Own Eurovision Song Contest 37

Own Eurovision Song Contest 37, often referred to as OESC #37, is the 37th edition of the Own Eurovision Song Contest musical event. The contest will take place in Antwerp, Belgium, following Emma Bale 's victory in the 36th edition with her song "All I want". This is the second time that Belgium host the contest after holding its Own Eurovision Song Contest 5 edition in Brussels. The contest consist of two semi-finals and a final presented by Kjell Bracke.

Forty-seven countries will participate in the contest, with Algeria, Latvia, Luxembourg, Monaco and Ukraine returning. Lebanon, Moldova and San Marino, however, announced their withdrawal. This is the first time in the history of the competition when this amount of countries participate.

The Big 6 status countries and also the countries that will automatically qualify for the Grand Final in the 37th edition are Albania, the host country Belgium, England, Finland, Israel and Serbia.

The winner of the Own Eurovision Song Contest 37 was Helena Paparizou from Greece with the song "Otan aggeli klene". This is Greece's first win in the competition. The runner-up was the band Years & Years from the Northern Ireland. Third place went to Czech Republic, being their best result in the history of the contest. Fourth place went to Poland, fifth went to Russia and sixth to France. Uzbekistan received theirs best result in the competition finishing on the 8th place.

From the countries with the Big 6 status, only England ended in the top 10, receiving 123 points and ended on the 9th place. The host country, Belgium ended on the 13th place with 103 points. Albania received a total amount of 108 points and ended on the 12th place. The other 3 countries ended on the second half of the scoreboard with Israel ending on the 22nd place, Serbia on the 24th place and Finland ending last out of 26 countries.

The Own Eurovision Song Contest 37 marks Syria's last participation in the contest.

Venue
The Sportpaleis Antwerpen (Antwerp's Sport Palace), or simply the Sportpaleis, is an arena in Antwerp, Belgium. It is a multipurpose hall where concerts, sporting events, festivals and fairs are organized. The arena was built for sport, especially track cycling, but there is now little sport there, an exception being the Diamond Games tennis.

According to Billboard Magazine, the Sportpaleis is the second most visited event hall in the world, second only to Madison Square Garden. The Sportpaleis is known for performances by both Dutch-speaking and international artists. It also hosts the Nekka-Nacht, the Proximus Diamond Games tennis tournament for women and Pop Poll De Luxe, organised by the magazine HUMO.

The main building is 88 metres wide and 132 metres long and has a roof spanning 11.600 m². Under the stands, there is a wooden cycling track 250 meters long and 8 meters wide. The arena is elliptical and has two floors.

The arena can hold 23.001 people after expansions in 2012 and 2013.

Next to the Sportpaleis is its sister venue the Lotto Arena, a hall that can accommodate 8,000 spectators.

Location
Antwerp is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province of Belgium. With a population of 510,610, it is by far the most populous city in Belgium.

Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, both economically and culturally, especially before the Spanish Fury (1576) in the period of the Dutch Revolt. The inhabitants of Antwerp are locally nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, "lord". It refers to the leading Spanish noblemen who ruled the city during the 17th century.

According to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from those crossing the river, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan (to throw), which has evolved to today's warp.

This is the second time in the history of the Own Eurovision Song Contest, when the contest is held in Belgium and the first time to be held in Antwerp, last time the contest was held in Brussels, back in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 5.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on March 26, 2015 at the Sportpaleis Antwerpen. The participating countries, excluding the Big 6 countries, were split into six pots, based on voting history and geographical location. From these pots, 20 countries each were allocated to compete in first semifinal, and 21 in second semifinal. The pots are as follows:

The host country, Belgium will vote in the first semi-final. The rest of the big six countries will vote as follow: Finland with Serbia in first semifinal, while Albania with England and Israel in second semifinal.

Running Order
The official running order of the two semifinals was held on March 26, 2015. Also, the running order of the Big 6 countries in the Grand Final was revealed, with the host country, Belgium performing 21st out of 26 countries.

The official running order of the qualifiers from the semifinals was held after the winners were revealed.

Participants
Forty-seven countries have confirmed participation in the 37th edition, with five countries returning and three countries withdrawing.

The 37th edition will see the return of Algeria, Latvia, Luxembourg, Monaco and Ukraine, while Lebanon, Moldova and San Marino withdrew from this edition.

Returning artists
Twenty-nine returning artists were present in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 37. Former band winner Cash Cash returned this time for Estonia, last time they won for Macedonia in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 30, also former winner of Georgia in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 32, Ani Lorak returned for Ukraine.

Semi-Final 1

 * The ten countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country, qualifies for the Grand Final.
 * Belgium, Finland and Serbia will vote in this semi-final.
 * The ten qualifiers of the first semifinal were announced on April 1, 2015.

Semi-Final 2

 * The ten countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country, qualifies for the Grand Final.
 * Albania, England and Israel will vote in this semi-final.
 * The ten qualifiers of the second semifinal were announced on April 6, 2015.

Notes
 * 1. The song from Uzbekistan contains also words in Spanish and Arabic.

Finalists
The twenty-six finalists are:
 * the Big 6 countries.
 * the top ten countries from the first semi-final.
 * the top ten countries from the second semi-final.

Notes
 * 1. The song from Uzbekistan contains also words in Spanish and Arabic.

12 points awarded in the first semifinal
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the first semifinal.

12 points awarded in the second semifinal
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the second semifinal.

12 points awarded in the grand final
Below is a summary of the maximum 12 points each country awarded to another in the Grand Final.

Spokepersons

 * 1) Algeria.png Amel Bent
 * 2) Spain.png Vanesa Romero
 * 3) France.png Kendji Girac
 * 4) Monaco.png Tamara Marthe
 * 5) Kazakhstan.png Kazakh Model
 * 6) Belgium.png Bartek Wasilewski
 * 7) Greece.png Doukissa Nomikou
 * 8) Cyprus.png Chris J
 * 9) Ukraine.png Mariya Yaremchuk
 * 10) Portugal.png Susana Guerra
 * 11) Ireland.png Nikki Kavanagh
 * 12) Wales.png Catherine Zeta-Jones
 * 13) Italy.png Fillipo Nek Neviani
 * 14) Macedonia.png Daniel Kajmakoski
 * 15) Armenia.png Kim Kardashian & Kanye West
 * 16) Germany.png Ilka Bessin
 * 17) Turkey.png Demet Akalın & Gökhan Özen
 * 18) Serbia.png Danica Krstić
 * 19) Hungary.png Ryan Belitsky
 * 20) Syria.png Helly Luv
 * 21) Uzbekistan.png Rayhon Gʻaniyeva
 * 22) Montenegro.png Vlado Georgiev
 * 23) Northern Ireland.png James Dornan
 * 24) Estonia.png Elisa Kolk
 * 25) Azerbaijan.png Aziza Mustafa Zadeh
 * 26) Kosovo.png TBA
 * 27) Latvia.png Aija Andrejeva
 * 28) Slovenia.png Jolanda Čeplak
 * 29) Austria.png Anna Fenninger
 * 30) The Netherlands.png Yolanthe Sneijder-Cabau
 * 31) Norway.png Alejandro Fuentes
 * 32) Finland.png Essi Luttinen
 * 33) Scotland.png Jasmine van den Bogaerde
 * 34) Romania.png Larisa Borza
 * 35) Albania.png 	Era Istrefi
 * 36) Bulgaria.png Poli Genova
 * 37) Lithuania.png Monika Linkytė
 * 38) Israel.png Boyband Israel
 * 39) Sweden.png Malin Sundström
 * 40) Poland.png Monika Kuszyńska
 * 41) Russia.png Polina Gagarina
 * 42) Andorra.png Susanne Georgi
 * 43) Iceland.png Fanney Osk
 * 44) Luxembourg.png Vicky Leandro
 * 45) Czech Republic.png Sára Vondrášková
 * 46) Denmark.png Armin Hamzic
 * 47) England.png Natalia Cappuccini-Sinclair
 * 48) Flag of Earth.svg.png Laura van den Bruel

Other countries

 * : After some editions of not competing, the african country announced that they are returning to the contest.
 * : After their bad results Latvia had 3 editions of absense,but they confirmed their return to the contest,after a long time.
 * : The small country had plans to return to the contest. But as the last country to confirm participation,their HoD got disqualified for bad behaviour to the contest and other participants,and they withdrew. Although what happend, Luxembourg is back to the contest,after many editions of absense.
 * : Although Monaco achieve a good result at their last time they participated,they decided to withdraw due to lack of money. They announced today that they are coming back to the contest stronger than ever with a new HoD.
 * : After their needed withdrawal due to the new rule,Ukraine is back to the contest,trying to avoid what happend last time!

Official Album
Own Eurovision Song Contest: Antwerp 37 is the official compilation album of the 37th Contest, put together by the Own Eurovision Song Contest and was released on 26 March 2015. The album will feature all 47 songs that entered in the 37th contest, including the semi-finalists that failed to qualify into the grand final.