30 Years of the EuroMusic Song Contest: Let's celebrate!

30 Years of the EuroMusic Song Contest: Let's celebrate! was an anniversary edition of the EuroMusic Song Contest. In this show every country who participated in the history of the contest can select one act who will compete. This will be hosted in three rounds. At the end of the final round, the best song of the history will be choosen. The USA was chosen as host country and New York City as host city.

Location
All citties across Europe could send a bid to host this contest, to the EBU. They will select from all these a venue for the contest.

The first country who announced that they were intersted in organising the contest was Austria. They never hosted a EuroMusic-event. However they first wanted to host the EuroMusic Song Contest 11-20: The best of, but they witdrew their bid later on. It is still unclear which city the ORF selected.

The Luxmebourgish broadcaster came with a surprising statement. They announced that the song "Si la vie est cadeau" and they officialy selected the venue d'Coque as possible venue for the contest. The venue is located in Luxembourg City.

The Netherlands announced that they would put an extra effort to host this special edition. They selected Amsterdam as host city, with the Ziggo Dome as venue. This venue hosted the tenth edition of the contest.

The American broadcaster, NBC, announced that they're interested in hosting the contest. Stating that "It will be our only opportunity to host such a wonderful event as the EuroMusic Song Contest."

Later on, also: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the UK selected a potential city.

Here you can see the cities and venues who where intrested to host the contest.

Host venue Shortlisted

After long negotiations between the EBU and the shortlisted broadcasters, the EBU made a decision. They announced New York City as chosen city. In a later statement they said that they made this decision because of some specific reasons. The first one was because of the venue. Also, the decision was made because the USA was one of the most successfull countries in the history of the EuroMusic Song Contest, without hosting the contest on home soil. The EBU finished their statement with saying: "We are glad to hear the EuroMusic opening theme at the American continent.

Beside the statement of the EBU, they later on also made clear that this would be the only EuroMusic-edition that the USA could host. According to the EBU, it was a beautiful one-time-opportunity.

Because of the long distance between the USA and Europe, there were some issues of the starthour of the shows. The EBU however said that the show where still plannend at the Mid-European time like the other editions.

Logo
The EBU published the official logo at the announcement of the edition. Because of the fac that the USA was chosen as host city, the EBU decided to change the official logo with a map of Europe and a bright beam of light, originating from the USA.

Format
After the twenty eighth edition, the EBU announced that they would organise a huge anniversary edition of the contest. Different as in the previous special shows, every single country can perform with a song. In the show, there are three rounds. The first is the selection round, where a jury and televoting can choose 21 acts. These acts who qualify move on to the semi final. Again, a professional jury and televoting award points. From these semi final, 11 countries qualify for the final.

In the final, each country can award 5-4-3-2-1 points to their 5 favourite songs.

Qualification Round
Qualified countries

Broadcasting countries



 * The countries in green are the countries where both the semi-final and the final was broadcast, by at least one broadcaster. These countries where able to vote in the both shows.


 * The countries in red are the countries who participated at least once in the contest, but will not broadcast the show. This also means that those countries were not able to vote.