Own Americavision Song Contest

The Own Americavision Song Contest, often shortened to OAmSC is a song contest on Youtube held, primarily, among the member countries of the Own American Broadcasting Association since May 2017. The competition is based upon the existing Eurovision Song Contest held among the member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1956. The current and official executive supervisor is Mihai Ghetiu.

Each country's head of delegation gets to select an entry for each edition either by internal or national selection. Then the countries get to vote for each show (semi-final or final) to determine the qualifiers and the winner of the edition.

United States holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest two times each in the second and eighth editions. The highest scoring winner is TCTS & Maya B of Belize who won the twelfth edition with their song "Not Ready for Love" with 270 points, 77 points ahead of the runner-up.

Origins
The first ever Own Americavision Song Contest started on 19th May 2017. It was held in the capital city of Peru which also was the first ever country to host the contest. Thirty-seven nations took part in the first edition each submitting one entry to the contest. Each country awarded 12 points to their favorite, 10 points to their second favourite and then 8 points to 1 point for the rest.

The first contest was won by Antigua and Barbuda.

Participation
Any full member of the Own American Broadcasting Association is allowed to send a song for the Own Americavision Song Contest. Each full member has got a certain broadcaster that is responsible for the choice of the artists and songs the country is sending for each edition.

Forty-eight countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the edition in which they made their debut:

Format
The contest's format has changed over the editions; the contest evolved into having three or even four shows (quarter-final, two semi-finals and a final). Since the first edition, two semi-finals are held (with the exception of the sixth edition), from each of which one could qualify for the final. All participating countries compete in one of the two semi-finals, except for the host country of that edition and the previous edition's top six countries, known as the "Big Six". The remaining countries are split between the two semi-finals, and the 10 highest-scoring entries in each qualify to produce 26 countries competing in the grand final. As more countries joined the contest, the more changes were made to the format. In the twlfth edition, the quarter-final was introduced in order to minimize the number of the participants in the semi-finals and maximize the chances of qualification for the final. The quarter-final round, which takes part prior to the semi-finals, includes the bottom 5 from each semi-final of the last edition, making it a total of ten countries competing. The countries have to submit a song for the show and the top countries would qualify to the contest with the selected song. The amount of qualifiers always depends on the number of participants in the respective edition.

Each show typically begins with an opening act consisting of the winning song by the previous winner and the flag of the host country. Competing acts perform sequentially, and after all songs have been performed viewers are invited to vote for their favourite performances—except for the performance of their own country. An interval act is invariably featured during this voting period, which on several occasions has included a well-known personality from the host country or an internationally recognised figure. The results of the voting are subsequently announced; in the semi-finals the 10 highest-ranked countries are announced in a random order, with the full results undisclosed. In the final the presenters announce the total amounts of points received by each country from the non-finalists, starting from the country that received the lowest score and going up to the country that received the highest points, followed by the same procedure but with adding up the points received from the finalists. The qualifying acts in the semi-finals, and the winning artists in the final are invited back on stage, and in the final a trophy is awarded to the winning performers and songwriters followed by a reprise of the winning song. The full results of the competition, including detailed voting results, are released shortly after the final, and the participating broadcaster of the winning entry is traditionally given the honour of organising the following edition.

Since the very first edition the winning country of each edition is automatically chosen to be the host of the next edition. As the host broadcaster, the heads of delegation can decide how and when they want to host the competition, present the logo, make a theme song and other things. However if a broadcaster cannot afford to host the competition, the runner-up or the council will help out. The show would still be hosted in the winning country.

Autoqualifications
Since the introductions of the semi-finals in the first edition the six highest-placed countries in the grand final were guaranteed a place in the following edition's grand final, without having to qualify. The remaining countries had to enter the semi-final.

Members of the Big 6 through the editions have been several countries. Currently, United States holds the record of being in the Big 6 four times. The best place for a Big 6 member was the first place, achieved by Cayman Islands in the Own Americavision Song Contest 4 fourth edition with their first place.

Rules
There are several rules of the contest in order to enter. Main rule of the contest is that the country has to officially join the Own American Broadcasting Association with a certain broadcaster before applying to enter the contest. Regarding the broadcaster, any broadcaster can be accepted by the OABU. The head of delegation of the certain country must be at the position for at least three editions. If the head of delegation is not satisfied with the country, one can swap the countries with other users. There are also rules regarding the entries, such as that Eurovision Song Contest songs are not allowed to compete in the contest or that the singer must be over the age of 16.

Voting
The voting system used in the contest has been in place since the beginning, and is a positional voting system. Each country awards one set of 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs. In case of the country not being able to deliver the voting, back-up juries were used to replace it.

Presentation of votes
Since the first edition, all the participating countries have been voting in the final, including the countries that failed to qualify from the semi-finals.

From Own Asiavision Song Contest 1, the results were announced from last to first places, with the current announced entry being played.

In the ninth edition the presentation of the votes changed once. The presenters now announce just the total amounts of points received by each country from the non-qualifiers, starting from the country that received the lowest score and going up to the country that received the highest points, followed by the same procedure but with the points received from the finalists.

Nul points and ties
So far there has been no entry that received no points from any country.

There have been several ties during the contest. In case of a tie between two or more countries, the country that received points from the most countries wins the tie. However, if the countries received points from the same number of countries, the number of 12 points is counted and if they are still tied it goes on until the tie breaks. The first notable and controversial tie in the contest was the one between Brazil and United States Virgin Islands in the ninth edition where Brazil came 10th and United States Virgin Islands 11th in semi-final making only the first to qualify.

Winners
The contest has so far ten different winning countries. United States hold the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest two times, thus becoming the first country to win more times. The other countries have won once. Belize's winning entry currently holds the record for the highest scoring winner whereas Cuba's winning entry holds the record for the biggest margin between the winner and the runner-up.

Own Americavision Song Contest Winners Edition 1
Own Americavision Song Contest Winners Edition 1 is an event edition organised to determine the Own Americavision Song Contest's most popular entrant in the last ten edition, respectively Own Americavision Song Contest 1 to Own Americavision Song Contest 10.