HeartVision Song Contest 42

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 Semi final 1
 Semi final 2
 Final
 Venue
 Interval act
 Entries
 Debuting
 Returning
 System
 Null points
 Winner

**HeartVision Song Contest 42**, often referred to as **HVSC 42**, will be the fourty-two of the HeartVision Song Contest. The contest will be held in the winning country of the previous edition, which is North Macedonia.

## Location

*Further information: North Macedonia*

North Macedonia (Macedonia until February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. North Macedonia is a landlocked country bordering with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's 2.06 million population. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people. Albanians form a significant minority at around 25%, followed by Turks, Romani, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Aromanians (the latter including Megleno-Romanians in official statistics).

The history of the region begins with the kingdom of Paeonia, a mixed Thraco-Illyrian polity. In the late sixth century BC, the area was subjugated by the Persian Achaemenid Empire, then incorporated into the kingdom of Macedonia in the fourth century BC. The Romans conquered the region in the second century BC and made it part of the larger province of Macedonia. The area remained part of the Byzantine Empire, but was often raided and settled by Slavic tribes beginning in the sixth century of the Christian era. Following centuries of contention between the Bulgarian, Byzantine, and Serbian Empire, it was part of the Ottoman dominion from the mid-14th until the early 20th century, when, following the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, the modern territory of North Macedonia came under Serbian rule.

During the First World War, it was ruled by Bulgaria, but after the end of the war it returned to being under Serbian rule as part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During the Second World War, it was ruled by Bulgaria again and in 1945 it was established as a constituent state of communist Yugoslavia, which it remained until its peaceful secession in 1991. The country became a member of the United Nations in April 1993, but as a result of a dispute with Greece over the name "Macedonia", it was admitted under the provisional description "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (abbreviated as "FYR Macedonia" or "FYROM"). In June 2018, Macedonia and Greece resolved the dispute with an agreement that the country should rename itself "Republic of North Macedonia". This renaming came into effect in February 2019.

A unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, North Macedonia is a member of the UN, NATO, the Council of Europe, the World Bank, OSCE, CEFTA, and the WTO. Since 2005, it has also been a candidate for joining the European Union. North Macedonia is an upper-middle-income country and has undergone considerable economic reform since independence in developing an open economy. North Macedonia is a developing country, ranking 82nd on the Human Development Index, and provides a social security, universal health care system, and free primary and secondary education to its citizens.

### Host City

*Further information: Skopje*

Skopje (/ˈskɒpji, -jeɪ/ SKOP-yee, -⁠yay, US also /ˈskoʊp-/ SKOHP-; Macedonian: Скопје [ˈskɔpjɛ] (listen); Albanian: Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre.

The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; remains of Neolithic settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress that overlooks the modern city centre. Originally a Paeonian city, Scupi became the capital of Dardania in the second century BC. On the eve of the 1st century AD, the settlement was seized by the Romans and became a military camp. When the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western halves in 395 AD, Scupi came under Byzantine rule from Constantinople. During much of the early medieval period, the town was contested between the Byzantines and the Bulgarian Empire, whose capital it was between 972 and 992.

From 1282, the town was part of the Serbian Empire, and acted as its capital city from 1346 to 1371. In 1392, Skopje was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who called it Üsküb, with this name also being in use in English for a time. The town stayed under Ottoman control for over 500 years, serving as the capital of pashasanjak of Üsküp and later the Vilayet of Kosovo. In 1912, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Serbia during the Balkan Wars. During the First World War the city was seized by the Kingdom of Bulgaria, and, after the war, it became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the capital of Vardarska Banovina. In the Second World War the city was again captured by Bulgaria and in 1944 became the capital of SR Macedonia, a federated state within the Yugoslavia. The city developed rapidly, but this trend was interrupted in 1963 when it was hit by a disastrous earthquake.

Skopje is located on the upper course of the Vardar River, and is located on a major north–south Balkan route between Belgrade and Athens. It is a centre for metal-processing, chemical, timber, textile, leather, and printing industries. Industrial development of the city has been accompanied by development of the trade, logistics, and banking sectors, as well as an emphasis on the fields of transportation, culture and sport. According to the last official count from 2002, Skopje had a population of 428,988 inhabitants in its urban area and 506,926 in ten municipalities that form the city and, beside Skopje, include many other less urbanized and rural settlements some of which are located 20 kilometres away from the city itself or even border the neighbouring Kosovo.

### Venue

*Further information: Boris Trajkovski Sports Center*

The Boris Trajkovski Sports Center (Macedonian: Спортски центар Борис Трајковски, Sportski centar Boris Trajkovski) in Skopje is a multi-functional indoor sports arena. It is located in the Karpoš Municipality of Skopje, North Macedonia. It is named after the former president, Boris Trajkovski, who died in a plane crash in 2004. It has a maximum seating capacity of 7,000 for handball, 7,500 for basketball and 10,000 for concerts.

The arena is home to the North Macedonia national basketball team (men and women), North Macedonia men's national handball team (men and women) and North Macedonia national volleyball team (men and women). The venue also contains four restaurants and a sports bar. It was one of two venues used for the 2008 European Women's Handball Championship.

Construction began in June 2004 with the city of Skopje as the main investor. It was introduced as one of the capital projects of former mayor Risto Penov. The initial term set by the city authorities for the completion was one year, but it was repeatedly set back by problems during construction. At the beginning, while digging the foundation, underground water broke and the whole site was flooded. This brought additional costs of around one million euros, on several occasions the city coffers remained low, which at times led to stoppage of the resumption of the construction work. Upon arrival by Trifun Kostovski as mayor, the city began negotiations with the government to hand over the facility in their jurisdiction. Negotiations were conducted with the previous government but had ended unsuccessfully. In February 2007, the government signed an agreement for the handover. A joint stock company "Boris Trajkovski" was established to manage the facility, with each investor receiving an appropriate number of shares by the money they invested for the final construction. The Harlem Globetrotters, were first to perform at the arena following the opening ceremony on 22 May 2008. In 2011, a hockey rink and karting track were opened. The government had funded most of the investment, which was worth 430,000 euros.

### **Bidding phase**

The bidding phase for the edition kicked off one days after the results of the 41st Edition.

## Format

The HBU has decided that in the upcoming edition there will be most likely two semi-finals.In each semi-final 10 countries will qualify for the Grand Final to make a line-up of 26 competing countries(20 semi finals qualifers + BIG 6)

### Logo & Theme

The logo of the fourty-two edition of the HeartVision Song Contest was designed by Tayfun the main producer of HeartVision Song Contest. The slogan used Define Your #Voice!.

### Voting

The HBU has announced that that a new voting system would be also used in this edition as well. Each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Televoting votes from all countries are pooled. After viewers have cast their votes, the results of each professional jury are presented. After the results of the professional juries are presented, the televoting points from all participating countries are combined, providing one score for each song. The results of countries finishing between 11th and 26th in the public vote are automatically added to the scoreboard, with only the results of the top ten countries being announced by the hosts. The new voting system is also used to determine the qualifiers from each semi-final, but as before the qualifiers are announced in a random order.

## Semi final allocation draw

This edition, the countries that are classified from 1st to 5th place in the Grand Final of the previous edition will be the so-called "Big 5", they will have the privilege of being in the Grand Final automatically as well as voting in the semi-finals without competing in them, this six countries are divided to vote between the two semi-finals:
competing in them, this 5 countries are divided to vote between the two semi-finals:

* North Macedonia
* Ukraine
* The Netherlands

The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place at Boris Trajovski Sport Center on 21 June 2021 the first part of the draw determined in which semi-final the Big five would have   to vote. The second part of the draw decided in which half of the respective semi-finals each country would perform, with the exact running order determined by the producers of the show at a later date. 30 countries will participate in each semi-finals, respectively.

* Belgium
* Canada
* Lebanon
* Monaco
* China
* New Zealand
* South Korea
* United States
* Gibraltar
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
 Pot 4
 * Albania
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Czech Republic
* Montenegro
* Norway
* Greece
* Russia
* San Marino
* Turkey
* Moldova
* Portugal
* Romania
* Sweden

## Participating Countries

The following countries have expressed their provisional interest in participating in the contest, or confirmed that their expected national selection process would take place:

## Results

### Semi-Final 1

Fifteen countries will participate in the first semi-final. Israel, North Macedonia and  Ukraine will also vote in this semi-final.The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### Semi-Final 2

Fifteen countries will participate in the first semi-final. Italy and  The Netherlands will also vote in this semi-final.The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

### Final

The following countries either finished in the top six of the previous edition and therefore automatically qualify to the final of this edition or qualified from the semi-finals.

## Other countries

*Further information: HeartVision Broadcasting Union*

Countries that are active members of the HeartVision Broadcasting Union (HBU) are also eligible to participate in the HeartVision Song Contest. As in every edition, an invitation to all the members have been sent in order to confirm whether they will participate or not. The following list of countries declined stating their reasons as shown below.

## Links

* Semi-Final 1 recap
* Semi-Final 2 recap