The Song 7

The Song 7 will be the seventh edition of the The Song. The contest will be hosted in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the sixth edition in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with the song "Up All Night", performed by The Ramona Flowers and Nile Rodgers.

Location


London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a 50-mile (80 km) estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major settlement for two millennia. The City of London, its ancient core and financial centre, was founded by the Romans as Londinium and retains its medieval boundaries. The City of Westminster, to the west of the City of London, has for centuries hosted the national government and parliament. Since the 19th century, the name "London" has also referred to the metropolis around this core, historically split between the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Kent, and Hertfordshire, which since 1965 has largely comprised Greater London, which is governed by 33 local authorities and the Greater London Authority.

As one of the world's major global cities, London exerts a strong influence on its arts, entertainment, fashion, commerce and finance, education, health care, media, science and technology, tourism, and transport and communications. Its GDP (€801.66 billion in 2017) makes it the largest urban economy in Europe, and it is one of the major financial centres in the world. With Europe's largest concentration of higher education institutions, it is home to some of the highest-ranked academic institutions in the world—Imperial College London in natural and applied sciences, the London School of Economics in social sciences, and the comprehensive University College London. London is the most visited city in Europe and has the busiest city airport system in the world. The London Underground is the oldest rapid transit system in the world.London's diverse cultures encompass over 300 languages. The mid-2018 population of Greater London of about 9 million made it Europe's third-most populous city, accounting for 13.4% of the population of the United Kingdom and over 16% of the population of England. The Greater London Built-up Area is the fourth-most populous in Europe with about 9.8 million inhabitants at the 2011 census. The London metropolitan area is the third-most populous in Europe with about 14 million inhabitants in 2016, granting London the status of a megacity.

London has four World Heritage Sites: the Tower of London; Kew Gardens; the combined Palace of Westminster, Westminster Abbey, and St Margaret's Church; and also the historic settlement in Greenwich, where the Royal Observatory, Greenwich defines the prime meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. Other landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, and Trafalgar Square. London has many museums, galleries, libraries and cultural venues, including the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Tate Modern, British Library, and numerous West End theatres. Important sporting events held in London include the FA Cup Final (held annually at Wembley Stadium), Wimbledon Tennis Championships and the London Marathon. In 2012, London became the first city to host three Summer Olympic Games.

Venue
The O2 is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars, and restaurants. It was built largely within the former Millennium Dome, a large dome-shaped canopy built to house an exhibition celebrating the turn of the third millennium; consequently The Dome remains a name in common usage for the venue. It is sometimes referred to as The O2 Arena, but that name properly refers to the indoor arena within The O2. Naming rights to the district were purchased by the mobile telephone provider O2 from its developers, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), during the development of the district. AEG owns the long-term lease on the O2 Arena and surrounding leisure space.

From the closure of the original Millennium Experience exhibition occupying the site, several ways of reusing the Millennium Dome's shell were proposed and then rejected. The renaming of the Dome in 2005 gave publicity to its transition into an entertainment district. The Dome's shell remained in situ, but its interior and the area around North Greenwich Station, the QE2 pier and the main entrance area were completely redeveloped.

The area is served by North Greenwich tube station on the Jubilee line, which was opened just before the millennium exhibition, and by bus routes. Thames Clippers operate a river boat service for London River Services; the present tenants, AEG, purchased Thames Clippers in order to provide river links between central London and The O2. As well as a commuter service, Thames Clippers operates the O2 Express service. Local buses also serve the station and the nearby O2.

On 23 February 2017, O2 announced that they had agreed to a deal with AEG to maintain the naming rights of The O2 for a further 10 years until 2027.

Host city bidding phase
Key:

Pre-Qualification
The European Broadcaster Union (EBU) announced that the limit of entries for each edition would be 46 participants. As the confirmation of participation from eligible countries exceeded this amount, the EBU created a pre-qualification round that would take place each edition before the actual contest. During the fourth edition, the EBU announced that there would be a change of formation to the Pre-Qualification Round. From this edition and onwards, eight countries shall qualify into the semi-finals from the pre-qualification round, whilst the remaining are eliminated.

Semi-final allocation draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held in May 2023. The forty countries were divided into five pots. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final was determined.

The five pots were the following:

Returning artists
The contest featured three returning artist: Carine had previously represented Moldova in the second edition with the song "Stuck in Your Mind", which placed 17th in the first semi-final; Evangelia had previously represented Cyprus in the second edition with the song "Ónira", which placed 1st in the final; Tancredi represented Italy in the second edition with the song "Groovy", which placed 8th in the final.

Other awards
In addition to the main winner's trophy, the Marcel Bezençon Awards and the Shampion Award were contested during The Song 6. The OGATS, "General Organisation of The Song Fans" voting poll also took place before the contest.

Marcel Bezençon Awards
The Marcel Bezençon Awards, organised since the sixth by Bulgarian's then-Head of Delegation, honours songs in the contest's final. The awards are divided into three categories: the Artistic Award, the Composers Award, and the Press Award. The winners were revealed shortly before The Song final.

OGATS
OGATS, an organisation of over fifty The Song fan clubs across Europe and beyond, conducts an annual voting poll first held in the sixth as the Marcel Bezençon Fan Award. After all votes were cast, the top-ranked entry in the 7th edition poll was TBA; the top five results are shown below.

Shampion Award
The Shampion Award is a humorous fan award given each year to the artist who had the most noticeable clip. First awarded in the sixth edition, the award originally highlighted the worst-iconic clip in the competition. Named after Bulgaria's representatives who came 8th in the fourth edition.

The Song Awards
The Song Awards, first held in first edition, saw competing acts celebrated across ten categories. Shortlists were determined by major The Song fansites and podcasts, with editors and presenters nominating their favourites in each category; the final result was determined by followers of the official The Song Instagram channel, who cast votes for their favourite act.

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡). Runners-up are indicated with a single dagger (†).

Other countries


Countries that are active members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are also eligible to participate in The Song. 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

Official Album
The Song: London 7 is the official compilation album of the contest, put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group digitally on 19 May 2023, in CD format on 14 June 2023, and in cassette and vinyl formats on 25 June 2023. The album features all 53 entries including the pqr/semi-finalists that failed to qualify for the final.