May 2019. They have been used since the BalkanVision Song Contest 20.

### Discord server rules

* Be nice and respectful with every other participant.
* Don't spam the channels.
* Use the respective channels for your uses.
* Use spoilers for results reactions.
* Send your entry in time.
* Vote in time.

### Participation

* You have to join our official Discord community.
* Fake accounts won't get accepted.

### Sponsoring & theme songs

* The host nation can decide one or two sponsors for its edition.
* The host nation can select a theme song for the respective edition.

### Allocation draws & running orders

* The countries will randomly get allocated to a half.
* The host nation can decide where it will perform.
* The running order will be made by a professional team.

### Country selection

* Each user gets one country.
* You can't pick a taken country.
* Only Balkan countries are allowed to participate.

### Artist selection

* National Finals are allowed, maximum are ten artists.
* The singer needs to have a strong connection with the country (roots, born there, having their family there, starting their career there, having citizenship/s, currently living there, etc).
* The singer has to be alive (in bands all members have to be alive). There can be some exceptions.
* The singer has to be older than 15.
* World famous artists are only allowed to compete, if their song has a views limit of 10 Million views.

### Song selection

* National Finals are allowed, maximum are ten songs.
* There isn't any year limit, the song should just include lyrics.
* Songs from any Eurovision Song Contest National Selection are allowed.
* Songs from any Junior Eurovision Song Contest National Selection are allowed.
* Songs from the Eurovision Song Contest are **not** allowed.
* Songs from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest are **not** allowed.
* Cover songs are **not** allowed
* Instrumental songs are **not** allowed.
* Joke songs are **not** allowed.
* Sexual songs are **not** allowed.
* Political songs are **not** allowed.
* Revamped songs are **not** allowed.
* Remixed songs are only allowed, if the original artist is featured.
* Sampled songs are **not** allowed.
* Songs from a soundtrack are **not** allowed.
* The views limit for a song is maximum 10 Million.
* Each entry will be checked by the council before allowing it to compete.

### Borrowing rules

If a country has a small music industry, it gets the right to either take a native artist or borrow from a related country. The borrowing artist must be fully native to its nation, to be able for borrowing; example: Maya Berović can't represent Montenegro, since she is Bosnian-Serbian. Ceca is fully native to Serbia, so she could compete for Montenegro. Following countries may use this borrowing rule:

  Transnistria |  Russia Moldova, Ukraine | 10 Million

The BBU has also four microstates as members:
Gagauzia, Liechtenstein, Malta and San Marino. Since it is even harder to find native artists for them, the states are allowed to borrow either from a country to which they share a connection (10M views limit) or any international artist with the song's views limit of 500K. The international artists can be world-famous if their song holds the 500K views limit rule.

  Liechtenstein |  Switzerland, World
  Malta |  United Kingdom, World
  San Marino |  Italy, World

### Voting

* Give two sets of votes, by giving 1-8, 10 and 12 points as jury voting and as public voting.
* You can't vote for your own country.
* You can't vote for a country twice in the same voting.
* If the users don't send their votes within the given deadline, they won't be able to take part in the following edition and will get a strike.
* If the users can't vote, the only exception for randomizing is the death of a close person or a sudden disease. Scheduling issues like school and work are not regarded as an excuse.
* After the edition, the jury and public voting grids will be published.

### Absences

If a Head of Delegation has a valid reason such as a sudden disease or the death of a close person, they are excused from voting or participating at all. The HoD can stay absent with the country for maximum five editions. If he still doesn't want to or can't participate, his country will get free for another HoD. The person won't be kicked from the server though (except he has got three strikes).

Irrelevant reasons are "no time", work, school or holidays. If a person names one of these options as their non-voting reason, they will get a strike, which leads to a non-participation in the following edition. The missing votes will be received by a replacement voter.

### Punishment

The participant is responsible for the country; if he does not send its entry or vote in time, sanctions will be put on the country's broadcaster and the country will not be allowed to participate in the actual edition. As a punishment, the person will get one strike.

* If a participant doesn't send his entry in time, he'll get a strike and won't be able to compete in its edition anymore.
* If a participant doesn't vote in time, he'll get a strike and won't be able to compete in the following edition anymore.
* After receiving three strikes, the participant will get kicked out of the Discord server and its country will become eligible for others.

## Winners

Main article: List of BalkanVision Song Contest winners

## Ranking of Nations

A ranking was made on each country‘s success in the top 5:

* 5th place - 1 point
* 4th place - 2 points
* 3rd place - 3 points
* 2nd place - 4 points
* 1st place - 5 points

If there are multiple countries having the same amount of points, they will be ranked by alphabetical order.