Mysterious Song Contest 44

Semi-finals dates
 Final dates
 Venue
 Presenter(s)
 Director
 Executive supervisor
 Host
 Number of entries
 Voting system
 Winning song

**The Olympiad Song Contest** welcomes the world to  Kazakhstan for the 44th Edition.

The **Olympiad Song Contest #44** will be the 44th edition of the annual Olympiad Song Contest. It will take place in the **Alau Ice Palace**, located in **Astana**,  Kazakhstan, following the country's victory at the 43rd edition with Ziruza performing **"S.O.S"**. This will be the **second** time the country hosts the contest after winning the contest in  Singapore edition 27.

The contest is scheduled to consist of 2 semi finals and finally the grand final, with official dates for the semi finals being **28th January 2019**. The grand final official date being the **4th February 2019**. All three live shows were hosted by **Aliona Vilani** &  **Dimash Kudaibergen**.

As of **16th January 2019** **44** confirmed countries participated in the contest. **2** countries have made their debut, The countries being  Canary Islands and  Guinea. **10** countries returned to the contest after absences, while **11** countries withdrew.

## Location

It will take place in the **Alau Ice Palace**, located in **Astana**,  Kazakhstan, following the country's victory at the 43rd edition with Ziruza performing **"S.O.S"**

### **Venue**

The **Alau Ice Palace** in **Astana**, which has a capacity of approximately **8,000** attendees, was announced as the host venue on **16th January 2019**. This will be the Arena's first time hosting the contest.

### **Bidding phase and host city selection**

Following **Kazakhstan's** triumph, the Olympiad Broadcasting Union (OBU)'s Executive Supervisor for the Olympiad Song Contest, issued the hosting invitation to **Kazakhstan** during the winner's press conference.

**KTK**  Kazakhstan, announced on **31st December 2018** that with the contest being held in **Kazakhstan** that any city, town or arena that would like to host the contest would had four days to apply to the broadcaster with their interest.

The following selection criteria were outlined for the selection of the host city:-

* The venue must be covered with a capacity of at least 1,000 but ideally up to 10,000 attendees.
* An international press centre must be able to accommodate no less than 1,550 journalists.
* Venues must also be provided for the opening and closing ceremonies of at least 3,000 attendees.
* The host city must be able to guarantee the safety and security of participants, members of delegations and guests.
* The host city must provide a social program alongside their bid, showcasing the hospitality, originality, cultural values and identity of both the city and country.

     **Host City**

 Astana
 Astana
 Astana

## Format

### **Visual Design**

The theme for the contest, **The Grand Design**, was unveiled on **16th January 2019** in a press conference. Its visual design features three geometric circle that allude to the ideas that rustic and creative design supports the new turn that the contest has taken. The contest's Executive Supervisor remarked that the theme and logos "resonate with MSC's core values, including diversity, very well. The geometric circles connects all of us and its variety can provide good inspiration for each of the participating broadcasters that we look forward to seeing in XX this edition."

### **Presenters**

On **16th January 2019**, **KTK** announced that the contest would be hosted by **Aliona Vilani** and **Dimash Kudaibergen**.

**Spokesperson 1**:- Aliona Vilani
Aliona Valeriya Kavanagh (1 May 1984) is a Russian-Kazakh professional dancer.
In 2008–2009 she appeared in Dancing with the Stars Arena Tour in the U.S. In 2009 she appeared three times as a guest professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars in Hollywood.

In 2014 Vilani was featured in theatre show Licence to Thrill as the lead female dancer.

**Spokesperson 2**:- Dimash Kudaibergen
Dinmukhamed Kanatuly Kudaibergen (May 24, 1994 in Aktobe, Kazakhstan, known as Dimash Kudaibergen), is a Kazakh singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

Kudaibergen began performing at a young age, singing and playing the piano at various venues and contests throughout his childhood. He gained significant popularity in Kazakhstan and in post-Soviet countries in 2015, upon becoming the Grand Prix winner of Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, Belarus. In 2015 and 2016 Kudaibergen performed in various European and Asian countries, and in 2016 he toured Kazakhstan, naming his tour Unforgettable Day, after his own song by the same name. In 2016 he received the award for "Pop Artist" at the People’s Favorite award ceremony in Kazakhstan

### **Voting**

The competition will consist of **02** semi-finals and a final. The **10** countries with the highest scores in each semi-final will qualify to the grand final where they will join the top 6 countries from the previous edition  **Canada,  Lithuania,  Moldova,  The Netherlands,  Sweden and the host nation  Kazakhstan**.

Each participating country had their own national jury/HoD. Each member of a respective nation's jury is required to rank every song, except that of their own country, to produce an overall ranking from first to last place. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received 1 point.

### **Semi-final allocation draw**

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place on **25th January 2019**. The **38** semi-finalists (apart from  Norway) had been allocated into **6** pots, based on the geographical locations of the nations. Drawing from different pots helps to increase suspense in the semi-finals. The draw also determined which semi-final would be broadcast and voted by each of the six automatic finalist countries ( **Canada,  Lithuania,  Moldova,  The Netherlands,  Sweden and the host nation  Kazakhstan**).

* Indonesia
* Japan
* Malaysia
* Mongolia
* Philippines
* South Korea
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Israel
* Morocco
* Turkey
* North Macedonia
* Greece
* Romania
* Serbia
* Ukraine
* France
* Italy
* Portugal
* San Marino
* Spain
* Denmark
* Germany
* Hungary
* Poland
* Switzerland
* British Virgin Islands
* Finland
* United Kingdom
* United States
* Uruguay

## Participating Countries

On **16th January 2019** **45** confirmed countries participated in the contest. **2** countries have made their debut, The countries being  Canary Islands and  Guinea. **10** countries returned to the contest after absences, while **11** countries withdrew.

 Norway originally had created a national selection to select their entry this edition. However, due to time, the HoD was not able to reveal the entry until two days after the deadline. After chats with the OBU, it was decided that  Norway is eligible to compete and will join semi final 01 to create an equal set of countries in each semi final and would perform 19th.

### **Returning Artists**

We welcome back some artists who have previous joined us in MSC.

* Canada Lights
* Denmark Christopher Nissen
* North Macedonia Rennata
* Ghana Fleur East
* Greece Helena Paparizou
* Indonesia Rizky Febian
* Italy Giorgia
* Italy Marco Mengoni
* Turkey Edis
* United Kingdom Sam Smith

## Finals

### **Semi Final 1**

**19 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Kazakhstan**,  **Moldova** and  **Sweden** voting as 3 of the 6 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 10 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

### **Semi Final 2**

**19 Countries** are participating in this Semi Final with  **Canada**,  **Lithuania** and  **The Netherlands** voting as 3 of the 6 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 10 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

### **Grand Final**

26 Countries will create the grand final. 10 from Semi Final 1, 10 from Semi Final 2 and the automatic qualifiers  Canada,  Lithuania,  Moldova,  The Netherlands,  Sweden and the host nation  Kazakhstan.

The draw on  Canada,  Lithuania,  Moldova,  The Netherlands,  Sweden and the host nation  Kazakhstan positions in the running order were done prior to the Semi Finals.

 Australia was originally set not to compete in the grand final due to not voting in the semis. However, after discussions between OBU and SBS  Australia into internal reasons, the OBU allowed  Australia to compete in the grand final as participant 27.

## Scoring

### **12points**

Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the Grand final:

### **Scoreboards**

#### This is how the votes were scored in each Semi Final.

     Voter was replaced
     Qualified
 File:OSC 44 SF1.png
 File:OSC 44 SF2.png

#### Here is how the world voted in the grand final.

     Voter was replaced
 File:OSC 44 GF.png

## National Selections

Here is a list of all the national selections held this edition.

 Norway | Melodi Grand Prix For OSC#44
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