Own Asiavision Song Contest 17

Own Asiavision Song Contest 17, often referred to as OASC #17, is the 17th edition of Own Asiavision Song Contest. The contest took place in Hangzhou, China, following country's victory in the 16th edition with the song "Quiet", performed by Milck. This is the second time that the county hosts the event, after doing so in the second edition.

Forty-four countries participated in the seventeenth edition. The contest saw the return of Bahrain, Kuwait, Mongolia, New Zealand and Philippines. Unfortunately, Bhutan has withdrawn from the competition. Despite originally confirming, India and Japan were forced to withdraw due to not submitting an entry before the deadline.

Location
For more details on the host country, see China.

Host City
Hangzhou is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang Province in east China. It sits at the head of Hangzhou Bay, which separates Shanghai and Ningbo. Hangzhou grew to prominence as the southern terminus of the Grand Canal and has been one of the most renowned and prosperous cities in China for much of the last millennium. The city's West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, immediately west of the city, is amongst its best-known attraction.

Hangzhou is classified as a sub-provincial city and forms the core of the Hangzhou metropolitan area, the fourth-largest in China. During the 2010 Chinese census, the metropolitan area held 21.102 million people over an area of 34,585 km2. Hangzhou prefecture had a registered population of 9,018,000 in 2015.

Venue
Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Hangzhou, China. It is used mostly for football matches. The stadium was designed with a capacity of 80,000 spectators.

The stadium is built in on a 400,000-square-meter site on the Qian Tang river front opposite the city’s new Central Business District. The main stadium broke ground in 2011 and will completion in 2014/15.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The draw to determine the allocation of the participating countries into their respective semi-finals took place took place on 11 December 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, 19 countries were allocated to compete in the first semi-final and 19 in the second semifinal. The host country, China will vote in the second semi-final. The countries from the big five will vote as follow: Hong Kong, Syria and Tajikistan in the first semifinal, while Thailand and Turkmenistan in the second semifinal.

Semi-final 1
Nineteen countries participated in the first semi-final. Hong Kong, Syria and Tajikistan also voted in this semi-final.

Semi-final 2
Nineteen countries participated in the second semi-final. China, Thailand and Turkmenistan also voted in this semi-final.

Other countries


Eligibility for potential participation in the Own Asiavision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active OABU 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.


 * The broadcaster announced country's withdrawal from the seventeenth edition.
 * India failed to submit and present their entry within the given deadline and therefore was forced to withdraw from the edition.
 * Despite initially confirming their participation, it was announced that the country would be withdrawing from the edition.
 * It was confirmed that Macau would not be returning this edition.
 * It was announced that the country would not be returning due to flood issues.