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 Unfortunately, Bhutan has withdrawn from the competition.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.

The winner was Philippines with the song "Love Fades" performed by Hazel Faith which scored a record-breaking score of 200 points, winning by a margin of 34 points in front of Singapore. The podium was completed by Thailand, which finished on the third place. China, the host country placed 10th. The contest also marked the first time that Australia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and South Korea failed to qualify for the final.

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

Host City
Hangzhou also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, People's Republic of China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting 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 China's most renowned and prosperous cities for much of the last millennium. Its West Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage site immediately west of the city, is among its best-known attractions. A study conducted by PwC and China Development Research Foundation ranked Hangzhou first among "Chinese Cities of Opportunity". According to GaWC, it is a World City with a "Beta" classification, together with Chongqing, Nanjing and Tianjin in China. It is also one of the world's top 100 financial centers, according to the Global Financial Centres Index.

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 10,360,000.

Hangzhou has been repeatedly rated as the best commercial city in mainland China by Forbes. Home to the headquarters of world Internet industry leaders such as the Alibaba Group, Hangzhou is known for attracting professionals and entrepreneurs who work in information technology. Since 2014, its rapid population growth has led to a steady increase in local housing prices. According to the 2020 Hurun Global Rich List, Hangzhou ranks 11th in the world and 6th in China (after Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou) in the number of resident billionaires.

Hangzhou is also one of the world's top cities for scientific research, ranked 26th globally by the Nature Index as of 2020. It has several major universities, notably Zhejiang University, one of China's most prestigious universities.

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.

Final
Twenty-six countries participated in the final, with all 44 participating countries eligible to vote.

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.