Own Eurovision Song Contest 35

Own Eurovision Song Contest 35, often referred to as OESC #35, is the 35th edition of the Own Eurovision Song Contest. The contest took place in Helsinki, following Benjamin's victory in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 34 with the song "Unbreakable". During the winner's press conference, an YLE Television representative stated that the host city will be Helsinki. This is the first time the contest was held in Finland. The motto of this edition is "Love Is Unbreakable".

The 35th edition saw the return of Belgium, Czech Republic, Israel, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Russia, Serbia, Syria and Uzbekistan, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Ireland and Kosovo were forced to withdraw. Belarus, Latvia, Libya, Moldova, Monaco and Tunisia withdrew voluntarily making a total of 46 countries competing. This is the fourth time in the history of the competition when this amount of countries participate.

The Big 6 status countries and also the countries that automatically qualified for the Grand Final in the 35th edition are the host country Finland, Poland, Portugal, Scotland and Slovakia.

The winner song of the 35th edition was Syria. "Risk it all" performed by Helly Luv received a total amount of 152 points, winning by a margin of only 9 points. This is Syria's first win since their debut in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 25, contest held in Mariehamn, Åland Islands. Also this is their first top 10 place.

Second place went to Sweden, third place went to Northern Ireland, fourth place went to Norway, fifth place went to Turkey and sixth to Denmark.

From the countries with the Big 6 status, only Turkey, ended in the top 10, receiving a total amount of 134 points and ending on the 5th place. The other five countries placed in the bottom 5, with Scotland, which ended on the 22nd place with 67 points, Slovakia received a total of 64 points and ended on the 23rd place, Portugal received 48 points and place 24th, Finland, the host country, placed 25th, receiving a total of 42 points and Poland received 39 points and placed last out of 26 countries, that were in the Grand Final.

Venue
Hartwall Arena (previously known as Hartwall Areena, often called Helsinki Areena, Helsingin Areena or Helsingforsarenan ('The Helsinki Arena') by the Finnish press) is a large multifunctional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland. The arena gets its name from its largest sponsor, the beverage company Hartwall, also based in Helsinki.

The idea of building the arena came from Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo in 1994. It was built to be ready for the Ice Hockey World Championships in 1997 and was delivered by the constructor on April 11, 1997. The building is elliptical, 153 metres long and 123 metres wide. 37 meters under ground there is a practice arena which is used by many hockey teams.

The arena is situated next to Pasila railway station, which is the second busiest railway station in Finland, 3.5 km north of Helsinki Central.

Total capacity in ice hockey games is 13,506 (all seats). The arena is convertible for various events. For sport events, the capacity is about 10,000, about 14,000 for basketball, for concerts about 13,000, and as an amphitheatre, 3,000-5,000. It is connected to a multi-storey carpark, which has a total capacity of 1,421 vehicles.

Hartwall Arena was the venue for the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest on Thursday 2007, May 10 and Saturday 2007, May 12.

Hartwall Arena has been used on several occasions for NHL premiere games. The Carolina Hurricanes and the Minnesota Wild opened the 2010–11 NHL season season here between October 7–8, 2010, as part of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Games. The venue once again played host to one NHL premiere game for the 2011–12 NHL season as the Anaheim Ducks faced the Buffalo Sabres on October 7, 2011. Before that match, Anaheim Ducks played a friendly match against Jokerit in the same arena on October 4, which ended 4-3 in the Ducks' favour on overtime.

During May 4–20 Hartwall Arena served as the main venue of the 2012 IIHF World Championship. It hosted all Group A games and quarterfinals, all semifinals and all medal games. Group B games and quarterfinals were hosted in Ericsson Globe, Stockholm. It also co-hosted the 2013 IIHF World Championship with Ericsson Globe, but in 2013 all games after quarterfinals were played in Stockholm.

Location
Helsinki (/ˈhɛlsɪŋki/; Finnish pronunciation: [ˈhe̞l.siŋ.k̟i] Swedish: Helsingfors, pronounced [hɛlsɪŋˈfɔʂ] ) is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. Helsinki has a population of 621,863, an urban population of 1.2 million (31 December 2013), and a metropolitan population of 1.4 million, making it the most populous municipality and urban area in Finland. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 kilometres (250 mi) north east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 kilometres (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.

The Helsinki metropolitan area includes urban core of Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen and surrounding commuter towns. It is the world's northernmost metro area of over one million people, and the city is the northernmost capital of an EU member state. The Helsinki metropolitan area is the fourth largest Nordic metropolitan area after the metropolitan areas of Copenhagen, Stockholm and Oslo and Helsinki city is the third biggest Nordic city after Stockholm and Oslo.

Helsinki is Finland's major political, educational, financial, cultural and research centre as well as one of northern Europe's major cities. Approximately 70% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region. The nearby municipality of Vantaa is the location of Helsinki Airport, with frequent service to various destinations in Europe and Asia.

In 2009, Helsinki was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2012 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, narrowly beating Eindhoven for the title.

In the Economist Intelligence Unit's August 2012 Liveability survey, assessing the best and worst cities to live in, Helsinki placed eighth best overall. In 2011, the Monocle Magazine in turn ranked Helsinki the most liveable city in the world in its Liveable Cities Index 2011.

This is the first time in the history of the Own Eurovision Song Contest when the competition is held in Finland.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on February 3, 2015 at the Hartwall Arena. 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 each semifinal. The pots are as follows:

The host country, Finland will vote in the second semi-final. The rest of the big six countries will vote as follow: Portugal with Scotland and Turkey will vote in the first semi-final, while Poland with Slovakia will vote in the second semi-final.

Running Order
The official running order of the two semifinals was held on March 2, 2015. Also, the running order of the Big 6 countries in the Grand Final was revealed, with the host country, Finland performing on the 13th spot out of 26 countries.

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

Participants
Forty-six countries have confirmed participation in the 35th edition, with eleven countries returning and eleven countries withdrawing.

The 35th edition will see the return of Belgium, Czech Republic, Israel, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Russia, Serbia, Syria and Uzbekistan, while Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Ireland and Kosovo were forced to withdraw. Belarus, Latvia, Libya, Moldova, Monaco and Tunisia withdrew voluntarily.

Returning artists
Thirty-two previous acts returned in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 35. Winner of the Own Eurovision Song Contest 19, Antonia returned again for Romania. Also, Ella Henderson, winner of the Own Eurovision Song Contest 29, retuned this time for England and Bebe Rexha, winner of the Own Eurovision Song Contest 30, returned for Albania.

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.
 * , and  will vote in this semi-final.
 * The ten qualifiers of the first semi-final were announced on February 7, 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.
 * , and  will vote in this semi-final.
 * The ten qualifiers of the second semi-final were announced on February 8, 2015.

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

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) France.png Baptiste Giabiconi
 * 2) Denmark.png Medina Valbak
 * 3) The Netherlands.png Máxima Cerruti
 * 4) Ukraine.png Karolina Kuiek
 * 5) Albania.png Elhaida Dani
 * 6) Greece.png Eleni Vaitsou & Andreas Georgiou
 * 7) Andorra.png Joel Molina
 * 8) Slovakia.png TWiiNS Band
 * 9) Norway.png Samsaya
 * 10) Serbia.png Novak Djokovic
 * 11) Germany.png Rammstein Band
 * 12) Montenegro.png Nina Žižić
 * 13) Estonia.png Tanja Mihhailova
 * 14) Northern Ireland.png Laura Whitmore & Danny o Reilly
 * 15) Faroe Islands.png Eivør Pálsdóttir
 * 16) Austria.png Marcel Hirscher
 * 17) Wales.png Leona Lewis
 * 18) Lithuania.png Evelina Vestuves
 * 19) Poland.png Dorota Rabczewska
 * 20) Israel.png Judah Gavra
 * 21) Romania.png Elena Apostoleanu
 * 22) Scotland.png Amanda Quinn
 * 23) Portugal.png Bartek Wasilewski
 * 24) Syria.png TBA
 * 25) Turkey.png Gülşen Bayraktar
 * 26) Macedonia.png Viktorija Loba
 * 27) Slovenia.png Tinkara Kovač
 * 28) Uzbekistan.png Ummon Guruhi
 * 29) Malta.png Ermin Bašaškić
 * 30) Egypt.png Young Pharoz
 * 31) Kazakhstan.png Viktoriya Dayneko
 * 32) Croatia.png Petra Kovačević
 * 33) Czech Republic.png Marta Jandová
 * 34) England.png Harry Styles
 * 35) Switzerland.png Katerina Hartford
 * 36) Iceland.png María Ólafsdóttir
 * 37) Bulgaria.png Ignat
 * 38) Spain.png Edurne Almagro
 * 39) Sweden.png Dolly Style
 * 40) Finland.png Diandra Flores
 * 41) Algeria.png Jasmina Feia
 * 42) Russia.png Julia Savicheva
 * 43) Italy.png Chiara Galiazzo
 * 44) Belgium.png Natalia Druyts
 * 45) Bosnia and Herzegovina.png Isidora Borovcanin
 * 46) Liechtenstein.png Olivia Blanc
 * 47) Flag of Earth.svg.png Jenni Vartiainen

Other countries

 * - The Belarusian broadcaster has confirmed country's withdrawal. A future come back is not sure yet.
 * - The national Georgian broadcaster stated that they are not planning a return because of financial problem.
 * - The country is not planning a return in the current edition, but they have big plans starting from OESC #36, announced their new HoD.
 * - The Lebanese television didn't planned a return soon.
 * - The country withdraws from contest due to bad results.
 * - After one edition of absence, due to lack of interest, Lithuania decided to return with a new HoD.
 * - Rumors says we might see country's comeback starting with OESC #36
 * - The Moldovan broadcaster has announced country's withdrawal from the competition because of lack of interest from artists.
 * - The country left the contest due to financial reasons.
 * - The HoD stated that the country is taking another break for current edition and they are going to return in OESC #36.
 * - The country is not planning a return soon.
 * - The country left due to lack of interest latest time.