The Song 3

The Song 3 will be the third edition of the The Song. The contest will be hosted in Cyprus, following the country's victory at the second edition in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with the song "Ónira", performed by Evangelia.

Location
Nicosia is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaoria plain, on the banks of the River Pedieos.

According to Greek mythology, Nicosia (Lefkosia in Greek) was a siren, one of the daughters of Acheloos and Melpomene and its name translates as "White State" or city of White Gods.

Nicosia is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capitals. It has been continuously inhabited for over 4,500 years and has been the capital of Cyprus since the 10th century. The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities of Nicosia segregated into the south and north of the city respectively in early 1964, following the fighting of the Cyprus crisis of 1963–64 that broke out in the city. This separation became a militarised border between the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus after Turkey invaded the island of Cyprus in 1974, occupying the north of the island, including northern Nicosia. Today North Nicosia is the capital of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a state recognized only by Turkey.

Apart from its legislative and administrative functions, Nicosia has established itself as the island's financial capital and its main international business centre. In 2018, Nicosia was the 32nd richest city in the world in relative purchasing power.

Pre-Qualification
The European Broadcaster Union (EBU) announced that the limit of entries for each edition would be the 46 participants. Because of the amount of confirmations the EBU created a pre-qualification round that takes place every edition before the actual contest. Two countries every edition qualify from the pre-qualification round to the semi-finals while the others are eliminated. This edition the participating countries of the pre-qualification round were Belarus, Hungary, Latvia, Lebanon, Malta, San Marino and Slovenia.

Semi-final allocation draw
The draw that determined the semi-final allocation was held on TBA July 2022. The forty countries were divided into six pots, based on their geographical place. Each time a country was drawn from the pot, its semi-final was determined.

The six pots were the following:

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.

Disqualification of the Russian entry
On 23 July 2022, the Russian broadcaster announced that Katya Zamolodchikova would represent Russia with the song "Ding Dong!" featuring a guest appearance from Trixie Mattel, however, moments later the EBU announced that the entry was disqualified due to the song being a homage to Ukrainian singer LOBODA's song "Boom boom", featuring vocals from PHARAOH.

Withdrawal of new entry
A few hours later on 23 July 2022, it was announced that Yulianna Karaulova would instead represent the Russian nation with her song "No.1". On 24 July, it was announced that Karaulova would be withdrawn as the official Russian entry and a new national selection would be held to determine the entrant. Karaulova will compete in the selection with her intended entry.