Pre-Qualification Round 7

Pre-Qualification Round 7 (abbreviated PQR 7), is a pre-event held for the seventh edition of The Song. Fifteen countries were participating and eight of them qualified to the semi finals of the edition.

Format
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. Eight countries shall qualify into the semi-finals from the pre-qualification round, whilst the remaining are eliminated. This edition the participating countries of the pre-qualification round were Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, North Macedonia, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Switzerland and Türkiye. Dijon is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France. As of 2017 the commune had a population of 156,920.

The earliest archaeological finds within the city limits of Dijon date to the Neolithic period. Dijon later became a Roman settlement named Divio, located on the road between Lyon and Paris. The province was home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th centuries, and Dijon became a place of tremendous wealth and power, one of the great European centres of art, learning, and science.

The city has retained varied architectural styles from many of the main periods of the past millennium, including Capetian, Gothic, and Renaissance. Many still-inhabited town-houses in the city's central district date from the 18th century and earlier. Dijon's architecture is distinguished by, among other things, toits bourguignons (Burgundian polychrome roofs) made of glazed terracotta tiles of various colours arranged in geometric patterns.

Dijon holds an International and Gastronomic Fair every year in the northern-hemisphere autumn. With over 500 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors every year, it is one of the ten most important fairs in France. Dijon also hosts every three years the international flower show Florissimo. Dijon has become famous for Dijon mustard, which originated in 1856, when Jean Naigeon of Dijon substituted verjuice, the acidic "green" juice of not-quite-ripe grapes, for vinegar in the traditional mustard recipe. Dijon is a green city with an important tertiary sector, as well as a regional economic center with a diversified fabric, a traditional food-processing center (Dijon crême de cassis and kir, gingerbread, Lanvin chocolate...) and a renowned pharmaceutical sector.

On 4 July 2015, UNESCO registered the historical centre of the city as a World Heritage site, as one of the components of the "Climats, terroirs of Burgundy" site, because of its historical importance in regulating the system of wine production in Burgundy.

Venue
Zénith de Dijon is a performance hall located in the former Parc de la Toison d'Or near the Toison d'Or shopping center in the north of Dijon. Inaugurated on October 6, 2005, like the eleventh of the name in France, it is part by its capacity, 7,000 people maximum, of the largest Zeniths of France with those of Toulouse and Nantes. The millionth viewer was welcomed in October 2009.

Bidding phase
The voting system for this edition underwent a change, most notably with the removal of the participating countries voting as juries. All eligible voters will cast their vote as the televote, with the Top 8 qualifying for the main contest.