The ABU Radio Song Festival 2014 was the second edition of the

biennial Biennial means (an event) lasting for two years or occurring every two years. The related term biennium is used in reference to a period of two years. In particular, it can refer to: * Biennial plant, a plant which blooms in its second year and th ...

ABU Radio Song Festival The ABU Radio Song Festival is a biennial non-competitive gala that showcases songs or instrumentals by musicians across Asia, organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), and is based on the Eurovision Song Contest. The format consist ...

s, organised by the

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU or APBU), formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has over 287 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 bil ...

(ABU). The festival took place on 23 May 2014 in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo. The

Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre The Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre ( si, නෙළුම් පොකුණ මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ රඟහල, ''nelum pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa rangahala''; often known as Nelum Pokuna; previously the National Performin ...

was originally chosen as the host venue, but was later moved to the Stein Studios. Twelve countries participated the song festival. The festival was to be originally hosted by

ABC Australia The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-owned ...

however for unknown reasons this did not occur.

Location

Colombo is the

largest city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or their metropo ...

and the commercial, industrial and cultural capital of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to

Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, commonly known as Kotte (), is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is a satellite city and located within the urban area of Sri Lanka's de facto economic, executive, and judicial capital, ...

suburb or the parliament capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is also the administrative capital of

Western Province, Sri Lanka The Western Province ( si, බස්නාහිර පළාත ''Basnāhira Paḷāta''; ta, மேல் மாகாணம் ''Mael Mākāṇam'') is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka, the first level administrative division of the c ...

and the district capital of

Colombo District Colombo District ( si, කොළඹ දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ''kol̠am̆ba distrikkaya''; ta, கொழும்பு மாவட்டம் ''Koḻumpu Māvaṭṭam'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level ...

. Colombo is often referred to as the capital since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo. Colombo is a busy and vibrant place with a mixture of modern life and colonial buildings and ruins with a population of about 752,993 in the city limits. It was the political capital of Sri Lanka, before Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte. The original venue selected to host the festival was the

, in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...

. The theatre is equipped with ultra modern facilities such as an auditorium with 1,288 seats, a library, and training facilities. On 21 March 2014, ABU announced Stein Studios would be the new venue for this year's edition. Its Founders Block studio is over 15,600sq ft (1500 sq m) in area and can turn into a 2000-seat theater.

Format

Unlike the format used in the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

there are two versions of the Song Festivals, ABU Radio and ABU TV Song Festivals. The ABU Radio Song Festival which took place on 23 May 2014 coincided with the Radio Asia 2014 event that took place between 22–24 May 2014.

Participating countries

A total of 12 countries took part in this years festival. Host country , who withdrew prior to the inaugural festival, and made their debut at the radio song festival whilst , , , , , and withdrew from the radio festival this year. Unlike the festival, this year's festival had no awards presented to the top five acts. The festival organiser's presented 'Tokens of Appreciation' to the performers as a sign of recognition of the diverse range of musical genre.

Order of performance

Did not qualify

Of the sixteen preliminary entries, twelve were selected to proceed to the final of the ABU Radio Song Festival. The remaining four did not qualify (as shown in the following table)

Other countries

* – On 30 December 2013, the station manager of Centennial Radio confirmed to Eurovoix.com that they would not be taking part in the 2014 contest.

References

External links

Official website of ABU Radio Song Festival
{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2013 2014 in Sri Lanka ABU Song Festivals 2014 in radio 21st century in Colombo Festivals in Sri Lanka 2014 song contests