Own Eurovision Song Contest 47

Own Eurovision Song Contest 47, often referred to as OESC #47, is the 47th edition of Own Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Saint Petersburg, Russia, at the SKK Peterburgsky, following Russia's victory at the 46th Contest with the song "Hungry", performed by i-La.

Forty-five countries have confirmed their participation in the 47th edition. The contest saw the return of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova and Portugal. Unfortunately, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Lebanon, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland have withdrawn from the competition. Despite originally confirming, Sweden was forced to withdraw due to not submitting an entry before the deadline, while Switzerland withdraw due to a scandal between the broadcaster and the council.

The 47th edition consisted of three shows, including two semi-finals on 22 and 29 April and the grand final on 24 May 2017.

After a tense voting process, Ukraine won the contest for the first time, with Tayanna's song "Osen'". Ukraine received a total amount of 181 points, winning by a margin of 16 points. The runner-up of the 47th edition was Morocco's "Srekni" by Hindi Ziadi, marking Morocco's best place in the competition.

The third place went to the host country Russia, fourth place went to the United Kingdom, while the fifth place went to Egypt and the sixth place went Croatia.

From the countries that were automatically qualified in the Grand Final only the host country Russia finished in the top 10. Italy finished in the 11th place, Czech Republic placed 15h, while Estonia, Netherlands and Turkey finished 23rd, 24th and 25th respectively, out of 26 countries that were in the Grand Final.

Host country
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. At 17,075,200 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with over 144 million people at the end of March 2016. The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern, about 77% of the population live in European Russia. Russia's capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan.

This is the second time that Russia hosts the contest. The last time the country hosted the competition was in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 16 in Moscow.

Host city
Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject (a federal city). Situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27 1703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, and in 1991 back to Saint Petersburg. Between 1713–1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the central government bodies moved to Moscow.

Saint Petersburg is one of the most westernized cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of foreign consulates, international corporations, banks, and businesses have offices in Saint Petersburg.

Bidding Phase
RTR announced the conditions under which cities and venues had announced their interest in hosting the 47th 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.
 * RTR 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 were interested in hosting the 47th edition:

Venue
SKK Peterburgsky (The Saint Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex) is an arena in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In Soviet time, it was called V. I. Lenin Sport & Concert Complex. The complex was completed in 1979 and opened on May 19, 1980. During concerts, it holds up to 20,000 people. Besides concerts, the arena is used for various sports, notably tennis, as it is the location of the St. Petersburg Open. Other sport events hosted at the SKK include bowling, tennis table, fencing. The SKK is also used for some trade fairs.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place took place on 27 March 2017. The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists, have been split into six pots, based on voting patterns from the previous editions. The pots were calculated and are as follows:

From these pots, 20 countries were allocated to compete in the first semifinal and 19 in the second semifinal. The host country, Russia voted in the second semi-final. The countries from the big five voted as follows: Estonia with Italy and Netherlands in the first semifinal, while Czech Republic and Turkey in the second semifinal.

First semifinal
Twenty countries will participate in the first semi-final. Estonia, Italy and Netherlands will vote in this semi-final.

Second semifinal
Twenty countries will participate in the second semi-final. Czech Republic, Russia and Turkey will vote in this semi-final.

Voting
Starting with this edition the results were revealed in two parts : in one part was revealed the total amount of points received from the countries of the grand final and in the second part was revealed the points from the non-qualifiers.

The presenters announced the rankings as follows :

Liechtensteiner entry
On 26 February 2017, a few hours after the entry for Liechtenstein was decided, it was found out that Vyan, the act which would represent the country is Croatian. After that announcement, the council decided that the entry should be changed due to the lack of a connection between VYAN and Liechtenstein. The act was changed with the second place of the Liechtensteiner national selection, "Ein Lied für Liechtenstein".

Other countries


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.


 * RTSH announced that they will be taking an one edition break. A return in the next edition wasn't ruled out.
 * It was announced that Armenia would be taking a break for the forty-seventh edition.
 * Due to the last place in the previous contest, and in order to reduce budget cuts, Bulgaria withdrew from the edition. A return in the forty-eighth edition is highly expected.
 * Kringvarp Føroya has announced that the Faroe Islands will not return due to lack of interest.
 * YLE decided to withdraw from the forty-seventh edition as their director resigned to focus on other projects.
 * Hungary will take a one edition break as the submitted entries were not satisfying enough.
 * Télé Liban announced that the country will withdraw from the contest alongside with their head of delegation.
 * RTCG stated that there is no interest in returning to the competition.
 * RTS announced the withdrawal of the country due to low interest.
 * Sweden failed to submit and present their entry within the given deadline and therefore was forced to withdraw from the edition.
 * Switzerland had originally confirmed their participation in the contest with the song "Speechless", performed by Anna Rossinelli. However, it was later announced that the country will withdraw due to a scandal between the broadcaster and the council.