Mysterious Song Contest 26

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

**Mysterious Song Contest** welcomes the world to  Taiwan for the 26th Edition.

The Mysterious Song Contest #26 will be the 26th edition of the annual Mysterious Song Contest Wikia. It will take place in the Taipei Arena, located in Taipei,  Taiwan, following the country's victory at the 25th edition with Princess Ai & A-Lin performing "I Won't Leave". This will be the first time the city hosts the event.

The contest is scheduled to consist of 3 semi finals and finally the grand final, with official dates for the semi finals being 11th December 2015 and the grand final being the 02nd January 2016. As of 08th December 2015, 51 countries have announced their participation in the contest, this is the biggest number of participant competing in Mysterious Song Contest Wikia since edition #25 where 38 countries took part.

## Location

Formosa TV  Taiwan, announced on 06th December 2015 that their first choice as host arena for the Contest was the Taipei Dome in Taipei. However other cities and arenas were still able to apply. After  Taiwan win in Caracas, those making a bid had approximately three days to submit their offer to Formosa TV.

The Taipei Arena in Taipei, which has a capacity of approximately 15,085 attendees, was announced as the host venue on 07th December 2015. This will be the Arena's first hosting of the contest after news that the Taipei Dome would not be ready to host the show in time.

## Presenters

On 07th December 2015, Formosa TV announced that Barbie Hsu and Jerry Yan will be the host/s of the 26th contest. Ariel Lin will host in the Green Room.

## Format

The competition will consist of three semi-finals and a final, a format which has been used more regularly in the contest. The 07 countries with the highest scores in each semi-final will qualify to the grand final where they will join the top 3 countries from the previous edition  Kazakhstan,  Sweden and the host nation  Taiwan. Once the 21 qualifiers have been announced there will be a 24 hour vote for the wildcard which will join the finalists to create a grand final of 25 countries.

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.

## Participants

The following countries have confirmed their participation into the contest.

**Table key**

     *Participating Countries*
     *Withdrawing Countries*
     *TBA*
     *TBA*

## Returning Artists

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

* Aland Islands Anna Abreu [Prev. #23 Finland]
* Albania JEM [Prev. #10  Sweden]
* Dominican Republic Melanie Martinez [Prev. #25]
* Greece Antique [Prev. #23]
* Moldova Aliona Moon [Prev. #09]
* Morocco Samira Said [Prev. #05,#06,#08,#09,#10,#12,#13,#14,#15,#16,#24,#25]
* Russia Alsou [Prev. #08,#19]
* South Africa Elvis Se Seun [Prev. #24 Namibia]
* Sweden Velvet [Prev. #14]

## Semi-final allocation draw

The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 10th December 2015. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists  Taiwan,  Sweden and  Kazakhstan. The countries were split into three pots which would either be semi final 1, semi final 2 or semi final 3. Then a random generator was used to allocate countries into the running order. The results were as follows:

It was decided that  Sweden would vote in semi final #01,  Taiwan would vote in semi final #02 and  Kazakhstan to vote in semi final #03. This was to assure to make the results fair and even for all participants in the edition.

Once the qualifiers have been announced the finalists have 48 hours to vote for the country they want to see as their wild card from the non-qualifiers. That country would then join the finalist into the grand final.

## Semi Final 1

16 Countries are participating in this Semi Final with  Sweden voting as 1 of the 3 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 07 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified
     Wildcard Qualifier

## Semi Final 2

16 Countries are participating in this Semi Final with  Taiwan voting as 1 of the 3 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 07 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

## Semi Final 3

16 Countries are participating in this Semi Final with  Kazakhstan voting as 1 of the 3 automatic qualifiers of this edition. The top 07 countries that score the highest number of points will qualify to the grand final.

     Qualified

## Grand Final

25 Countries will create the grand final. 07 from Semi Final 1, 07 from Semi Final 2, 07 from semi final 3, 1 wildcard and the automatic qualifiers  Taiwan,  Sweden and  Kazakhstan

The draw on  Taiwan,  Sweden and  Kazakhstan position in the running order was done prior to the Semi Finals.

This was the running order for the Grand Final

### **12points**

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

## Voting & Spokespeople

This is the order of how the votes were released and the spokesperson from each country

First part of results

01. Romania Mira (A Romanian Singer)

02. United Kingdom Simon Cowell (A British Music Producer)

03. Norway Alexander Rybak (A Norwegian Singer)

04. Armenia Isabel Bayrakdarian (An Armenian-Canadian Opera Singer)

05. Philippines Angeline Quinto (A Filipino Singer)

06. Israel Dubi Gal (An Israeli Actor and Director)

07. Germany Bill Kaulitz (A German Singer)

08. Algeria Dalia Chih (An Algerian Singer)

09. United States Demi Lovato (An American Singer and Songwriter)

10. Dominican Republic Melanie Martinez (Dominican Act for Edition #26)

11. Kazakhstan Kamshat Zholdybaeva (A Kazakh Singer from the band KeshYou)

12. Czech Republic Gabriela Soukalova (A Czech bi-athlete)

13. Portugal Mariza (A popular Fado singer)

14. Italy Annalisa (An Italian Pop Singer)

15. Finland Cristal Snow (A Finnish Singer)

16. Ghana Hugh Quarshie (A Ghanaian-born British actor)

17. Ireland Máiréad Nesbitt (Aan Irish Classical and Celtic Music Performer)

Second part of results

18. Poland Joanna Krupa (A Polish American Model and Actress)

19. Kosovo Flaka Krelani (An Albanian Kosovar singer)

20. Iceland Ragnhildur Steinunn Jónsdóttir (an Icelandic TV Personality)

21. Belgium Eva Daeleman (A Flemish radio and TV presenter)

22. Greece Helena Paparizou (A Greek-Swedish Singer songwriter)

23. Panama Jordana Brewster (A Panamarian actress living in the US)

24. Taiwan Vivian Dawson (A Canadian-Zealandic Actor)

25. Hungary Cserpes Laura (A Hungarian Singer)

26. Australia Nicole Kidman (an Australian-American Actress)

27. The Netherlands Trijntje Oosterhuis (A Dutch Pop and Jazz Singer)

28. Morocco Houda Saad (A Moroccan Female Singer-Songwriter)

29. Austria DJ Ötzi (An Austrian Entertainer and Singer)

30. Albania Kejsi Tola (An Albanian singer)

31. Sweden Eric Saade (A Swedish Pop Singer)

32. Denmark Stine Bramsen (A Danish Singer And Songwriter)

33. Serbia Ana Stanic (A Serbian Pop Singer and Songwriter)

34. Ukraine Svetlana Loboda (A Ukrainian Singer And Composer)

Third part of results

35. Egypt Myra Sky (An Egyptian Singer)

36. Singapore Stefanie Sun (A Singaporean Singer-Songwriter)

37. Venezuela Lilimar Hernandez (A Venezuelan Actress)

38. Mexico Cesar Millan (A Mexican-American dog behaviorist)

39. France Tal Benyerzi (An Israeli-born French singer-songwriter)

40. San Marino Senhit Zadik Zadik (An Italian singer)

41. Spain Nathalia Ramos (A Spanish actress)

42. Uganda Angella Katatumba (A Ugandan Singer and Songwriter)

43. Russia Sergey Lazarev (A Russian Singer, Dancer and Actor)

44. Lithuania Brandon Flowers (An American singer of Lithuanian Descent)

45. Hong Kong Andy Lau (A Hong Kong Cantopop Singer and Actor)

46. Papua New Guinea Heather Watson (An English female tennis player of Papuan Descent)

47. Brazil Elaine Martins (A Brazilian Singer and Pastor)

48. South Korea Park Ji-min (A South Korean singer and rapper)

49. Aland Islands Katrin Sjögren (A Ålandic politician)

50. Moldova Doina Ciobanu (A Moldovan Internet Blogger)

51. South Africa Troye Sivan (A South African-born Australian actor)

52. Rest Of The World Cam Adler (An Australian guitarist)

### Voting Grid

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

     Voter was replaced
     Qualified

This is how the finalists scored in the wildcard battle.

     Qualified

Here is how the world voted in the grand final.

     Voter was replaced