Own Eurovision Song Contest 45

Own Eurovision Song Contest 45, often referred to as OESC #45, is the 45th edition of Own Eurovision Song Contest. It will take place in Gdańsk-Sopot, Poland at the Ergo Arena, following Poland's victory at the 44th Contest with "Cool Me Down", performed by Margaret.

Fifty countries confirmed their participation in the 45th edition with Andorra, Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Slovakia and the United Kingdom returning in the competition. The United Kingdom returned after it last participated in the second edition, making England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales not eligible to participate.

Unfortunately, Armenia, England, Hungary, Montenegro, Morocco, Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Sweden, Uzbekistan and Wales withdrew from the Own Eurovision Song Contest. Uzbekistan moved to the Own Asiavision Song Contest and debuted in the 11th edition.

The 45th edition consisted in four shows: one quarter-final, two semifinals and a grand final. The quarter final took place on August 6 2016, while the semifinals took place on August 13 2016 and August 20 2016 respectively. The Grand Final took place on October 9, 2016.

After a tense voting process, Egypt won the contest for the first time, with Nathalie Saba's song "Black Birds". Egypt received a total amount of 166 points, winning by a margin of only 6 points. The runner-up of the 45th edition was Bulgaria, making the country's best place in the competition.

The third place went to MØ's "Final Song" from Denmark, fourth place went to "Conqueror" from the United Kingdom, being their best place in the competition, while the fifth place went to Kinnie Lane from France and the sixth place went to "L'amore merita" from Italy.

From the countries that were automatically qualified in the Grand Final, only Egypt manage to finish in the top 10, making it the fourth time an automatically qualified country wins the competition, the last time this happened was in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 38.

Location
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine and Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea, Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and Lithuania to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 71st largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the sixth most populous member of the European Union, and the most populous post-communist member of the European Union. Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions.

This is the fourth time that Poland hosts the contest. The first time the country has hosted the contest was in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 13 in Warsaw. The second time was in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 27 in Kraków. Last time the country hosted the competition was in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 41 in Katowice.

Host Cities
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland's principal seaport and the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.

The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population approaching 1.4 million. Gdańsk itself has a population of 460,427 (December 2012), making it the largest city in the Pomerania region of Northern Poland.

Sopot is a seaside resort town in Eastern Pomerania on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000.

Sopot is a town with powiat (county) status, in Pomeranian Voivodeship. Until 1999 it was part of the Gdańsk Voivodeship. It lies between the larger cities of Gdańsk to the southeast and Gdynia to the northwest. The three cities together make up the metropolitan area of Tri-City.

Sopot is a major health-spa and tourist resort destination. It has the longest wooden pier in Europe, at 515.5 metres, stretching out into the Bay of Gdańsk. The city is also famous for its Sopot International Song Festival, the largest such event in Europe after the Eurovision Song Contest. Among its other attractions is a fountain of bromide spring water, known as the "inhalation mushroom".

Bidding Phase
TVP (Telewizja Polska) announced the conditions under which cities and venues had announced their interest in hosting the 45th contest:
 * The host city must be able to provide a certain number of hotels and hotel rooms to be found in the vicinity of the stadium.
 * The arena must able to offer lodges adjacent to the stadium.
 * A press centre must be available at the stadium that will have a specific size.
 * TVP must have access to the host venue at least 4–6 weeks before the broadcasts, in order to build the stage, rigging lights and all the technology.
 * The host city must be close to a major airport.

The following cities are interested in hosting the 45th contest

Venue
Ergo Arena (Hala Gdańsk-Sopot) is a multi-purpose indoor arena, that was opened in 2010. The boundary between two cities – Sopot and Gdańsk – runs through the very middle of the hall. The arena has a capacity of 11,409 people, for sports events and up to 15,000, with standing places, for concerts.

On November 26, Lady Gaga performed during The Monster Ball Tour, with Semi Precious Weapons as her opening act, to more than 12,000 people. It was the first big event to take place in the hall.

Sport events, including the 2013 Men's European Volleyball Championship, 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships and the 2014 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, as well as a part of the 2016 European Men's Handball Championship were held at the arena.

For Athletics competition a six-lane, banked 200-meter oval is installed on the arena floor. According to an IAAF press release, the athletics track at the ERGO Arena, the venue for the 2014 IAAF World Indoor Championships, was officially opened for the 2014 season on Sunday 16 February and almost 6,000 people came to get a glimpse of the new track. Italian company Mondo made the indoor portable banked track with a Mondo Super X rubberized surface (13.5mm thick). Mondo's portable tracks can be assembled and disassembled in a matter of days. The company's claw locking mechanism locks the modular track frame in place without the use of screws or bolts, guaranteeing constant clamping force and perfect accuracy from panel to panel, and from installation to installation. Mondo's world-renowned Super X surface has been the world's top track for more than 30 years and was used at both the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The semifinal allocation draw took place on April 15, 2016.

The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (host Poland and the Big Five), and the quarter-finalists, will be split into six pots, based on voting patterns from the previous ten editions. The pots were calculated and are as follows:

From these pots, 20 countries each were allocated to compete in the first semifinal and 20 in the second semifinal. The host country, Poland will vote in the first semi-final. The countries from the big five will vote as follow: Kosovo with Spain in the first semifinal, while Egypt, Portugal and Romania in the second semifinal.

First semifinal
Twenty countries participated in the first semi-final. Kosovo, Poland and Spain voted in this semi-final.

Second semifinal
Twenty countries participated in the second semi-final. Egypt, Portugal and Romania voted in this semi-final.

Voting and spokespersons

 * 1) 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein Claudia Schanza
 * 2) 🇩🇿 Algeria Sofia Boutella
 * 3) 🇱🇻 Latvia Mikus Lasmanis
 * 4) 🇫🇮 Finland Santa Claus
 * 5) 🇱🇺 Luxembourg Élise Crombez
 * 6) 🇲🇰 Macedonia Thea
 * 7) 🇷🇴 Romania Florena
 * 8) 🇬🇧 United Kingdom David Beckham
 * 9) 🇨🇭 Switzerland Müslüm
 * 10) 🇹🇷 Turkey Furkan Palalı
 * 11) 🇩🇰 Denmark Christopher Nissen
 * 12) 🇵🇹 Portugal Sara Sampaio
 * 13)  Kosovo Dua Lipa
 * 14) 🇧🇬 Bulgaria Zhana Bergendorff
 * 15) 🇪🇸 Spain Saúl Craviotto
 * 16) 🇦🇱 Albania Eneda Tarifa
 * 17) 🇦🇹 Austria Zoë
 * 18) 🇫🇷 France Baptiste Giabiconi
 * 19) 🇷🇸 Serbia Novak Djokovic
 * 20) 🇮🇪 Ireland Nicky Byrne
 * 21) 🇧🇪 Belgium Joy Anna Thielemans
 * 22) 🇸🇰 Slovakia Celeste Buckingham
 * 23) 🇷🇺 Russia Sergey Lazarev
 * 24) 🇨🇿 Czech Republic Lenny
 * 25) 🇺🇦 Ukraine Igor Kolomiyets
 * 26) 🇦🇩 Andorra Anna Simon
 * 27) 🇵🇱 Poland Lanberry
 * 28) 🇸🇲 San Marino Valentina Monetta
 * 29) 🇮🇱 Israel Sasha Roiz
 * 30) 🇪🇪 Estonia Kerli
 * 31) 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan Makpal Isabekova
 * 32) 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands Eivør
 * 33) 🇲🇨 Monaco Yann Barthès
 * 34) 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina Pamela Ramljak
 * 35) 🇳🇴 Norway Alan Walker
 * 36) 🇩🇪 Germany Jamie Lee
 * 37) 🇱🇧 Lebanon Nancy Ajram
 * 38) 🇧🇾 Belarus Alena Karpovich
 * 39) 🇮🇹 Italy Mariano Di Vaio
 * 40) 🇭🇷 Croatia Franka Batelić
 * 41) 🇱🇹 Lithuania Evelina Young
 * 42) 🇲🇹 Malta Ben Camille
 * 43) 🇮🇸 Iceland Alda
 * 44) 🇨🇾 Cyprus Ivi Adamou
 * 45) 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan Leyla Aliyeva
 * 46) 🇪🇬 Egypt Hanan Tork
 * 47)  Georgia Tamta
 * 48) 🇲🇩 Moldova Nicoleta Nuca
 * 49) 🇳🇱 Netherlands Erica Terpstra
 * 50) 🇬🇷 Greece Malou
 * 51) Flag of Earth.png  Clarita de Quiroz

Other countries

 * Further information: List of countries in the Own Eurovision Song Contest

Eligibility for potential participation in the Own Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active OEBU membership that would be able to broadcast the 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.

Active Members
 * : ARMTV announced on 6th July that the country would withdraw from the competition due to lack of time and interest. The head of delegation made it clear that they won't return until a new HoD will be chosen.
 * : The country did not confirm within deadline, therefore it was forced to withdraw.
 * : Despite originally confirming the participation with Sergej Ćetković, the broadcaster later withdrew due to the resignation of their head of delegation.
 * : After the change of their head of delegation, the country decided to withdraw due to some financial problems.
 * : There were rumors about country's possible withdrawal, but since an official announcement was not made before deadline it had to withdraw.
 * : Having to participate in the quarter final, the country announced hesitation to do that. Unfortunately it did not made any official annoucement whether it would compete or not within deadline and it was forced to withdraw.

Inactive Members
 * : On 15 June 2016 it was rumoured that the United Kingdom will return in the competition, meaning that England will withdraw. However, on 21 June 2016, it was announced that the UK returned to the contest, meaning that England withdrew.
 * : On 15 June 2016 it was rumoured that the United Kingdom will return in the competition, meaning that Northern Ireland will withdraw. However, on 21 June 2016, it was announced that the UK returned to the contest, meaning that Northern Ireland withdrew.
 * : On 15 June 2016 it was rumoured that the United Kingdom will return in the competition, meaning that Scotland will withdraw. However, on 21 June 2016, it was announced that the UK returned to the contest, meaning that Scotland withdrew.
 * : On 15 June 2016 it was rumoured that the United Kingdom will return in the competition, meaning that Wales will withdraw. However, on 21 June 2016, it was announced that the UK returned to the contest, meaning that Wales withdrew.
 * : On 15 June 2016 it was announced that Uzbekistan would leave the OEBU, because of financial difficulties. Later on was revealed that the country had already activated their membership at the OABU.