The Song 6

The Song 6 will be the sixth edition of the The Song. The contest will be hosted in the Rotterdam, Netherlands, following the country's victory at the fifth edition in Espoo, Finland, with the song "Ladada (Mon dernier mot)", performed by Claude. The contest was held at the Rotterdam Ahoy, and consisted of two semi-finals on 22nd and 29th April, and a final on May 2023. The three live shows were presented by Jan Versteegh.

The format of the competition consisted of 3 shows: 2 semi-final rounds and a final. The 46 competing countries were divided into two semi-finals, with twenty compositions in each. From each semi-final, the 10 most voted songs qualified to the final. The rest were eliminated from the competition. The host country, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Montenegro and Poland were auto qualifiers, bringing the total number of competing entries in the final to 26.

Forty-six countries participated in the sixth edition of the contest including Kosovo who made their debut appearance, with Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina returned to the contest. Slovenia and Switzerland failed to qualify from the pre-qualification round and they were forced to withdraw from this edition. Norway confirmed that the country would participate in this edition. On 4th April 2023, after periods of unresponsiveness and external pressures, the Norwegian Head of Delegation resigned from his position. With the deadline for song submission already having long passed, the EBU favoured disqualifying Norway from the edition, replacing it with the Pre-Qualification Round runner up, Lebanon.

Location
Rotterdam is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the "New Meuse" inland shipping channel, dug to connect to the Meuse first, but now to the Rhine instead.

Rotterdam's history goes back to 1270, when a dam was constructed in the Rotte. In 1340, Rotterdam was granted city rights by William IV, Count of Holland. The Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, with a population of approximately 2.7 million, is the 10th-largest in the European Union and the most populous in the country.

A major logistic and economic centre, Rotterdam is Europe's largest seaport. In 2022, it had a population of 655.468 and is home to over 180 nationalities. Rotterdam is known for its university, riverside setting, lively cultural life, maritime heritage and modern architecture. The near-complete destruction of the city centre in the World War II Rotterdam Blitz has resulted in a varied architectural landscape, including skyscrapers designed by architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Piet Blom and Ben van Berkel.

The Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt give waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, including the highly industrialized Ruhr. The extensive distribution system including rail, roads, and waterways have earned Rotterdam the nicknames "Gateway to Europe" and "Gateway to the World".

Rotterdam has become world famous because of its modern and groundbreaking architecture. Throughout the years the city has been nicknamed Manhattan at the Meuse and The architectural capital of the Netherlands both for its skyline and because it is home to internationally leading architectural firms involved in the design of famous buildings and bridges in other big cities. Examples include OMA (Rem Koolhaas), MVRDV, Neutelings & Riedijk and Erick van Egeraat. It has the reputation in being a platform for architectural development and education through the NAi (Netherlands Architecture Institute), which is open to the public and has a variety of exhibitions on architecture and urban planning issues and prior the Berlage Institute, a postgraduate laboratory of architecture. The city has 38 skyscrapers and 352 high-rises and has many skyscrapers planned or under construction. The top 5 of highest buildings in the Netherlands consists entirely of buildings in Rotterdam. It is home to the tallest building in the Netherlands, the Maastoren with a height of 165 meters. In 2021, the Zalmhaven Tower is completed with a height of 215 meters, and is now the new tallest building in the Netherlands.

Venue
Rotterdam Ahoy (formerly known as Ahoy Rotterdam or simply as Ahoy) is a convention centre and multi-purpose indoor arena located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Opened originally in 1950, the current complex consists of three main venues: a fairs and event hall, a congress and conference centre, and the Ahoy Arena. The latter (informally known as the Sportpaleis, lit.  'Sport Palace') opened on 15 January 1971 and is the largest venue, with a capacity of 16,426 as of April 2019.

The venue has a history dating back to 1950. After the devastation of World War II, Rotterdam city and harbor were rebuilt. In 1950, the harbor was almost finished, and the event was marked with the exhibition Rotterdam Ahoy!. The exhibition was held in a single hall that was built for the occasion and was located where the Erasmus MC in Rotterdam is today. The temporary exhibition hall was called Ahoy'-Hal and was used for both national and international events until 1966 when it was decided to demolish the hall. During the North Sea flood of 1953, the hall was also used as a shelter for flood victims. After 1966, temporary accommodation was found at Hofdijk/Pompenburg in the center of Rotterdam, on the site of a former heliport.

Construction work on the site of the present day complex began in 1968. The Sportpaleis, originally designed as an indoor velodrome, and three exhibition halls was completed in 1970. The official opening took place during Six Days of Rotterdam, a six-day track cycling race, and was performed by Prince Claus on 15 January 1971. However, the first fair already took place before the official opening, because in September 1970 Ahoy was the location for the Femina fair. The complex's striking design won various national and international awards. The design of the venue took inspiration from the water, with the building laid out like a ship.

Format
The competition consisted of two semi-finals and a final, a format which has been in use since the first edition. The ten countries with the highest scores in each semi-final qualified to the final where they joined the host nation Netherlands, the countries that placed second to sixth in the previous edition (known as the "Big Five"): Belgium, Germany, Italy, Montenegro and Poland. Each participating country had their own national jury. The combination of the juries' full ranking produced an overall ranking of all competing entries. The song which scored the highest overall rank received 12 points, while the tenth-best ranked song received one point.

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 on 25 March 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:

Participating Countries
Forty-six countries participated in the sixth edition of the contest including Kosovo who made their debut appearance, with Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina returned to the contest. Slovenia and Switzerland failed to qualify from the pre-qualification round and they were forced to withdraw from this edition. Norway confirmed that the country would participate in this edition. On 4th April 2023, after periods of unresponsiveness and external pressures, the Norwegian Head of Delegation resigned from his position. With the deadline for song submission already having long passed, the EBU favoured disqualifying Norway from the edition, replacing it with the Pre-Qualification Round runner up, Lebanon.

Returning artists
The contest featured one returning artist: Hundred Sins had previously represented Hungary in the fourth edition with the song "Melodráma", which placed 5th in the final; Jessica Shy had previously represented Lithuania in the first edition with the song "Rožė", which placed 22nd in the final; Lara had previously represented North Macedonia in the second edition alongside Kasapski with the song "Samo svrti se", which placed 20th (last) in the second semi-final; Senidah had previously represented Montenegro in the second edition with the song "Behute", which placed 19th in the first semi-final; Mia Guček participated for the second time in the contest but she failed to qualify from the pre-qualification round.

Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 22nd April 2023. Twenty countries participated in the first semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 29th April 2023. Twenty countries participated in the second semi-final. The highlighted countries qualified for the final.

Romanian entry
On 26th March 2023 the Romanian broadcaster, TVR, announced that Ioana Ignat won the selection with the song "Tăcerea". Some time later it was discovered that Ioana Ignat has been sentenced to jail for manslaughter. TVR took the liberty to internally select among the remaining E Altceva contestants who to send as a replacement to the contest. E-an-na was announced as the representative with the song "O, romaniţa".

Norway disqualification
On 4th April 2023, after periods of unresponsiveness and external pressures, the Norwegian Head of Delegation resigned from his position. With the deadline for song submission already having long passed, the EBU favoured disqualifying Norway from the edition, replacing it with the Pre-Qualification Round runner up, Lebanon.

New Zealand withdrawal
On 4th April 2023, New Zealander broadcaster TVNZ confirmed that it would be withdrawing from the competition indefinitely after showing much interest in participation since the contest's inception. Despite having hosted a national selection, the broadcaster claimed that "the logistics of sending a delegation to the Netherlands is too much of a feat", applauding Australian broadcaster SBS for "doing the impossible".

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.