EuroMusic Song Contest 20

The EuroMusic Song Contest 20 was the twentieth edition of the EuroMusic Song Contest. The host country was Azerbaijan, that won the previous edition, with the song When the music dies. This was the first time that Azerbaijan hosted this contest. Baku was choosen as host city.

Bulgaria won this edition. It was the first EuroMusic-event that Bulgaria could win. Azerbaijan, the hosting nation finished at the second place. Romania ended at the third place.

Location
Straight after the Azerbaijani victory in the previous edition, İTV announced that they would host this edition. They said that Baku would be the only option as host city. The EBU and İTV published the conditions for the city and venue. One of the terms was that the venue needs to have a capacity of at least 8.000 seats.

Some days later, the EBU announced that they prefer the Baku Crystal Hall as venue, with a capacity of 23.000 people. A bit later, it was clear that the Azerbaijani broadcaster was in contact with the owner of the National Gymnastics Arena, with a capacity of 9.000 people.

Some days after the victory of Azerbaijan, the EBU and İTV gave a press-confenrence to announce that the Baku Crystal Hall was choosen as venue to host this edition.

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.

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 four representatives who also previously performed as lead vocalists for the same countries.

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

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

Grand Final
https://scorewiz.eu/scoreboard/view/320405/euromusic-song-contest-20--grand-final

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

Returning countries

 * Bosnia and Herzegovina.jpg Bosnia and Herzegovina - After some rumors, it was clear that the Bosnian broadcaster would send an entry to Baku.
 * France.jpg France - The French broadcaster announced that they would return to this edition.

Withdrawing countries

 * Armenia.jpg Armenia - One day after the final of the previous edition, and the Azerbaijani victory, Armenia decided not to take part in this edition. This was because of the territorial dispute about the Artsakh region. AMPTV also said that they were hoping for a return in the next edition of this contest.
 * Finland.jpg Finland - The Finnish broadcaster announced after the nineteenth edition that they were still discussing the future participations of Finland in this contest. Later on, it was clear that Finland would not take part in this edition.
 * Slovenia.jpg Slovenia - The Slovene broadcaster announced that Slovenia would not take part in this edition. This was because of the disappointing results.
 * United States.jpg United States - NBC, the American broadcaster, announced that the United States would not participate in the 20th edition due to the lack of interest by the broadcaster.