National Selections For The Eurovision Song Contest on:
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National selections refer to the processes in which the broadcasters of the countries participating in the annual
National finals are the process in which the public of a country can choose the artist with their song, often combining public televoting with the vote of an expert jury.
Organised by the broadcaster, these national finals (consisting of one or more shows) can be televised or non-televised, however, most of the time they are televised as prime-time television shows. On several occasions, the artist is selected internally and the public of the country chooses a song for them through a national final. Alternatively, the broadcaster can select a song and make the public choose the artist that will perform the song through a national final.
Among the most well-known national finals is ''
Another example of a long-running national final format is '' Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu'' (UMK) in ; in 2018 and 2019, each participant wanting to represent Finland sent three songs to the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, which would select the entrant, and the public of the country would then choose one song among the three that the selected entrant had presented to the broadcaster previously, through a televised final. In 2020, this format was abandoned in favour of a return to the open format seen between 2012 and 2017.
Note that , and are the only countries that have always selected their entries via the national final. and also selected all of their entries via the national final during their existence.
Internal selections are the process in which the broadcaster of a country appoints a committee or expert panel to select either the artist and the song, sometimes both, without holding a public vote.
Even though 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 ...
select the artist and song that will represent them in the contest.
The two principal ways for broadcasters to select their entries are open selections (national finals) and closed selections (internal selections). Since the introduction of semi-finals in the – due to the extensive amount of participating countries – and the rule of the " Big Five" countries (, , , and the ), a wide range of countries have often alternated between national finals and internal selections based on final placing at the contest.
National finals
National finals are the process in which the public of a country can choose the artist with their song, often combining public televoting with the vote of an expert jury.
Organised by the broadcaster, these national finals (consisting of one or more shows) can be televised or non-televised, however, most of the time they are televised as prime-time television shows. On several occasions, the artist is selected internally and the public of the country chooses a song for them through a national final. Alternatively, the broadcaster can select a song and make the public choose the artist that will perform the song through a national final.
Among the most well-known national finals is ''Melodifestivalen
Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song ...
'' in , which features six live shows (four heats, a "Second Chance" show and a final in Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
) in different cities across the country. In 2012, over an estimated four million people in Sweden watched the final, almost half of the Swedish population.
Another example of a long-running national final format is '' Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu'' (UMK) in ; in 2018 and 2019, each participant wanting to represent Finland sent three songs to the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, which would select the entrant, and the public of the country would then choose one song among the three that the selected entrant had presented to the broadcaster previously, through a televised final. In 2020, this format was abandoned in favour of a return to the open format seen between 2012 and 2017.
Note that , and are the only countries that have always selected their entries via the national final. and also selected all of their entries via the national final during their existence.
Internal selections
Internal selections are the process in which the broadcaster of a country appoints a committee or expert panel to select either the artist and the song, sometimes both, without holding a public vote.
Even though the European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...
(EBU) "strongly" encourages countries to hold their own national finals, several countries such as , and are among those that have opted for internal selections for most of their entries in the contest. Choosing this method is also a common strategy for countries after having failed to qualify for the final on several occasions.
Participants
52 countries have participated in the contest at least once, and a record 43 countries participated in 2008, 2011 and 2018.Notes and references
Notes
References
External links
{{Eurovision Song Contest *