EuroMusic Song Contest 28

The EuroMusic Song Contest 28 was the twenty eighth edition of the EuroMusic Song Contest. The host country was Azerbaijan, that won the previous edition, with the song Always. This was the third time that Azerbaijan hosted this contest. Baku, the Azerbaijani capital, was chosen as host city for the third time.

Switzerland won this edition after a very exciting voting. When Belarus, the last voting country, was ready to give points it Switzerland had two points more than Iceland. When Belarus awarded the first set of points, Switzerland just received one point. However, Switzerland won this edition because Iceland didn't receive any points from Belarus. It was the first Swiss victory.

Location
Straight after the Azerbaijani victory in the previous edition, İTV announced that they would host this edition. They said to choose a host venue, through a selection. Each city was able to select one venue.

The EBU announced that Baku was unanimously selected as host city.

Number of participants
Since the seventh edition the EBU announced to put a maximum at the number of participants. In the seventh and eighth edition, eighteen countries were able to participate.

Because the introduction of the semi finals, there is no maximum of participating countries. However, since the seventeenth edition the EBU announced that they would put a new maximum of countries. This meant that 41 countries were able to sign for a participation. This means that each semi final would have 20 countries, plus the host nation (who qualify automatically). Until now, they never reached this limit. Because of the limited number of participants, there was no semi final.

Since the 27th edition, the last three countries have to withdraw from the competition. This is to give other countries the possibility to return to the contest because of the limited spots.

Running order
There are specific rules about how a country gets his running order.

The host country will have a random number. The rest of the countries will be split in to groups (first- and second half). This will happen fully random. Later on, a team will create a running order to make the show as interesting as possible.

Song
Each country sends one song to the contest. There are no rules about the language of the song, but the song can't be longer than five minutes.

Voting rules
After that all the participating countries have sang their song, each single country awards a set of points. The country who gets the most amount of points wins the contest. If two or more countries receive the same number of points, the country that received from the most countries points, will be ranked higher. If that is also the same, then the country who have the highest rank of a country, will be ranked higher.

Returning artists
The contest featured two representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same countries.

Scoreboard
https://scorewiz.eu/scoreboard/view/367181/euromusic-song-contest-28--grand-final

12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

Returning countries

 * Belarus.jpg Belarus - The broadcaster from Belarus announced that they would return to the contest. This was because the Azerbaijani broadcaster invited them to participate.
 * France.jpg France - This country was on the list of participating countries, published by the EBU.
 * Switzerland.jpg Switzerland - Already for three editions, the Swiss broadcaster was observing the contest for a potential return. When the EBU published the list of participating countries, it was clear that Switzerland would return to the contest.

Withdrawing countries

 * Bulgaria.jpg Bulgaria - This country wasn't named at the official list of participating countries published by the EBU. Later on, the country said that they withdrew because of the low number of Bulgarians who watched the show live.
 * Montenegro.jpg Montenegro - Because they finished at one of the last three possitions in the previous contest, they had withdraw.
 * Slovakia.jpg Slovakia - Because they finished at one of the last three possitions in the previous contest, they had to withdraw.