Own Eurovision Song Contest

The Own Eurovision Song Contest, often shortened to OESC is a song contest on Youtube held, primarily, among the member countries of the Own European Broadcasting Union since April 2012. 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 (quarter-final, semi-final or final) to determine the qualifiers and the winner of the edition.

Poland holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest four times in twelfth, twenty-sixth, fourtieth and fourty-fourth editions. The highest scoring winner is Indila of Algeria who won the twenty-seventh edition with her song "Dernière danse" which got 321 points, 84 points ahead the runner-up.

Origins
The first ever Own Eurovision Song Contest started on 28th April 2012. It was held in the capital city of Moldova which also was the first ever country to host the Own Eurovision Song Contest and also the first ever direct qualifier for the final. Twenty-nine 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 Sweden.

Participation
Any full member of the Own Eurovision Broadcasting Union is allowed to send a song for the Own Eurovision 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.

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

Format
The contest's format was the same during the first editions; two semi-finals and a final were held. The top ten scored countries from each semi-final advanced to the final. In the first edition, the host country, Moldova was the automatic qualifier. However, for the next editions, this would change to big 6 and the top 6 from each edition will be a part of the big 6.

As more countries joined the contest, the more changes were made to the contest. In the forty-third 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 from the final. The quarter-final round included the bottom 5 from each semi-final of the last edition, making it a total of ten countries competing. The countries had to submit a song for the round 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.

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
In the first edition, the Moldovan broadcaster, the organizers of the first edition, announced that Moldova would be auto-qualified to the final as it contributed in the organization of the contest. Since the second edition the five 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.

Later it was decided that, with still more nations entering, starting from the fourteenth edition onwards all participating countries have had to participate in the semi-finals, regardless of their previous edition's scoreboard position. The only country which automatically qualify for the grand final is the host country.

Starting with twenty-second edition, as most of the broadcasters complained, the organizers decided that the top 3 placed countries of the previous edition will automatically qualify for the grand final. Later, with a rule-change about the limit of participation, the Big 5 returned, however just for one edition.

In thirty-second edition, the "Big 5" was changed to a "Big 6" where an additional country, the 6th placed country of the previous edition, will join the other five countries. The decision was taken in order to ensure a semi-final spot for a quarter-final qualifier.

Members of the Big 6 through the editions have been several countries. Currently, Romania holds the record of being in the Big 6 thirteen times. The best place for a Big 6 member was the first place, achieved by Denmark in the ninth 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 Eurovision Broadcasting Union with a certain broadcaster before applying to enter the contest. Regarding the broadcaster, any broadcaster can be accepted by the OEBU. 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. Up to the twenty-ninth edition, any country who failed to vote in any event was punished or disqualified. Since the thirteenth edition, 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. Since the introduction of the quarter-final in the forty-third edition, all the participating countries would be allowed to vote in the final, including the countries that were eliminated in the quarter-final.

The order of the voting nations are often randomly. After the interval act is over, when all the points have been calculated, the presenter(s) of the show call upon each voting country in turn to invite them to announce the results of their vote. Often the opportunity is taken by each country to show their spokesperson standing in front of a backdrop which includes a famous place in that country.

From first to seventh edition, the results were made in a Scorewiz–themed scoreboard with the countries announcing one by one point. From Own Eurovision Song Contest 8, the announcements have been evolving visually and the scoreboard was introduced (except for seventeenth and eighteenth editions, where results were shown from last to first place). Firstly, the points 1–7 are shown together and the spokesperson continues with the high points, the top 3; 8, 10 and 12. The song which receives the 12 from the country is usually played.

In the forty-seventh edition OEBU decided to save time during the presentation of the votes. Since then the presentation of votes changed too. The presenters now announced only 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
Although it is almost impossible for a country to receive nul points, there has so far been one entry that received no points from any country. The only entry so far to receive nul points is the Kyrgyzstan's entry in the seventeenth edition.

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 tie for the first place between Slovakia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the third edition; both countries had 142 points but due to tie-breaking rules, Slovakia won the edition. Other notable tie include the one between Denmark and Netherlands in the ninth edition, both with 169 points.

Winners
The contest has so far fifty-one winners. Poland holds the record for the highest number of wins, having won the contest five times in in twelfth, twenty-sixth, fourtieth, fourty-fourth and fiftieth editions. Romania is second with three wins as of Own Eurovision Song Contest 46. Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia and Sweden are joint third with two wins.

Sweden is the country with the most second places so far with the country ending up as the runner-up in the twenty-eighth, thirty-fifth and forty-seventh. Algeria's winning entry currently holds the record for the highest scoring winner and the record for the biggest margin between the winner and the runner-up. Poland became the first country to win four times while Pastora Soler became the first artist to win the contest twice.

Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 1
Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 1 is an event edition organised to commemorate the Own Eurovision Song Contest's first anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant of its eighteen editions.

Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 2
Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 2 is an event edition organised to commemorate the Own Eurovision Song Contest's second anniversary and to determine the Contest's most popular entrant in the last year.

Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 3
Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 3 is an event edition organised to determine the Own Eurovision Song Contest's most popular entrant in the last ten edition, respectively Own Eurovision Song Contest 31 to Own Eurovision Song Contest 40.

Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 4
Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 4 is an event edition organised to determine the Own Eurovision Song Contest's most popular entrant in the last ten edition, respectively Own Eurovision Song Contest 41 to Own Eurovision Song Contest 50.

Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 5
Own Eurovision Song Contest Winners Edition 5 is an upcoming event edition organised to determine the Own Eurovision Song Contest's most popular entrant in the last ten edition, respectively Own Eurovision Song Contest 51 to Own Eurovision Song Contest 60.