Own Eurovision Song Contest 46

Own Eurovision Song Contest 46, often referred to as OESC #46, was the 46th edition of Own Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Cairo, Egypt, at the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex, following Egypt's victory at the 45th Contest with "Black Birds", performed by Nathalie Saba.

Forty-seven countries confirmed their participation in the 46th edition. The contest saw the return of Armenia, Hungary, Morocco, Slovenia and Sweden. Unfortunately, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova and Portugal decided to withdraw. Despite originally confirming, Lithuania and Montenegro were forced to withdraw due to not submitting an entry before the deadline.

The 46th edition consisted of three shows: two semifinals alongside the grand final. The semifinals took place on 14 January 2016 and 21 January 2016 respectively. The Grand Final took place on 12 February, 2016.

After a tense voting process, Russia won the contest for the first time, with i-La's song "Hungry". Russia received a total amount of 185 points, winning by a margin of 32 points. The runner-up of the 46th edition was Sweden's "Time by Sabina Ddumba.

The third place went to Lorenzo Fragola's "Luce che entra" from Italy, fourth place went to "Silence the Sirens" from Estonia, being their best place in the competition, while the fifth place went to Lenny from the Czech Republic and the sixth place went to "Why Do You Care" from the Netherlands.

From the countries that were automatically qualified in the Grand Final only Italy and the United Kingdom finished in the top 10, receiving third and ninth place respectively. France finished in the 13th place, the host country, Egypt, on the 20th place, Denmark finished on the 24th place, while Bulgaria finished last out of 26 countries that were in the Grand Final.

Location
Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and Saudi Arabia do not share a land border with Egypt. It is the world's only contiguous Afrasian nation.

Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypt's economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, and is projected to become one of the largest in the 21st century. Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

This will be the first time the Own Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Egypt.

Host City
Cairo is the capital and largest city of Egypt. The city's metropolitan area is the largest in the Middle East and the Arab world, and 15th-largest in the world, and is associated with ancient Egypt, as the famous Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, modern Cairo was founded in 969 CE by Jawhar al-Siqilli ("the Sicilian") of the Fatimid dynasty, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of ancient national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life, and is nicknamed "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture.

With a population of 6.76 million spread over 453 square kilometers (175 sq mi), Cairo is by far the largest city in Egypt. An additional 10 million inhabitants live in close proximity to the city. Cairo, like many other mega-cities, suffers from high levels of pollution and traffic. Cairo's metro, one of only two in Africa (the other is in Algiers, Algeria), ranks among the fifteen busiest in the world, with over 1 billion annual passenger rides. The economy of Cairo was ranked first in the Middle East in 2005, and 43rd globally on Foreign Policy's 2010 Global Cities Index.

Bidding Phase
ERTU (Egyptian Radio and Television Union) announced the conditions under which cities and venues had announced their interest in hosting the 46th contest:
 * The host city must be able to provide a certain number of hotels and hotel rooms to be found in the vicinity of the stadium.
 * The arena must able to offer lodges adjacent to the stadium.
 * A press centre must be available at the stadium that will have a specific size.
 * ERTU must have access to the host venue at least 4–6 weeks before the broadcasts, in order to build the stage, rigging lights and all the technology.
 * The host city must be close to a major airport.

The following cities are interested in hosting the 46th contest

Venue
Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex consists of 4 Olympic-standard, multi-use indoor sporting arenas located near the Cairo International Stadium in Cairo, Egypt. The capacity of the Main Hall is 20,000 spectators. It is used for several events, like handball, volleyball, international conferences, parties and fairs. It was built in time for the 1991 All-Africa Games.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The semifinal allocation draw took place on January 2, 2017.

The participating countries, excluding the automatic finalists (host Egypt and the Big Five) will be split into six pots, based on voting patterns from the previous ten editions. The pots were calculated and are as follows:

From these pots, 21 countries were allocated to compete in the first semifinal and 20 in the second semifinal. The host country, Egypt voted in the second semi-final. The countries from the big five voted as follows: Bulgaria with Italy and United Kingdom in the first semifinal, while Denmark and France in the second semifinal.

Participants
Forty-seven countries confirmed their participation in the 46th edition. The contest saw the return of Armenia, Hungary, Morocco, Slovenia and Sweden.

Unfortunately, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Greece, Iceland, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova and Portugal decided to withdraw. Despite originally confirming, Lithuania and Montenegro were forced to withdraw due to not submitting an entry before deadline.

First semifinal
Twenty-one countries participated in the first semi-final. Bulgaria, Italy and United Kingdom voted in this semi-final.

Second semifinal
Twenty countries participated in the second semi-final. Denmark, Egypt and France voted in this semi-final.

Voting and spokespersons

 * 1) 🇲🇾 Malaysia Jess Lee
 * 2) 🇺🇦 Ukraine Igor Kolomiyets
 * 3) 🇫🇮 Finland Opera Skaala
 * 4) 🇸🇲 San Marino Costantino Vitagliano
 * 5) 🇪🇬 Egypt Lara Scandar
 * 6) 🇩🇿 Algeria Ysa Ferrer
 * 7) 🇱🇺 Luxembourg Alice on the Roof
 * 8) 🇧🇬 Bulgaria Darina Yotova
 * 9) 🇩🇰 Denmark Christopher Nissen
 * 10) 🇭🇷 Croatia Josipa Kusić
 * 11) 🇮🇪 Ireland Michael Fassbender
 * 12) 🇨🇾 Cyprus Christiana Louizu
 * 13) 🇷🇴 Romania Sore Mihalache
 * 14) 🇮🇱 Israel Ania Bukstein
 * 15) 🇷🇸 Serbia Nataša Bekvalac
 * 16) 🇷🇺 Russia Irina Shayk
 * 17) 🇨🇿 Czech Republic Markéta Irglová
 * 18) 🇮🇹 Italy Mariano Di Vaio
 * 19)  Georgia Tako Gachechiladze
 * 20) 🇩🇪 Germany Alvaro Soler
 * 21) 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan Aygün Kazımova
 * 22) 🇲🇦 Morocco Dounia Batma
 * 23) 🇱🇻 Latvia Māris Kučinskis
 * 24) 🇧🇪 Belgium Olga Leyers
 * 25) 🇦🇹 Austria Zoë Straub
 * 26) 🇫🇷 France Amir Haddad
 * 27) 🇬🇧 United Kingdom Jamie Dornan
 * 28) 🇵🇱 Poland Radosław Mróz
 * 29) 🇱🇧 Lebanon Nelly Makdessy
 * 30) 🇸🇮 Slovenia Gašper Rifelj
 * 31) 🇳🇴 Norway Dagny
 * 32) 🇦🇲 Armenia Iveta Mukuchyan
 * 33) 🇹🇷 Turkey Kerem Bürsin
 * 34) 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein Claudia Schanza
 * 35) 🇧🇾 Belarus Uzari
 * 36) 🇦🇩 Andorra Adam Jezierski
 * 37) 🇭🇺 Hungary Freddie
 * 38) 🇦🇱 Albania Eneda Tarifa
 * 39) 🇸🇪 Sweden Petra Mede
 * 40)  Kosovo Kallashi
 * 41) 🇲🇹 Malta Ira Losco
 * 42) 🇪🇪 Estonia Jüri Pootsmann
 * 43) 🇪🇸 Spain David Solans
 * 44) 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan Aiboo Karasheva
 * 45) 🇲🇨 Monaco Alizée
 * 46) 🇳🇱 Netherlands Tom Escily
 * 47) 🇨🇭 Switzerland Bastian Baker
 * 48) 🇸🇰 Slovakia Dominika Mirgová

Other countries

 * Further information: List of countries in the Own Eurovision Song Contest

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


 * Radio and Television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT) announced on 17 September 2016 that the country will withdraw.
 * On 13 December 2016, it was announced that Faroe Islands would be withdrawing from the contest.
 * Hellenic Broadcasting Company (ERT) confirmed that Greece will not compete in the 46th edition.
 * On 3 November 2016, RÚV announced that Iceland would not take part in the forty-sixth edition. Hovewer a return next edition is higly expected.
 * On 11 August 2016, LRT confirmed their participation and that a national selection would be an option. Therefore on 13 December 2016 Lithuania was forced to withdraw for not having an entry.
 * MKRTV announced, on 13 December 2016 that Macedonia would not participate in the contest.
 * Moldova decided to withdraw due to low interest from the broadcaster. A comeback for 47th edition was not ruled out.
 * Although RTCG was among the first broadcaster to announced their participation, the country was forced to withdraw due to not submitting an entry within deadline.
 * RTP didn't show interest in participating therefore they will be missing this edition.