Own Eurovision Song Contest 22

Own Eurovision Song Contest 22, often referred to as OESC #22, is the up-coming 22th edition of Own Eurovision Song Contest. The contest will take place in the city of Constanța, Romania, after Inna won the previous contest hosted in San Marino with her song "More than friends". The venue for the contest was announced on 9 August 2013, as the Farul Stadium. This will be the third time the contest will take place in Romania and the first time in Constanța.

Sixty countries have confirmed participation in the 22nd edition, being the second time when sixty countries participated, last time being in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 20 held in Timișoara, Romania.The Own Eurovision Song Contest 22 will see Belarus, Faroe Islands, Montenegro and Scotland withdrawing.

Own Eurovision Song Contest 22 will see, again like last edition, thirty countries in the Grand Final, this is for the fourth time in the history of the contest. For the first time in the history of the contest, the status Big 3 was introduce. Also, for the first time there was used a public voting.

Venue
The venue for the contest was announced on 9 August 2013 as Farul Stadium, which is a multi-purpose stadium in Constanţa, Romania. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the current home ground of Farul Constanţa.

FC Farul Constanţa is a professional football club from Constanţa, Romania. Established in 1949, Farul is currently competing in the Liga II (formerly known as Divizia B), after being relegated at the end of the 2008-09 Liga I. The club has yet to win a Romanian title. Notably, the 2004/2005 season brought for Farul some outstanding performances that enabled it to finish the season on the 5th place and reach to its first ever Romanian Cup final match, which they lost 0-1 to FC Dinamo Bucureşti.

In Romanian farul means "the lighthouse". Farul Constanţa are also a well-known rugby union team, which hosted the first Heineken Cup rugby match.

The stadium also functions as an athletics arena, with track and field athletics facilities.

The stadium has played host to the Romania national football team, in the World Cup 2006 Qualification, UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying and 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.

The capacity of the stadium is around 15.500.

Location
Constanța, historically known as Tomis is the oldest extant city in Romania. It was founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region. Constanța is the fifth most populous city in Romania. The Constanța metropolitan area, includes 14 localities within 30 km (19 mi) of the city, and, with 425,916 inhabitants, it is the second largest metropolitan area in Romania. The Port of Constanța has an area of 39.26 km2 (15.16 sq mi) and a length of about 30 km (19 mi). It is the largest port on the Black Sea, and one of the largest ports in Europe.

Tomis (also called Tomi) was a Greek colony in the province of Scythia Minor on the Black Sea shore, founded around 600 BC for commercial exchanges with the local Getic populations. The name may likely be derived from Greek Τομή meaning cutpiece, section.

According to one myth dating from Antiquity, found in the Bibliotheca, it was founded by Aeetes:


 * "When Aeetes discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship; but when she saw him near, Medea murdered her brother and cutting him limb from limb threw the pieces into the deep. Gathering the child's limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he called the place Tomi."

Another legend is recorded by Jordanes (after Cassiodorus), who ascribes the foundation of the city to a Getae queen (The origin and deeds of the Goths):


 * "After achieving this victory (against Cyrus the Great) and winning so much booty from her enemies, Queen Tomyris crossed over into that part of Moesia which is now called Lesser Scythia - a name borrowed from Great Scythia -, and built on the Moesian shore of the Black Sea the city of Tomi, named after herself."

In 29 BC the Romans captured the region from the Odryses, and annexed it as far as the Danube, under the name of Limes Scythicus. In AD 8, the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC-17) was banished here by Augustus, where he found his death eight years later. He laments his exile in Tomis in his poems: Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto. Tomis was "by his account a town located in a war-stricken cultural wasteland on the remotest margins of the empire". A statue of Ovid stands in the Ovid Square (Piața Ovidiu) of Constanța, in front of the History Museum.

A number of inscriptions found in the city and its vicinity show that Constanța lies where Tomis once stood. The city was afterwards included in the Province of Moesia, and, from the time of Diocletian, in Scythia Minor, of which it was the metropolis. After the split of the Roman Empire, Tomis fell under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire. During Maurice's Balkan campaigns, Tomis was besieged by the Avars in the winter of 597/598.

Tomis was later renamed to Constantiana in honour of Constantia, the half-sister of Constantine the Great (274-337). The earliest known usage of this name was "Κωνστάντια" ("Constantia") in 950. The city lay at the seaward end of the Great Wall of Trajan, and has evidently been surrounded by fortifications of its own. After successively becoming part of the Bulgarian Empire for over 500 years, and later of the independent principality of Dobrotitsa/Dobrotici and of Wallachia under Mircea I of Wallachia, Constanța fell under the Ottoman rule around 1419.

On October 22, 1916 (during World War I), the Central Powers (German, Turkish and Bulgarian troops) occupied Constanța. According to the Treaty of Bucharest in May 1918, article 10.b (treaty which has never been ratified by Romania), Constanța remained under the joint control of the Central Powers. Allied troops liberated the city in 1918 after the successful offensive on the Thessaloniki front knocked Bulgaria out of the war.

This is the third time that the contest will take place in Romania, but for the first time in Constanța.

Semi-final Allocation Draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on 30 August 2013 at the Farul Stadium.

The participating countries, excluding the Big 3, were split into eight pots, based on voting history and geographical location. From these pots, 19 countries were allocated to compete in the first semi-final, 19 were allocated to compete in the second semi-final and 19 were allocated to compete in the third semi-final.

The pots are as follows:

The big 3 will vote as follow: Romania in the first semi-final, the Netherlands in the second semi-final and Poland in the third semi-final.

Running Order
The running order of the Semi-Finals was revealed on August 31, 2013. Also, it was decided that The Netherlands will compete on spot number 07 in the Grand Final, Poland on spot number 14 and the host country, Romania will take the number 17.

Participants
Sixty countries have confirmed participation in the Own Eurovision Song Contest 22 with four countries withdrawing, Belarus, Faroe Islands, Montenegro and Scotland.

Semi-Final 1

 * The nine countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country, qualifies for the Grand Final.
 * (host) will vote in this semi-final.
 * The nine qualifiers were revealed on September 7, 2013.

Semi-Final 2

 * The nine countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country, qualifies for the Grand Final.
 * will vote in this semi-final.
 * The nine qualifiers were revealed on September 7, 2013.

Semi-Final 3

 * The nine countries in this semi-final with the highest scoring points, according to the votes from each voting country, qualifies for the Grand Final.
 * will vote in this semi-final.
 * The nine qualifiers were revealed on September 7, 2013.

Finalists
The thirty finalists are:
 * the Big 3 countries:, and the host country,.
 * the top nine countries from the first semi-final.
 * the top nine countries from the second semi-final.
 * the top nine countries from the third semi-final.